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September 2008

September 12

More study sought for HPV vaccine

September 12, 2008

TORONTO - As several Catholic school boards across Canada prepare to offer the vaccine targeting cervical cancer this year, recent reports suggest a need for more studies. In a Sept. 1 editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Neal A. Halsley said cases of severe adverse reactions among Australian children to Gardasil — the vaccine targeting the human papillomavirus, also known as HPV, which can cause cervical cancer — was five to 20 times higher than for other school-based vaccines. Of the 12 suspected cases, eight were confirmed as anaphylactoid reactions. There were 269,680 vaccine doses administered in Australian schools starting in April 2007.

Couples commit for life

September 12, 2008

A new pastoral message from Canada’s Catholic bishops aiming to “encourage and support” young couples in their search for happiness includes insights from its target audience. About a dozen young couples from across the country contributed to the pastoral letter, released by the bishops Sept. 4, titled “What Does Marriage Add to your Love?”

Canada's bishops commit to better relations with Muslims

September 12, 2008

TORONTO - When Christians in Toronto sit down at sunset to break the fast of Ramadan with their Muslim neighbours they have the backing of Canada’s Catholic bishops. The bishops have written to Canada’s Muslim community seeking “new stepping stones” of dialogue. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ episcopal commission for interfaith dialogue released its response to “A Common Word Between Us” on the first day of Ramadan, Sept. 1. “A Common Word Between Us” was a 2007 open letter from 138 Muslim scholars and leaders which called for a renewed relationship between the world’s two largest religious communities.

New liturgy almost ready

September 12, 2008

OTTAWA - Canada’s bishops plan to use the introduction of the new liturgy as a teaching opportunity to renew appreciation of the Eucharist. “There is always an opportunity for catechesis to build on the Eucharistic Congress and the Synod of the Eucharist when we implement the missal,” said Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins.

Catholic parishes face limits on political action

September 12, 2008

Enquiring minds want to know what Catholic parishes can and cannot do in this federal election. Fortunately, before every election most bishops across Canada send detailed instructions to their pastors on this subject.

Opus Dei welcomes left-wingers, too

September 12, 2008

It probably comes as no surprise to many Catholics that Nicole Charbonneau Barron, is running in the Montreal riding of St. Bruno-St. Hubert for the Conservatives. Charbonneau Barron is a member of Opus Dei, and the personnel prelature to the pope is generally associated with conservative, right wing politics.

Viewing the election through ecological eyes

September 12, 2008

Jesuit Father Jim Profit is hopeful that political debate in Canada has begun to take notice of the state of the ecology. "Ultimately if the Earth doesn't survive the rest of us won't survive either. It's a key issue," said the director of the Jesuit Collaborative for Ecology, Forestry and Agriculture in Guelph.

September 15

Putting the focus on two-tier medicine

September 15, 2008

Two-tier medicine that puts the rich at the head of the line for everything from cancer therapy to hip replacements and legislation that would make cheap and easy euthanasia more readily available than quality palliative care are issues the Catholic Health Association hopes voters will question before they cast their ballots Oct. 14.

Canadian bishops offer voting advice to Catholics

September 15, 2008

Canada's Catholic bishops have released a four-page Federal Election 2008 Guide on their web site. The bishops take on complacency and apathy. "Catholics have an obligation to be interested in politics," they write in the introduction.

September 16

Turcotte brings abortion to forefront of campaign

September 16, 2008

TORONTO - By giving back his Order of Canada, Montreal Archbishop Jean-Claude Turcotte is joining a group of more than 100 MPs whose opposition to Dr. Henry Morgentaler's nomination has shone the election spotlight on the abortion debate in Canada, says a leading pro-life group. Campaign Life Coalition national organizer Mary Ellen Douglas said Turcotte's Sept. 11 annoucement comes just three days after a Campaign Life ad, which appeared in the Sept. 8 edition of The Hill Times, a political newspaper in Ottawa, where the names of 106 Conservative and Liberal politicians opposing pro-abortion doctor Morgentaler's nomination were published.

