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November 2008

November 14

Canada and the 'Sheen Affair'

November 14, 2008

In 1952, Canadian and American culture collided over an unlikely cleric — Bishop Fulton Sheen. It was the dawn of the TV era and Sheen's Life is Worth Living had made him the most watched priest on television in the United States. But in Canada, for several years the CBC refused to broadcast the program. Find out why in this podcast of the Eighth Annual Somerville Lecture on Christianity and Culture. This lecture was presented Nov. 6 at the Newman Centre, in the University of Toronto campus. It featured Dr. Mark McGowan, principal of the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto. He is well-known for his analysis of church affairs and as author of Waning of the Green: Catholics, the Irish and Identity in Toronto, and Michael Power: The Struggle to Build the Catholic Church on the Canadian Frontier. The Somerville lecture is sponsored by The Catholic Register in co-operation with the St. Jerome's Lectures in Catholic Experience and the Newman Centre. Click the arrow to hear the audio. /audio/mcgowan.mp3

November 17

Pastor rebuked for chastising parishioners who supported Obama

November 17, 2008

WASHINGTON - The administrator of the diocese of Charleston, S.C., said a pastor who told his parishioners they should refrain from receiving holy Communion if they voted for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama did not "adequately reflect the Catholic Church's teaching" on abortion and conscience. "Any statements or comments to the contrary are repudiated," Msgr. Martin T. Laughlin said in a Nov. 14 statement.

November 18

To a believer, there's no doubt God created the world

November 18, 2008

TORONTO - Science can't adequately explain the role of God in the universe, says Fr. George Coyne, S.J., the former director of the Vatican Observatory who, at one time, was referred to as “the pope's astrophysicist.” But as a religious believer, the American professor said he is able to answer the question of God's role.

Conservative grassroots favour freedom of expression

November 18, 2008

OTTAWA - Grassroots Conservatives want Ottawa to gut the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s power to investigate and punish free expression complainants deem hateful or discriminatory. At the Conservative Party’s second policy conference in Winnipeg Nov. 13-15 delegates passed resolution P-203 to “remove authority from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Tribunal to regulate, receive, investigate or adjudicate complaints related to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.” Subsection 13.1 of the Act is the so-called thought crimes provision that allows the commission to investigate anything that is “likely” to expose a group or individual to hatred or contempt. No proof of harm is necessary and truth is no defence under this subsection.

November 20

Aboriginal reconciliation on Pope's mind

November 20, 2008

OTTAWA - Canadian bishops raised the need for reconciliation with aboriginal peoples and Canada’s growing secularization during a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI Nov 8. “There is a way faith is being pushed more and more to the margins,” said Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, noting Canadians “seem to be required to leave their faith behind them when they enter the public realm or they will be discounted.”

He is coming

November 20, 2008

Advent is a religious season that sneaks up on us. Its quiet arrival is drowned out by the noisy commercial hype for Christmas, the Santa Claus parades, shopping, seasonal parties and frenzied preparations for travel and visiting. Yet, as with so many things in life, Advent is the more important occasion, transcending all those other “must do’s” of this time of year. It, too, is a time of preparation, but of the heart.

Laity all have same goal

November 20, 2008

TORONTO - In the opening credits of The Simpsons — where Lisa goes off with her saxophone, playing a tune of her own — is not what Catholic lay movements should model in their attempts to effect change, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins told nearly 200 people attending the archdiocese’s annual Catholic Symposium for the Laity. “That’s the very world we’re fighting against — where ‘I have my little tune to play and so forget about you,’ ” he said.

Archdiocese aids abuse victims

November 20, 2008

TORONTO - Male survivors of sexual abuse will be able to receive counselling from the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (CCAA) thanks in part to the archdiocese of Toronto. The archdiocese donated $30,000 to the CCAA, based in Newmarket, for its Help and Hope Project which focuses on helping men who were sexually victimized in their childhood.

Police to investigate trustee expenses

November 20, 2008

TORONTO - Embattled Toronto Catholic school trustees will remain with the board until their term ends in 2010, unless they are convicted of an indictable offence after a police investigation into trustee spending practices, says Ontario Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. Alcohol, Internet gaming and personalized vehicle licence plates were some of the $30,000 worth of questionable expenses charged to taxpayers by Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees, according to a Nov. 12 audit report.

