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January 2009

January 30

Reviving the call for nuclear disarmament

January 30, 2009

Canada's former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy wants to re-embrace the moral vision of the nation’s nuclear weapons policy of 1945. “To use nuclear weapons as a symbol of your greatness is not only immoral, it is pure mystique,” Axworthy told The Catholic Register. “Somehow there’s a perversion taking place. Rather than saying that one’s contribution to reducing poverty or changing the environment is to be a demonstration of one’s greatness, we’re using nuclear weapons because it is the ultimate weapon.”

Recession affects hospitals' ethical decisions

January 30, 2009

TORONTO - The world’s economic crisis hasn’t caught Catholic hospitals in Toronto unawares. Although all Ontario hospitals are more than likely to encounter financial struggles this year, health care rationing and budget adjustments are all too familiar to Catholic institutions, said Hazel Markwell, executive director of the Centre for Clinical Ethics in Toronto.

Not Much For The Poor

January 30, 2009

When it comes to economics, Catholic social teaching is pragmatic, not ideological. While popes in the last 150 years have recognized that capitalism beats socialist economic systems in terms of human freedom and effectiveness, they have been under no illusion that, unless carefully managed, free market economics can inflict terrible pain and injustice. That’s why successive encyclicals on political and social matters have emphasized the “preferential option for the poor” and insisted that governments have a duty to protect the most vulnerable from the vagaries of the market while working for the common good of all.

Trustee infighting derails election of board chair

January 30, 2009

TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board will be without a chair and decision-making powers indefinitely until trustee infighting stops, says Ontario's education minister. Kathleen Wynne told The Catholic Register that she supports the Jan. 28 decision of provincially appointed board supervisor Norbert Hartmann to suspend the appointment of a chair. Long-time trustee Angela Kennedy had been chosen chair, with Ann Andrachuk elected vice-chair, at a Jan. 22 meeting, but the choices were subject to Hartmann's approval.