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February 2009

February 1

A world of contrasts

February 1, 2009

Reading by Lighting by Joan Thomas (Goose Lane Editions, softcover, 388 pages, $22.95). The unadorned barn sits listlessly along the sprawling landscape of Lloydminster, Man., in the 1930s. It is here that the hardened inhabitants of this small Prairie town gather for weekly prayer in expression of a zealous but grave apocalyptic faith. The world around offers little comfort. The land is stubborn, the weather unco-operative and the labour severe. But as the townspeople know, this whirlwind of hardship is transitory — a gateway to the promised afterlife that will reward their fidelity.

Bringing family values back to Hollywood

February 1, 2009

The spirit of Frank Capra — the Depression-era director who made such hope-filled family fare as It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — still haunts Hollywood as America stares down its worst economy since the 1930s, according to Siobhan Fallon, the veteran Catholic character actor who co-stars with Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. in the romantic screwball comedy New In Town . That Capra-like embrace of American ideals includes the film’s PG rating. Just weeks before New In Town’s Jan. 30 release, the movie was recut to remove mild profanities and avoid a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America .

The best guarantee we have is God

February 1, 2009

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) Feb. 8 (Job 7:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39) When people are young, a year seems like an eternity — especially a school year! No one can imagine themselves as “old” (25 or maybe even 30!). But years fly swiftly by and before we know it we are “there.” Then life seems short indeed and for some it may even be the painful servitude described in Job. Some might even be moved to question the meaning of it all — here today and gone tomorrow.

Loneliness: spectre of human life

February 1, 2009

Frederick Olmstead’s design of the 19th century’s Central Park in New York during the Industrial Age was meant to act as a place to breathe and relax amidst the pollution of an emerging manufacturing colossus. The park was a respite for the weary factory worker who could not afford the more pleasant surroundings of upstate New York. No doubt, the park was also a place to socialize and be with family. Sociologists of the time suggested that the sudden rush to dense urban living was contrary to social evolution and the maturation of the human condition; while the body would accept the changes, the human soul would be hard pressed to acclimatize. This seems a paradox; more togetherness creates a cloak of invisibility around persons whom, to coin a new saying, were not in our calling circle. The paradox employs anonymity, the cold rapidity of technology and the theft of time’s true meaning.

February 2

Catholic-Jewish relations still OK in Canada

February 2, 2009

TORONTO - Catholic-Jewish relations are stronger than ever in the wake of statements by Society of St. Pius X Bishop Richard Williamson denying the Nazi murder of six million Jews during the Second World War, Canadian Jewish Congress co-president Rabbi Reuven Bulka has told The Catholic Register. Following a Jan. 30 meeting with papal nuncio to Canada Archbishop Luigi Ventura, Bulka said there was no question of a breech in Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Canada.

February 3

Truth and Reconciliation Commission getting back on track

February 3, 2009

truthCommission.jpg [images/stories/logos/truthCommission.jpg]OTTAWA - The Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into Indian residential schools, stalled by the resignation last October of its chairman, is now looking for new members. On Jan. 30, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced that all parties to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement have agreed on a process to choose a new chair and new commissioners. “A selection committee chaired by Justice Frank Iacobucci will work closely to find the best candidates in the most efficient manner,” Strahl said in a statement. “It is expected this process will move forward quickly.”

February 4

Anglicans honour Canadian ecumenist

February 4, 2009

DonBolan.jpg [images/stories/canada_people/canada_people09/DonBolan.jpg]The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion has honoured a Canadian Catholic priest for his service to ecumenism. Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury awarded Msgr. Donald Bolen the Cross of St. Augustine in recognition of his work in the field of Anglican-Catholic relations, said a Feb. 3 statement from Lambeth Palace, the archbishop's residence. "Msgr. Bolen has for many years been far more than an able facilitator of Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue. He has been a friend and colleague whose deep commitment to the possibilities of ecumenical dialogue and our common witness to the truths of the Gospel has been unflagging and inspirational," Williams said in an e-mail sent to Catholic News Service Feb. 4. "This award is a small sign of the regard, affectionate and admiring, in which Don is held and a sign of my personal appreciation of his work and friendship in recent years."

