(LifeSiteNews) — Toronto Cardinal Frank Leo offered a strong pro-freedom message on the eve of Canada Day, reminding Canadians that their freedom, if severed from the “truth” in Christ, could one day “collapse.”

Cardinal Leo, who serves as the Archbishop of Toronto, posted his message on June 24 and noted that for Canada Day, which is celebrated on July 1, it is a time to “rightly commemorate what Canada is: a land of peace, opportunity, and security.”

Cardinal Leo said that Canadians need to look more closely at “Who are we becoming? (cf. Dt 30:19)” as a nation, given the current state of affairs.

“What is freedom, and how is it rightly lived? What is worth protecting, even at a cost? When a shared understanding of the human person and the dignity this calls forth, the pursuit of truth and our responsibilities in building a just society begins to fade or become blurred, we do not simply disagree, we begin to drift,” he noted.

Cardinal Leo has spoken out strongly in favor of life from conception to natural death in recent months and has consistently called out Canada’s euthanasia regime. Indeed, he recently reiterated the Catholic Church’s full opposition to abortion, IVF, artificial birth control, and euthanasia on the eve of Canada’s March for Life in May.

In the Canada Day message, the cardinal said that “Freedom is consequently reduced to one’s private choices regardless of others, truth becomes something we construct rather than receive (Veritatis Splendor, 34-35), and the bonds that hold us together grow thin.”

“We honour the human person, not as a modern invention or political slogan, but as a precious gift rooted in and stemming from our loving God who creates and sustains us.”

Cardinal Leo said that freedom is not the “power to redefine, reinvent or recreate ourselves, but the capacity to become who we truly are.”

“A nation is not constructed by laws and institutions alone, but by the countless decisions of its people, decisions that either draw us toward the good, the true, and the beautiful, or away from them,” he stated.

Cardinal Leo said that when the “vision” of a nation being solidified in God’s laws begins to fade, “freedom itself begins to change.”

“It ceases to be the capacity to choose what is good and true, and becomes instead a matter of preference, untethered from any deeper reality,” he stated.

“Severed from truth, freedom does not expand — it collapses.”

Cardinal Leo said that the type of country that Canada becomes depends on the kind of “people we are becoming, and on the values we choose to live by.”

“Laws and policies matter greatly, but they cannot create what they presuppose,” he noted.

Cardinal Leo said that he would like to invite everyone on Canada Day to celebrate it with “gratitude and reverence for the gifts that God has bestowed upon us.”

“I would also ask that you pray for our beautiful land, its people, and its institutions,” he said.

“St. Joseph, Patron Saint of Canada, pray for us. Happy Canada Day to all.”

Recently, Canada’s bishops, reflecting on the “sobering” 10th anniversary of euthanasia legalization, called for a renewed respect for “life” and a rejection of the “complacency with the status quo on euthanasia in Canada” today, noting the deadly practice can “never” be morally acceptable.

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