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October 2008

October 7

Synod seeks to help Catholics read Bible

October 7, 2008

VATICAN CITY - As children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus, Christians must learn how to listen to what God is saying to them today in the Scriptures, said Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec. The cardinal, recording secretary of the Oct. 5-26 world Synod of Bishops on “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,” outlined the main themes for the synod’s debate during an Oct. 6 speech in Latin.

October 8

Pro-life leaders sour on Harper

October 8, 2008

OTTAWA - Though Conservative Leader Stephen Harper faced hidden agenda charges during the election campaign, pro-life voters have grown increasingly disappointed that he has none. So disappointed Catholic Insight magazine editor Fr. Alphonse de Valk called for Harper’s defeat in his Calgary Southwest riding.

October 10

Chief rabbi seeks Catholic help to protect Israel

October 10, 2008

VATICAN CITY - Israeli Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa, asked Pope Benedict XVI and top Catholic leaders to continue learning to appreciate the Jewish people and to speak out to defend Israel. “I thank God who has kept us alive to be together and work for a future of peace and co-existence the world over,” the 80-year-old rabbi told the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible.

Hope for Hollywood

October 10, 2008

In Hollywood, the mission field is as fertile as the wheat fields in Saskatchewan — or so you might hear from Mark Matthews, the founder of Bibles and Brew. Bibles and Brew is a group of about 15 men who meet bi-weekly in the throes of Hollywood culture to discuss what it means to be Catholic and to support each other in the faith.

Christianity's changing face

October 10, 2008

Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada. edited by Paul Bramadat and David Seljak (University of Toronto Press, softcover, 448 pages, $49.95). Canada’s churches no longer look or talk the way they once did. The once predominantly Anglo-Celtic membership of the United Church, an organization that viewed itself as a potential national church for Canada when it was established in 1925, is now complemented by large Taiwanese and Hungarian congregations. Many Catholic parishes in major cities now have a significant Filipino presence.

Archbishop calls Morgentaler award 'a sad moment in Canadian history'

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - As Dr. Henry Morgentaler receives his Order of Canada medal from Governor General Michaëlle Jean in Quebec City, Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Collins is urging all Catholics to pray the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day for women who face crisis pregnancies and for those who advocate for abortion as a right. Collins calls the award to Morgentaler "a sad moment in Canadian history."

Jesus action figure mocks Christians

October 10, 2008

VICTORIA, B.C. - A Jesus Christ action figure sold at Camosun College’s bookstore is generating mixed reaction among students and members of the Victoria community. While the bookstore insists its intention is to educate and not to take a religious or political stance, some students say that regardless of intention, the product is inappropriate in a college context.

Leafy lifestyle, according to Genesis

October 10, 2008

I often find myself explaining to people why I’m a vegetarian. I used to be pretty defensive about it, but now I realize I only want to educate others. The drive behind my vegetarianism is certainly not limited to my compassionate and “tree-hugging” nature, though this is one of the reasons I chose to adopt my leafy lifestyle. Health benefits, economic efficiency and conscious consumption are all contributing factors, but people need to understand that my faith plays a role in this too.

'Sheen Affair' on tap for Somerville election

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - A slice of American-Canadian relations, examined in the battle to get Bishop Fulton Sheen on Canadian TV back in the 1950s, will be the subject of the annual Somerville Lecture on Christianity and Communications. Professor Mark McGowan, historian, author and principal at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto, will present the annual lecture on Nov. 6 at Toronto’s Newman Centre and Nov. 7 at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo.

Ignatius Loyola's model needed in financial crisis

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - Who should Wall Street look to as a model for corporate leadership in this time of economic crisis? Warren Buffet? Bill Gates? Steve Job? Or what about St. Ignatius of Loyola? For Chris Lowney, a one-time managing director of American financial giant J.P. Morgan, the 16th-century saint and founder of the Jesuits offers an example of what it takes to lead a modern business enterprise.

Remembering St. Francis

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - Franciscans have been remembering the death of St. Francis for nearly 900 years, and it’s still a family affair, said Franciscans of all kinds who gathered at St. Bonaventure Church in Toronto for the Transitus Oct. 3. Celebrated by Franciscans around the world on the eve of the Feast of St. Francis, the Transitus liturgy re-enacts and remembers St. Francis’ passing from this world.