Churches have lots of advice for voters

September 16, 2008

Catholics aren't the only Christians interested in politics. At www.ecumenism.net the ecumenical movement in Canada is highlighting all the election guides and kits put out by various churches.

September 17

Catholic family advocate highlights 'theology of the body'

September 17, 2008

TORONTO - The Catholic Organization For Life and Family wants families to discover the sexual liberation buried in long-neglected Catholic teaching. In its annual message to families, COLF uses the "theology of the body" as a way of talking about sexuality. COLF's goal is to disentangle thinking about sex from sexual politics, commercialization, media images and pornography.

Politics is about justice for CPJ

September 17, 2008

In its Elections 2008 feature, the Christian, non-profit group Citizens for Public Justice is advocating a review of key election issues from a public justice lens. "A public justice lens challenges us to express love for our neighbour and seek the common good. It puts the values of justice, compassion and care for creation at the centre of political debates," according to its web site.

American election: Read all about it here

September 17, 2008

We know Canadians love hearing about the American election. Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are just way more interesting than our blancmange politicians up here. Now you can get a truly Catholic perspective on the U.S. campaign from Catholic News Service, one of the most authoritative sources you can find.

September 18

Option for the poor

September 18, 2008

When the Catholic Church talks about Christianity’s “preferential option for the poor,” the notion has both personal and political implications. During this federal election campaign in Canada, this principle should help guide Catholic voters in making a wise choice on their ballots. The Canadian bishops have identified this “option for the poor” as a “Gospel imperative.” In the document, “Election 2004: Responsibility and Discernment,” the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote that “Jesus had a special love for the weak and vulnerable; He identified Himself with them and proclaimed the Good News to them.”

Envisioning Canada without poverty

September 18, 2008

The Catholic Register deserves our praise for printing three moving pages of Michael Swan’s portraits of poverty (“The human faces of poverty among us ,” Aug. 17-24). Swan reflects on the well-known passage, “The poor you will always have with you…” He wonders why we who profess to be followers of Jesus keep the poor out of sight and out of mind.

Catholic schools have made great contributions

September 18, 2008

It is both predictable and tiresome. And it is never, to my mind at least, entirely honest. What I am talking about is the political hot potato that is publicly funded Catholic education in the province of Ontario and the pseudo-debate that revolves around it. In his Aug. 11 column, Jim Coyle of The Toronto Star spoke of the courage of NDP leader-wannabe Michael Prue’s invitation to the membership to enter into “a grand dialogue” regarding the economic effectiveness and justice of a policy/convention/tradition that continues to fund a separate Catholic school system. Why are we surprised? Especially, given the often furious and polemical debates surrounding the last provincial election and John Tory’s advocacy of “faith schools.”

Education leads us to human fulfilment

September 18, 2008

Throughout his remarkable visit to Paris and Lourdes in mid-September, Pope Benedict XVI showed France and the world what is best about contemporary Catholicism. He reached out with great warmth to all the people he met, from the mighty of this world — his first stop was a conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy — to sick pilgrims and intellectuals, the youth of Paris, Jews and Muslims. He preached the Gospel with zeal, witnessed to the love revealed 150 years ago at Lourdes, and encouraged the French clergy and others called to dedicated lives to stand firm in the face of Europe’s deepening unbelief. And he did these things with shining charity.

Our problems can't be laid at God's feet

September 18, 2008

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Sept. 28 (Ezekiel 18:25-28; Psalm 25; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32) People often shake their fist at heaven and lament the “unfairness” of God. Sometimes this can mean that God did not deliver the goods when they prayed for something. The apparent inequalities and injustices of life are another source of disappointment in the divine. Why do vicious, aggressive or dishonest people seem to get ahead?

In community we find home

September 18, 2008

Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement by Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh (Wm.B. Eerdman’s Publishing, softcover, $27.99). Stone by stone, as he laboured to build his summer house on Lake Geneva, the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung came to recognize that home — with its design, rooms, windows, corners and doors — mirrored the human psyche, with all its needs, shadows and spiritual longings. Home is foundational to individual identity and therefore acknowledged as one of our universal human rights.