Bishop De Angelis has a brother Bishop in Calgary who knows what it means to be harassed by a Human Rights Commission for speaking the truth. In particular, he knows what it means to be harassed over gay rights, or what can be termed as gay rights by gay rights activists.
Bishop Fred Henry was for a number of years a teacher at St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ontario, where I originally met him. Over time, he became Auxiliary Bishop of London, then Bishop of Thunder Bay, and then Bishop of Calgary, where he has been since March, 1998.
Bishop Fred is no shrinking violet and you are welcome to his opinion, and that makes him endearing. You know what you get with him, because he is also as sharp as a tack. He may not always be right, but he is seldom in doubt. If it has to do with Church teaching, he's going to be right on the money. But, you have to listen to ALL the words, and then think about them before you take offence, not just jump in and take offence first.
Well, Bishop Henry, wrote a pastoral letter against same sex marriage on May 2, 2005. He has strong views on homosexual practices, and on other things that he sees as a theologian that are harmful to leading a Christian life, and he touched on them in his letter.
But, unlike friend Stephen Boissoin, Bishop Henry got not one, but two Alberta HRC complaints at the time. Also, unlike Stephen Boissoin, for some reason, the charges against Bishop Henry disappeared for some reason after lots of noise and wasted money defending against them.
But, as I said Bishop Henry did not let it drop with him. He went on the offensive as LifeSite News reported back in June of 2008 here:
Bishop Fred Henry has asked Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach to repeal Section 3(1)(b) of the Alberta Human Rights Act in order to protect the rights of religious freedom and freedom of speech.
In a letter to Premier Stelmach, Bishop Henry points out that in the past 18 months he has raised the issue of the Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC) several times with the Premier. "On each of those occasions, you said that you understood the issues and shared my concerns."
"However," he continues, "the situation is continuing to deteriorate across our country and the various levels of governments are seemingly non-responsive."
In particular, the recent ruling by the Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC) against Christian youth pastor Stephen Boissoin has convinced the Bishop that decisive measures must be undertaken to curtail the powers of Canada HRCs.
"Each judgment emanating out of our various human right commissions," writes Bishop Henry, "seems to be more brazen and bizarre than the one that preceded it. However, for inane stupidity and gross miscarriage of justice our own Alberta Human Rights Tribunal deserves to take first prize for its treatment of Stephen Boissoin."
I wonder what Bishop Henry thinks about this nonsense in Ontario, his old stomping grounds with his Brother Bishop De Angelis.
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