February 5

Prayer for Sri Lankan peace

February 5, 2009

TORONTO - After two days of protest that brought as many as 45,000 Tamils out into the streets of Toronto Jan. 30-31, the Tamils were ready to pray. As the 26-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka enters a new and dangerous showdown, Toronto’s 100,000-plus Tamil community is in distress over the fate of civilians trapped in the fighting and a government offensive against Tamil communities they call “genocide.”

That's no solution

February 5, 2009

If there is something that history can show us, it’s that barring the gate and looking inward to ease the economic pain of this recession is not a wise route to take. One need just check the history books and see how taking this path only worsened the Great Depression back in the 1930s, when the United States brought in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to protect its economic interests. Global trade fell off by two-thirds, turning a recession into a full-blown depression, the worst economic crisis the world has ever experienced. Yet that appears to be part of the solution the United States is banking on to get out of the current recession. The multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate is heavy on its “Buy American” details, shutting the doors on other nations and some of their goods in an effort to stimulate the American economy. A controversial provision of the House’s version of the bill would bar virtually all foreign iron and steel from the stimulus plan’s infrastructure projects, while the Senate’s version, still to be voted on by The Register’s press time, would extend the U.S.-only requirement to all goods paid for by the plan (though it appears President Barack Obama is attempting to water down these provisions).

Economic crisis a deadly sin misdiagnosed

February 5, 2009

[images/stories/misc/misc08/stockMarket.jpg]What we know for sure is that the economic crisis that began perhaps as long as two years ago and began roiling the stock markets and the real economy in the summer-fall of last year is real. We know it is causing huge amounts of real pain, provoking increasing amounts of real fear and causing consumers, producers, politicians and pundits to assume the position of a deer caught in the headlights. There is no shortage of advice, most of the same in deep conflict with each other. And the other thing we know for sure is that we don’t know how bad it will get or how long it will last. What we don’t really know, but seem to argue about nearly ad nauseum, is how it all started. The immediate cause cited by most is mortgages to Americans who couldn’t afford houses. The underlying cause is argued to be the greed of the banks making the loans and the cupidity and greed of the borrowers. And the poster image that encapsulates the entire mess is bankers spending $1,800 on waste baskets while earning tens of millions in bonuses and corporate executives flying in on private jets to plead for public dollars to bail them out.

Montreal Social Action Office responds

February 5, 2009

In the article “Catholic protest not pro-Hamas, organizers say ” by Michael Swan (page 3 of The Register Week of Feb. 1, 2009), there are several statements in respect of the demonstration, held in Montreal on Jan. 10, that could lead to serious misinterpretations regarding the position of the Social Action Office of the Catholic archdiocese of Montreal. The third paragraph begins with the following sentence: “McDonough did not publicly distance his office from slogans such as ‘There is no God but Allah and the jihadist is the beloved of Allah,’ and ‘O Nasrallah, o beloved, strike, strike Tel Aviv’ before media reports and video of the demonstration went across Canada.” Yet, in a telephone interview with The Register on Jan. 19, I stated at least three or four times that the Social Action Office unequivocally opposes, rejects and condemns any slogans or placards that promote hatred for Jews and the destruction of Israel. This position, repeatedly asserted by me, appears only in the ninth paragraph, near the end of the article. Readers, however, will remain with the impression that I have refused to distance the Social Action Office from such anti-Jewish slogans.

From Scotland to Canada, and back again

February 5, 2009

My mother’s people came from Scotland in the early 1900s. Her grandfather brought his handgun. He had collected rents for the local laird, a dangerous, unpleasant job. Shaking the dust of the British class system from his feet, he left for Toronto. He married my great-grandmother, had four children and went back to Europe to fight for Canada in the First World War. Thanks to his accent, he was known as “Scotty.” But as far as he was concerned, he was no longer a Scot. He was Canadian. My mother’s father, known to his workmates as “Red,” was equally adamant that he was not a Scot. He was Canadian. Grandpa married a girl whose people were Scottish, but she too considered herself Canadian. And when Grandpa went to Scotland on his way to fight for Canada in the Second World War, his relations there rudely and inaccurately called him a Yank.

