The Madonna House Apostolate, the secular institute founded in Canada by Russian-born Catholic Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1896-1985), showed today that the spirit of their community's founder is alive and well among them.
In 1976, Doherty received her adopted country's highest honor: she was made a member of the Order of Canada, in recognition of a lifetime of dedication to social justice and to the poor. This year, though, the Order is being debased, as the Governor General has decided to confer it upon a person antithetical to the most fundamental element of justice, the right to life. Namely, it is being conferred upon a notorious illegal abortionist.
This morning representatives of Madonna House made an act of witness: they visited Ottawa and returned Doherty's award citation and medal to the Governor General's office at Rideau Hall.
God bless them: I'm convinced that this is exactly the way Catherine Doherty would have proceeded in the face of such a negation of values.