Virtues should trump values in character education

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - Catholic school programs on character development should focus on virtues instead of values, says a new document by the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops. The August paper by the OCCB’s Education Commission led by Alexandria-Cornwall Bishop Paul Andre Durocher, entitled Character Development and the Virtuous Life, said a focus on virtues “helps us re-acquire a valuable concept in our tradition, compels us to recognize God’s role in the character development of our students and helps us focus on specific habits that foster and protect the freedoms to which we are called.”

Scarboro Missions at 90

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - The church doesn’t have a mission. Christ’s mission has a church. For 90 years the Scarboro Missions have been convinced the mission comes first. At 10 a.m., Nov. 9, at the mission society’s main chapel, 2685 Kingston Rd. in Scarborough, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins will lead a Mass of thanksgiving for the 90 years Scarboros have been serving Christ’s mission. The missionaries will give thanks for the likes of Scarboro founder Msgr. John Fraser, first North American priest to take on missionary work in China, and Fr. Art MacKinnon, killed in the Dominican Republic in 1965 for standing up against arbitrary arrest and torture of young men in his parish.

Paying the price for being pro-life

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - A retired Liberal MP who resigned from his party over its position on same-sex marriage says pro-life politicians in Ottawa pay a political price for their outspoken views. Pat O’Brien, a former parliamentary secretary for the minister of international trade, represented the London-Fanshawe riding in Parliament from 1993 until 2005. That’s when he quit the Liberal Party and sat as an independent MP because he opposed the Liberal’s support of legalizing same sex marriage.

Market idolatry

October 10, 2008

The international financial crisis is no longer just about Wall Street — if it ever was. Today, increasingly, it is about Main Street and its residents, about people who are losing homes, jobs, pensions and savings. In a way, the international economic system is a kind of Tower of Babel, built on its own internal logic, but a logic that essentially created a house of cards. It was built on an ever-expanding consumption of goods; when the production of wealth could not keep up with the need to feed mass consumption, developed nations simply turned to debt. When that tower of debt began to crumble as some of its weaker bricks gave way, the whole edifice began to tumble.

Blinded by science

October 10, 2008

The cheapest shot against scientists, who rail loudly and at length against religious believers, is that they are scientific fundamentalists. It’s a cheap shot simply because science is supposed to be open, inquiring, rational and devoted to truth wherever it is to be found. So when scientists set out to act like fundamentalists and do so in the manner of the Inquisition, the first reaction has to be disbelief. The second has to be a sober look at the growing phenomenon of scientific fundamentalism.

Social investers give low grades to Liberals, Conservatives.

October 10, 2008

The Social Investment Organization grades the Liberals and the Conservatives with a D and an F on the issue of transparency for investors in Canada's stock markets. The SIO gives top marks to the Greens and Bloc Quebecois and places the NDP in the middle. The Greens rate an A+, the Bloc a B+ and the NDP a B-.

Number of conflicts worldwide up slightly

October 10, 2008

TORONTO - War has been in decline since the end of the Cold War, but last year it had a slight rebound, according to Project Ploughshares’ annual Armed Conflicts Report. In 2007 the world hosted 30 wars, up from the 29 Kitchener-based Project Ploughshares counted in 2006. The new total is the result of adding two new conflicts and removing one brief Middle Eastern clash.

October 11

Overseas development needs to be a priority

October 11, 2008

OTTAWA - The Catholic Church’s overseas development arm sent an open letter to all federal candidates asking them to make international development a priority. The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace also called for a moratorium on oil sands production.

October 14

Battle lines drawn for next pro-life legal fight

October 14, 2008

TORONTO - Defending doctors’ conscience rights, Catholic groups’ freedom of speech and the anti-euthanasia movement represent the next legal battlegrounds for the pro-life movement, said activists at an international pro-life conference held in Toronto in early October. Dr. Jack Willke, president of the U.S.-based International Right to Life Federation, told more than 200 conference participants on Oct. 4 that the struggle of the pro-life movement is similar to the anti-slavery movement because of the hostility and opposition that both groups have faced.