February 6

Respond with compassion

February 6, 2009

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) Feb. 15 (Leviticus 13:1-2, 45-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45) Ignorance and fear are close and frequent companions. Together they often produce the tragic attitude we find in the reading from Leviticus. A leper is to be shunned and excluded from society. Lurking below the surface of the words is the assumption that their predicament must somehow be a punishment from God. And to “treat someone like a leper” has entered our own language to describe shunning another with repugnance and exclusion.

Knights mark 100 years in Toronto

February 6, 2009

KofC.jpg [images/stories/logos/logos09/KofC.jpg]TORONTO - Philip Walke remembers the day Toronto’s first subway cars ran. At 75 years of age, he has seen plenty of Toronto’s history, but also that of the Knights of Columbus’ Toronto Council 1388, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Many of these highlights for people living in the city of Toronto were also closely linked to the Knights, Walke said. Currently acting as the council’s public relations director, Walke once worked on the Knights of Columbus Ontario state council as administrative assistant, sending out media releases. Although he started out on a Scarborough council, he later moved and joined the original Toronto council, the first council established in Toronto and the 11th in Ontario.

The Innocent Oscars

February 6, 2009

In “Songs of Innocence and Experience ,” William Blake, poet of the industrial revolution, asks the Tiger (or Tyger, as he spelled it), “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” He asks the lamb, “Dost thou know who made thee?” Old, mad Blake seems to haunt Hollywood this Oscar season. Each of the five films nominated for best picture in the 81st running of the Academy Awards Feb. 22 tells a story of innocence and experience — of how we pass from trust to terror, and what we lose and what we gain when we learn the truth about the world and our role in it.

Lenten fast brings together love for God, neighbour

February 6, 2009

lent.jpg [images/stories/misc/misc09/lent.jpg]VATICAN CITY - Fasting from food and detaching oneself from material goods during Lent helps believers open their hearts to God and open their hands to the poor, Pope Benedict XVI said. The Lenten fast helps Christians “mortify our egoism and open our hearts to love of God and neighbour,” said the Pope in his message for Lent 2009. The papal message for Lent, which begins Feb. 25 for Latin-rite Catholics, was released Feb. 3 at the Vatican.

Human rights process damages the innocent

February 6, 2009

OTTAWA - The federal government should consider the damage done to unjustly accused innocent parties by complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, says the editor of Catholic Insight magazine . Basilian Father Alphonse de Valk wrote to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in a Feb. 2 open letter, responding to the Moon Report’s recommendation to repeal the controversial subsection of the Canadian Human Rights Act that allows the rights commission to investigate hate speech. The CHRC commissioned the report from University of Windsor Professor Richard Moon last year.

Pro-life students face trespassing charges

February 6, 2009

The University of Calgary has charged pro-life students with trespassing on campus for a controversial display they set up in November. Members of the student club Campus Pro-Life (CPL) had set up a Genocide Awareness Project display Nov. 26 and 27 despite threats from the university of suspension, expulsion or arrest. The display included graphic images of aborted fetuses.

Civil liberties' group sides with campus pro-lifers

February 6, 2009

TORONTO - Campus pro-life groups have gained an ally in their battle to be heard at universities across Canada. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has urged student unions at universities and colleges to not deny club status to groups that oppose abortion. The association made its view known in a letter sent to student unions across Canada in late January.

Budget vigil begins March 2

February 6, 2009

TORONTO - The people who run the church-sponsored food banks, shelters and social agencies in Ontario want a better budget out of Queen’s Park, and they’re willing to pray for it. Starting March 2 and continuing until Finance Minister Dwight Duncan brings down the 2009 budget, the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition will stage a prayer vigil on the front lawn of the provincial legislature. No date has been set for the budget, though it is widely expected in the third week of March.