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November 2006

November 20

Germans pushed church ecumenical commitment

November 20, 2006

[images/stories/books/080282885.jpg]"Because He Was a German!": Cardinal Bea and the Origin of Roman Catholic Engagement in the Ecumenical Movement, by Jerome-Michael Verab, C.P. (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 332 pages, hardcover, $29.03 at amazon.ca). This book tells part of the story of how Pope John XXIII came to create the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the church regarded the Orthodox Churches as schismatic and the Protestant Churches as heretical, and thought it was those churches' duty to return to the one true church and be obedient to the Pope. Through the new unity secretariat, the Catholic Church now committed itself to work with other churches for the unity willed by Christ. The person who persuaded John XXIII to take this bold step was a German Jesuit — Cardinal Augustine Bea.

Benedict offers 'outstretched hand' to Islam

November 20, 2006

Pope Benedict meets Islamic woman [images/stories/PopeBenedictXVI/pope2_web.jpg]VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI's remarks on Islam in Regensburg, Germany, opened a new chapter in the Vatican's 40-year dialogue with the Muslim world and brought the Pope's own views on Islam into clearer focus.

Wondering about the WonderCafe

November 20, 2006

WonderCafe.ca [images/stories/canada/WonderCafe.jpg]TORONTO - The United Church of Canada has launched a $10.5-million media campaign that will span the next three years. It will consist of an interactive web site, national magazine, newspaper advertising featuring a cheeky bobble-head Jesus and other provocative images, and a grassroots campaign all aimed at engaging Canadians, specifically those age 30-45.

Honduran cardinal seeks 'helping hand' on mining problem

November 20, 2006

TORONTO - A cardinal in Honduras has asked the Canadian government to rein in Canadian mining companies operating in his country.

'Absolutely excellent times' for Catholic education

November 20, 2006

The Catholic presence on university campuses across Canada has often been reported as a tale of woe. Many Catholics have gotten used to the idea of their colleges as second-class citizens of the academy — intellectually suspect and financially under capitalized.

Jesus testifies to the power of love

November 20, 2006

Christ the King (Year B) Nov. 26 (Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33-37) How does one maintain hope and belief in goodness, justice, freedom and decency in the face of evil and oppression? For many who suffered under the tyranny of Nazism and communism, evil must have seemed supreme and unconquerable. Many must have yearned for a heroic and powerful figure who would put things right.

Pastoral Letter: Democracy rests on love of God and neighbour

November 20, 2006

Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic [images/stories/canada_bishops/AmbrozicSmile.jpg]Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Valueless values I ask myself at times why I react so negatively to a word often used these days, the word "value." The reason for my negative reaction seems to lie in the fact that the talk of values strikes me as very neutral. The word admits that for someone else my value may be quite valueless. The term communicates, in fact, our acceptance that what we take as valuable may be quite meaningless in somebody else's eyes. In other words, I react negatively to the word simply because it contains a possibility of relativism and meaninglessness.

Let's hope for an end to the U.S.'s polarized hostility

November 20, 2006

The campaigns that precede U.S. general elections are always wonderful events. Speeches ring with high melodrama and gaudy patriotism, every pundit with anything to say (and many with nothing to say) are continuously paraded in front of television's bright lights. Accusations of villainy fly from every corner, and every candidate presents himself or herself as the saviour of a nation descending into ruin.

Shifting grounds

November 20, 2006

With the reversal of a few percentage points in voting patterns, there has been a veritable tectonic shift in American attitudes toward the Iraq War. The punishment inflicted on U.S. President George Bush and his Republican party has opened up the potential for real progress.

Making sense of U.S. midterm elections

November 20, 2006

President George Bush [images/stories/international_people/bush2_web.jpg]The immediate result in politics isn't always the most important. Sometimes the election of a particular candidate, or the shift of a percentage of the vote one way or the other on the political spectrum is nowhere as vital as what the underlying trend indicates about the future. The midterm elections in the United States may well be an example where the clear result becomes murkier the more analysis applied and the more time unfolds.

Lister Sinclair was unwilling to be held slave to simple fact

November 20, 2006

The death of Lister Sinclair on Oct. 16 marks not only the passing of a national figure of consequence but provides the occasion for some serious reflection on the role of the public intellectual in our national discourse.

Toronto School Board seeks creative solutions to financial woes

November 20, 2006

The Jolly Green Giant used to urge us all to "Look up, look waaay up." The Toronto Catholic District School Board is looking up into the air above some of it's old, crumbling and underpopulated schools and hoping to see some new money.

Looking to Scriptures for answers to the Korean nuclear crisis

November 20, 2006

The Israelites of biblical times could never have predicted that a couple thousand years down the road nations would face off against each other with weapons that could kill hundreds of thousands all at once. But they did know about arms races, and they knew about the relationship of small nations with great empires.

Rethinking the Crusades

November 20, 2006

OTTAWA - The Crusades are widely seen as a barbaric series of wars led by a ruthless Catholic Church against peaceful inhabitants of the Holy Land, says Anthony Schratz, an amateur historian who has spent 20 years investigating controversies in church history.

November 24

Value of priestly celibacy reaffirmed

November 24, 2006

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials, meeting to review the status of married priests, reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy and said its importance should be highlighted among priests and seminarians.

A note of joy among AIDS sufferers

November 24, 2006

Fr.Gilles Mongeau. S.J. [images/stories/presentClergy/Fr.Gilles-Mongeau.jpg]TORONTO - When Our Lady of Lourdes parish marks World AIDS Day Dec. 1, those who have gathered for the monthly healing Mass the past 16 years will remember the ones who have died and their families and friends, not forgetting those who still depend on a handful of pills every day to keep the human immunodeficiency virus at bay.

Ethical investors want government to clean up environment act

November 24, 2006

The companies that sell ethically screened mutual funds are asking Parliament to clean up the Clean Air Act.

Students remember a fallen friend

November 24, 2006

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - In a time of mourning the students at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School rallied together to support each other and to remember a friend.

Campaign Life organizes luncheon for Toronto priests

November 24, 2006

TORONTO - More than 100 priests, deacons and seminarians of the archdiocese of Toronto attended a luncheon Nov. 15 at St. Paul's Basilica sponsored by the Campaign Life Coalition, the political wing of the pro-life movement in Canada.

Priesthood requires courage

November 24, 2006

I cannot count how many times someone has said, "Hey, I heard you are going to be a priest." It happens when I'm sitting at church, walking through malls, in line at the school cafeteria, even at work. And while I have been repeatedly cornered with this accusation, it still doesn't bother me. The truth is I have often thought about becoming a priest; in fact, I still think about it.