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June 2010

June 25

Religious leaders summit call for inspired leadership

June 25, 2010

Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber [images/stories/canada/canada10/winnipeg.jpg]WINNIPEG - Nearly 80 senior religious leaders from every region of the world gathered for the World Religions Summit in Winnipeg June 21-23 to address the “most pressing practical, ethical and strategic issues of our time.” And after many words were spoken and considered, the interfaith assembly emerged with a four-page message to the most powerful people in the world. Winnipeg area MP Stephen Fletcher received the statement, “A Time for Inspired Leadership,” on behalf of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and was expected to deliver the document to leaders of the G8 and G20 nations meeting in Toronto and Huntsville, Ont., June 25-27.

Helping you come to grips with grief

June 25, 2010

Now What? A Practical Guide to Dealing with Aging, Illness and Dying [images/stories/books/2896462171.jpg]Now What? A Practical Guide to Dealing with Aging, Illness and Dying by Sherri Auger and Barbara Wickens (Novalis, 160 pages, softcover, $19.95). Barbara Wickens and Sheri Auger say they wish they had a reference tool when they were facing their parents’ illnesses and deaths. Me too.

June 26

Development agencies respond to G8 aid initiatives

June 26, 2010

salle dam [images/stories/canada/canada10/salledam.jpg]As this year's G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto steer their attention to maternal and child health care in poor countries, Caritas Internationalis and the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace are trying to keep the leaders focused on last year's promises to boost aid spending on food security and agriculture. The Catholic development agencies have named "the rising food crisis" as their number one priority for the summit of the world's most powerful leaders.

June 28

Summit violence distracts from real concerns of protesters

June 28, 2010

Catholics for Peace [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/catholicpeace.jpg]TORONTO - There were more than 900 arrests, four police cars torched and Toronto's transit system shut down, leaving citizens fuming over what it all cost in dollars, frayed nerves and the reputation of Toronto the Good. But flashy pictures of burning cop cars distract from the real concerns raised by the majority of protesters, said KAIROS economics researcher John Dillon. Everybody who made a principled stand on the issues in peaceful demonstrations during the G20 was tarred with the same brush as Black Bloc protesters who covered their faces and smashed windows, said Dillon. Out of an estimated 10,000 protesters, perhaps 150 were engaged in property damage, Dillon said.

June 29

Economy trumps justice at G20

June 29, 2010

Toronto Demonstration [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/demo.jpg]TORONTO - On paper, the G20 and the Catholic Church want a lot of the same things. But they're not necessarily talking the same language. "We've entered a world where the only language that matters is economics," said Redemptorist Father Paul Hansen after the motorcades of world leaders had left town. The leaders of the world's 20 largest economies agreed to cut their government deficits in half by 2013 and stop growth of public debt relative to Gross Domestic Product by 2016 at the summit held in Toronto June 26-27. Voluntary financial constraints on government borrowing will allow poorer countries to participate in a healthier world economy, said the final G20 communique.

G8 maternal health promises don't go far enough, aid groups say

June 29, 2010

maternal health [images/stories/international/international10/maternalhealth.jpg]A $7.3 billion pledge — $5.0 billion from G8 countries and another $2.3 billion from foundations and non-G8 countries — is not enough to stop millions of needless deaths among pregnant women and children under five, and not enough for the G8 countries to say they've lived up to their responsibilities, say Catholic aid groups. "We're disappointed with the G8 leaders," said Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace executive director Michael Casey.

June 30

Ouellet called to Rome to take over Congregation for Bishops

June 30, 2010

Cardinal Marc Ouellet [images/stories/canada/canada10/ouelletspeaking.jpg]QUEBEC CITY - With both gratitude and fear Cardinal Marc Ouellet has accepted a prestigious appointment from Pope Benedict XVI to become the new prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Commission for Latin America. "Gratitude because it is a mark of great confidence from the Holy Father, obviously, and I am very grateful to him. And fear because it's a difficult responsibility and it's a huge responsibility," Ouellet said during a press conference June 30.

Progress made

June 30, 2010

Maternal Health [images/stories/international/international10/maternalhealth.jpg]If you look past the crazy billion-dollar price tag, the trampling of civil liberties and the street thuggery that marked the G8 and G20 meetings, it’s possible to see light in the summit tunnel. Of course, ignoring the excesses is a challenge. To have almost a billion dollars spent on security and still see gangs of petty criminals terrorizing shopkeepers, torching police cars, smashing windows and drowning out legitimate peaceful protests is beyond scandalous. And to have police, in addition to arresting real criminals, round up hundreds of citizens solely because they lacked the common sense to stay indoors is appalling.

Cardinal Newman's influence spreads more than a century later

June 30, 2010

John Henry Cardinal Newman is to be beatified by Pope Benedict in Britain in September, making him the first English man or woman who lived after the 17th century to be so honoured. It’s long overdue. Put simply, Newman is the literary and theological champion of the new wave of Christian orthodoxy. Born in 1801, his life is the flesh-and-blood reflection of both the journey of a Protestant Christian towards Catholicism and of the evolution in the Anglo-Saxon world of that same Roman Catholic Church. He began as an evangelical within the Church of England but gradually as an ordained minister moved towards Anglo-Catholicism and became a leading member of the Oxford Movement, intent on emphasizing the Catholic nature of the English church. The argument was that the Catholic faith had never left the country, in spite of the reformation, and that Anglican rather than Roman was the true Catholicism.

Why wouldn't he kneel?

