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Friday, 06 June 2008
Written by Catholic Register Readers,
Views : 388
Developers rule
John Bentley Mays tells us, in his May 25 column, that the issue of St. Basil’s Church is only a paved parking lot. In defence of the church and its pastor, Fr. Paul McGill, the issue is more than that. This church has served a large community of the faithful for many years. It is their church and their community. The idea that the radical plans for development will not change their parish is dismissive and probably untrue.
Until the city recognizes the urban community life of all parts of the city, there will always be development that favours the very rich, and abandons the poor and those with no voice. In this case the parish had no voice. It wants access to parking to continue so that the parish can continue. This is not a huge problem, but there is a huge “no” in the response. This problem is out of Mr. Mays’ reach; it is out of the University of St. Michael’s College’s reach; it is out of the city’s reach.
It has become tiresome to hear it and tiresome to debate it. Many have spoken and reasoned, but one small problem cannot be solved on the campus — accessibility to the church. What this says to me is that it is the rich developer who rules. Watch out, for this little church and this small parish stand for something. They stand for the people of Toronto, who want a city that is beautiful and at the same time practical enough to allow them to live their lives. Let’s hear a solution and not a dissertation.
The “Call to Service” feature articles in your April 27 issue concerning the great challenges confronting religious orders were valuable because the vitality of these orders affects the church’s spiritual health.
Pope Benedict has observed that secularized culture has penetrated the minds and hearts of many consecrated persons. In the epilogue of The Religious Orders in England (vol. III), Dom David Knowles, the distinguished historian and Benedictine monk, warned prophetically: “When…a religious order ceases to direct its sons (or daughters) to the abandonment of all that is not God, and ceases to show them the rigours of the narrow way that leads to the imitation of Christ in His love, it sinks to the level of a purely human institution, and whatever its works may be, they are the works of time and not of eternity.
If religious orders embrace a comfortable, middle-class and relativistic lifestyle, they will die. Only by radical self-renunciation and uncompromising fidelity to the truth revealed in Scripture and tradition can those in religious orders genuinely serve God and not themselves.
In your April 27 editorial about the Olympic Games and politics (“It’s all political”) you imply that the Chinese are exploiting their host responsibilities of these games for propaganda purposes. It may well be that a country wants to show off when they are in the hosting position and, indeed, why not?
However, for a country the size of Canada with about 30 million people and a country the size of China with more than one billion people, governing cannot be compared. We are lucky if we can get 5,000 people on Parliament Hill for a rally of any kind while in China they can have one million people gathering in the blink of an eye. When you have hordes of people gathered anywhere there is always the chance of some getting out of hand and while a few thousand are manageable, a million or more are not so easily managed. Different tactics may be needed. And don’t for a moment think that when there are protests here in Canada that the protagonists, and indeed the participants, are not under some police surveillance.
Should Canada have anything to say about China and how they are managing their country? They have managed their economy so that their population is functioning in a very capable manner. Providing work and food for so many people is a feat indeed.
The Tibetan question is something they will work out as progress develops in that country. It cannot be done in the blink of an eye. It is also possible it was not the Tibetan people who started this turmoil and certainly it was not the Dalai Lama, whom they follow, who started it. It may well have been outside forces that fomented the unrest at this particular time for a particular purpose.
Should we really condemn China for its actions?
Sheelagh M. Barry
Pointe Claire, Que.
Stand up for life
As a Catholic in Quebec, may I bring to the attention of the readers a grave development in the area of abortion rights. In mid-April, the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec (FMSQ), representing over 8,000 specialist doctors, took a very strong pro-abortion position in its statement of opposition to proposed Bill C-484, a bill that would recognize the personhood of a fetus murdered in the womb.
That same week, the National Assembly of Quebec (the provincial legislature) passed an all-party motion condemning Bill C-484 and stating that in Quebec there is a “social consensus with respect to the right of women to have the choice about ending their pregnancies or not.”
Both of these developments are further advances of the ideologies of the “culture of death” (to use John Paul II’s famous phrase). When a professional association of doctors, those meant to protect and nurture life, and the ultimate political authorities adopt a pro-abortion policy in the same week, it is a very tragic day for our society.
I hope that the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec will quickly voice its opposition to these initiatives. It is important for Catholics and the many non-Catholics in Quebec who do not support abortion to hear that the Catholic Church is not part of the “social consensus” referred to by the National Assembly of Quebec.
It will take courage for the church to stand up to these powerful forces and it may suffer for it, but isn’t that the right thing for the church to do?
Donald Bidd
Dorval, Que.
I am not disputing the veracity of the statistical data put out by the Vatican (“Muslims outnumber world’s Catholics,” April 13) but it is a bit misleading. Muslims are not a monolithic group, as this report might tend to convey, but like Christians consist of various sub-groups like Sunnis, Shia, Ismailis, etc. A fairer comparison would be to compare the number of Catholics — a Christian group — to the number of Sunnis, or Shias etc. — a Muslim group.
I suppose that the Vatican has traditionally considered all Muslims as constituting one entity and this latest report is a mere continuation of such tradition. If nothing else it should add stimulus to our ecumenical efforts.
J.E. Sequeira
Oakville, Ont.