Reaching out to the poor

November 20, 2008

I had just finished a late shift at work. I put on my sweater, coat and scarf and left the building. It was really cold — the kind of chill that you can feel wrap around the very edges of any exposed skin. I walked quickly, hoping to secure a warm seat on the bus. As I approached the bus stop, someone stopped me. “Mon grand, as-tu deux pieces t’as pourrais me donner?” I stared into the weathered face of the man who was asking me for money. He was not dressed for the weather. A baseball cap and a thin windbreaker were all the protection he had for the cold night.

Another pro-life club loses campus funding battle

November 20, 2008

VICTORIA, B.C. - After a months-long battle and three hearings, Youth Protecting Youth (YPY) is now part of a long list of pro-life clubs that has been denied funding — this time by the University of Victoria Student Society. YPY joins a list of “contested” clubs, as the Canadian Federation of Students’ support for student governments against “anti-choice” clubs has resulted in the loss of status or funding for student pro-life groups at Capilano College, the University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Lakehead University and Carleton University over the past year

Learning about Latin America firsthand

November 20, 2008

OTTAWA - Some call it an act of charity while others call it an act of compassion. But for Fr. David Shulist, S.J., Catholic chaplain at Carleton University in Ottawa, travelling to Latin America — to learn from the locals and help in whatever ways he and his students can — is an act of being human. Shulist is the program director of the mission project Global Connections, an initiative run by Catholic chaplains in Canada to educate students about worldly conditions through trips to developing countries.

November 21

EcoSchools puts learning into action

November 21, 2008

PICKERING, Ont. - Surrounded by her classmates, nine-year-old Zeina Abu-Jurja recites some of her “environmental pet peeves.” One pet peeve, she said, is when the television is on even if no one is watching because it’s an energy waster.

Mining the minds of ancient monks

November 21, 2008

TORONTO - Before the Seven Deadly Sins there were the Eight Bad Thoughts. This was the name given by the Desert Fathers of the early church to that swirl of temptations by which the devil sought to drive a wedge between them and God. Acedia, anger and pride — these were the worst of the eight, thought those proto-monks. They were powerful urges that could drive a spiritual seeker to abandon the quest, give up on holiness and give in to despair.

Forced independent living may kill independence

November 21, 2008

Once I worked for the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, the government body that has repeatedly refused requests from The Catholic Register to comment on the question of homelessness and deinstitutionalization.

We must weather the storm in God's 'absence'

November 21, 2008

First Sunday of Advent (Year B) Nov. 30 (Isaiah 63:16-17; 64:1, 3-8; Psalm 80; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37) Where is God? Is God angry with us? These are anguished questions that people have always asked. In our own time the first question seems to have even greater importance and it is often joined with doubt that God even exists.

Virtues demand the highest of us

November 21, 2008

In the Oct. 18 Register appears a picture of some high school students holding up giant letters spelling out DIVERSITY. Now “diversity” is one of those weasel words, so beloved of multiculturalists, that frequently conceal animus towards religion generally, and hostility to Catholicism in particular. The accompanying article, by Sheila Dabu, raised concern about a $2-million Ontario Education Ministry initiative called “Character Development.” There is reason for concern.

Politicians must make Holy Land peace reality

November 21, 2008

JERUSALEM - As Christmas approaches and the world again turns its hopes and prayers toward Bethlehem, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem is asking politicians to make peace a reality in the Holy Land. Patriarch Fouad Twal told Canadian Catholic journalists visiting Jerusalem that a Saudi Arabian peace proposal would make a good basis for future peace in the region.

Congo bishops denounce UN 'inaction'

November 21, 2008

KINSHASA, Congo - A group of Congolese bishops has denounced the international community’s tolerance of increasing hostilities in eastern Congo, which they called a “silent genocide” against the civilian population there. “We are calling on the international community to work sincerely to ensure respect for international law,” said the Congolese bishops’ committee in a statement Nov. 13 on the war in the east and northeast of Congo.

A regrettable conflict, again

November 21, 2008

Once more Congo is burning and the world is watching. After five years of civil war (1998-2003) in which more than five million people were killed and another million dislocated, the war-weary people of Congo are facing the prospect of another preventable war. The Congo conflict is the longest and most devastating conflict in Africa. It is also central to resolving the horrors in Darfur because these conflicts have led to the weaponization of this African sub-region and the surrounding countries extending to Sudan and Chad. The vast and ungoverned territories in this area provide the route for the transportation of all kinds of weapons to the African hot spots in Uganda, Somalia, Congo and Sudan. They are also fertile grounds for very angry and disinherited Africans who are tools for burgeoning terrorist cells and rogue groups and militias.