June 30, 2010

There is a new tradition in the McLean household. Late in the evening, Mr. McLean picks up a volume by G. K. Chesterton and asks Mrs. McLean if she would like to hear an essay. Mrs. McLean usually would, for this tradition was her own idea. She likes the sound of her husband’s well-trained voice, and she would like to be as good an essayist as G. K. Chesterton one day. Last night’s essay was a corker, and I wondered if I could ever write anything as good. “Was that more than 750 words?” I asked.

Do not fear human touch

June 30, 2010

One of the few times I’ve been seriously ill occurred in Europe. Being away from home, it took a while to find appropriate medical help and by the time I did the pain was out of control. My mind was starting to wander down strange corridors. As I lay, finally, in hospital awaiting doctors, my brother sat beside me, touched my hand and talked to me of this and that. The sound of his voice, the touch of his hand, the physical presence of another, held and anchored me and kept me from slipping away into that alternate universe. Human touch can actually change pain and suffering, being a powerful agent of healing. Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community, once responded to a question about how to help those whose suffering is unspoken, or unspeakable. He replied: Touch . . . human touch can unlock chambers of the heart which might otherwise become a lifelong prison. But can we touch one another?

Christ is the reconciling force of nature

June 30, 2010

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) July 11 (Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37) What does God want from us? How should we live? What is right and wrong? These are questions that people have wrestled with for centuries. People being what they are tend to create answers to those questions that are unbelievably complicated and abstract. Sometimes they are even spiritually, psychologically or physically damaging. Human sacrifice, religious violence or religious justifications for grave injustices are just a few of the darker possibilities.

Mi'kmaq keep the faith for 400 years

June 30, 2010

Mi’kmaq christianity [images/stories/features/feature10/mikmaq.jpg]On June 24, 1610 Mi’kmaq Grand Chief Henri Membertou, hoping to solidify relations with Nova Scotia French settlers, became the first native Canadian baptized into the Catholic Church. He was joined that day by 20 family members and within 50 years the entire Mi’kmaq nation had become Christians. The 400th anniversary of that historic baptism was celebrated in a public showcase June 24-28 that paid homage to Mi’kmaq culture and the important contribution made by Membertou and the Mi’kmaq nation to the spread of Catholicism in Canada. To this day, virtually every Mi’kmaq is a baptized Christian.

Pope deplores Belgian Church raid

June 30, 2010

Belgium police [images/stories/international/international10/belgium.jpg]VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI joined a chorus of criticism of a raid on Belgian Church headquarters by police seeking evidence of alleged clergy sexual abuse. In a June 27 letter of solidarity to Belgian bishops, he called the blitz on the Mechelen-Brussels archdiocese “surprising and deplorable” for the heavy-handed way it was carried out. However, the Pope also reiterated his position that accusations of abuse of minors within the Catholic Church should be pursued by civil as well as Church authorities.

Time of essence in Quebec group's battle against euthanasia

June 30, 2010

euthanasia [images/stories/misc/euthanasia.jpg]A grassroots organization is calling on the Quebec public to stop euthanasia and assisted suicide “from being smuggled into the public health care system under the guise of medical treatment.” But time is running out for the Montreal-based group, Vivre dans la Dignité (Living with Dignity), to sway public opinion on euthanasia. On June 22, the group launched a campaign to help people better understand the issues as the National Assembly draws an online survey to a close July 16, part of a public consultation on euthanasia.

TCDSB passes 'sustainable' budget

June 30, 2010

TCDSB Logo [images/stories/schoolB_logos/TCDSBLogo.jpg]TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board unveiled its new plan to get the board’s books in the black for the next three years, and for trustees to regain control of the board from the province. Provincially appointed board supervisor Richard Alway told The Catholic Register that the budget is financially and educationally “sustainable.”

The unique path taken by Toronto's diaconate

June 30, 2010

Michael Power [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/bookpower.jpg]TORONTO - Bringing back the permanent diaconate was a spiritual stroke of Vatican II genius, according to historian Michael Power, one that traces its history to the Nazi death camp at Dachau. Priests in Dachau — facing their deaths, resigned to their imprisonment and steeped in a near monastic routine of prayer and work — began to ask themselves what had gone wrong with the world and the Church, that saving sacrament of their world. They came to the conclusion that priests were living in isolation from the people of God and that the Church needed a way to break through.

Pro-life message gets out to the street

June 30, 2010

G20 pro-life protest [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/abernethyjmagees.jpg]TORONTO - The G8 and G20 summits certainly attracted protesters. Pro-lifers Julie Abernethy and Seanna Magee weren’t going to be left out. When Abernethy noticed a group of protesters with a pro-abortion banner walking through her downtown neighbourhood, she asked, “Is anybody representing our side?”

Finding piety among the mosquitoes

June 30, 2010

The other day my mom asked me to mow the lawn. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t seem like such a bad job. But when you consider the size of our lawn (it’s a half acre), and the fact that we only have a push lawn- mower, that perspective changes a little. Also, you have to understand something. Over the past four weeks, Winnipeg has had torrential rains at least once a week, and those rains have produced mosquitoes. Tons of mosquitoes. In fact, radio announcers jovially announced a few days ago that we’re going to have the worst bout of mosquitoes we’ve had in 40 years. When you mix mosquitoes with heat, and those with a lawn mower and a big lawn, the effect can be horrible. I’m pretty sure that if Nero had been alive in the 21st century instead of the first, his favourite means of execution would have been death by lawn care!

Online world can be a very unfriendly place

June 30, 2010

For five years I fought my daughter tooth and nail over Facebook. She is an incredibly persistent, articulate, well-grounded teenager who used every negotiation tool in the book. I countered with all of my middle-age wisdom, determination and business savvy. Not only was I critical of Facebook, I was determined to keep technology to a minimum in my household.