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Glen Argan

Argan is a Catholic Register columnist and former editor of the Western Catholic Reporter. He writes his online column Epiphany.

Web Archive

Challenging the globalization of indifference

October 24, 2024

International migration has become one of our most pressing issues with about 3.5 per cent of the world’s population (280 million people) currently considered to be migrants. The majority are people on the move seeking gainful employment, while a large minority are fleeing war, violence, persecution, climate change, food insecurity and increased global inequality.

At minimum the poor deserve dignity

May 9, 2024

The issue of a guaranteed basic minimum income (BMI) is again before the public thanks to a bill before the Senate that would implement such a national income support program. It would be too much to say that poverty is a front-burner concern. Reducing poverty is almost never a major issue for most of the population. It seems only those who suffer poverty or have experienced in the past know its debilitating effects.

Priest lived, taught holy acceptance

April 11, 2024

Fr. Clair Watrin, the Basilian priest from southern Alberta who founded the ecumenical Live-In weekend retreat movement and Catholic Christian Outreach, has died at age 91. Both of those movements brought thousands of people into a deeper relationship with Jesus and His Church.

Invitation to reach for higher realms

March 21, 2024

The first I heard of Fr. Ron Rolheiser was when I was a bushy-tailed editor of the Western Catholic Reporter in Edmonton still in my 20s. An article he had written showed up in the mail one sunny day in 1982 from Belgium where he was studying, and he wanted to know if we would publish it. The subject was revirginization, a possibility that had never previously crossed my mind. Nevertheless, the brilliance of the article astonished me, and I eagerly published it as well as another article he sent.

Honouring a prophet of his own country

March 7, 2024

Alexey Navalny was surely a hero. Perhaps he was also a saint. Little evidence is available to buttress the hope that he might someday be recognized as such. Navalny, the Russian dissident who died/was murdered Feb. 16, spoke little of his conversion from militant atheism to Christian Orthodoxy during his abbreviated life.

Emmaus a path to housing the homeless

February 22, 2024

In 1949, Abbé Pierre, a young French priest, welcomed Georges Legay, a homeless man who had tried to commit suicide, into his rundown home in Paris. Instead of giving Legay housing, work and money, Abbé Pierre said, “You are totally miserable, and I have nothing to give you. So why not help me help others?”

Give God our hearts not Valentines

February 8, 2024

Ash Wednesday is on the horizon. While Catholics are getting ashes on our foreheads, much of the rest of the Western world will be buying chocolates and flowers. I don’t remember Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day previously. Google says the last time was in 1945, a little before my time.

We’ll always give when asked for more

January 18, 2024

On the evening of Saturday, Jan. 13, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency sent a province-wide alert on people’s cellphones stating that the province’s electrical grid was at high risk of having to implement rotating power outages. The day had been bitterly cold across Canada, including Alberta where all-time low temperatures were recorded.

Hope that passes happy-faced optimism

January 12, 2024

This new year has rolled in with a sense of helplessness in the face of major crises facing humanity. How do we have any realistic expectation of overcoming:

God gives us angels to guide our lives

December 21, 2023

Angels are in the spotlight during Advent and Christmas. There is Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, the angels who came to Joseph in three separate dreams, the multitude of angels who appear to the shepherds and the angel’s warning for the wise men to avoid Herod. Then there is the plethora of angels who decorate our Christmas festivities, both secular and religious.
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