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August 23, 2010
Pakistan food handout [images/stories/international/international10/pakistan_aid.jpg]VATICAN CITY - Christians and other minorities affected by severe flooding in Pakistan are being discriminated against in government-run rescue and aid programs, said the director of pontifical missionary societies in Pakistan. Fr. Mario Rodrigues, the Lahore-based director of the mission awareness and funding agencies, said, "While Caritas and the pontifical mission societies are working on providing humanitarian relief to displaced persons without discrimination of origin, race or religion, in other areas, the Christian refugees, even in the midst of this tragedy, are being treated as second-class citizens.
August 24, 2010
It’s bad enough that the controversy over the building of a mosque at 51 Park Place, New York has become a poster child for religious intolerance in the United States with reverberations around the world but there is a growing controversy over the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa that is splitting Catholics. The Albanian Born Indian Sister who founded the Missionaries of Charity 60 years ago in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) was born on August 26th 1910. The Noble Prize winner has become for millions the model of self-sacrifice and charitable works. Father Tom Rosica, of Salt+Light, writing in the National Post captures what he sees as her special qualities, the ones that moved John Paul II to Beatify her after her death in 1997. There’s a host of celebrations planned worldwide to mark the day, throughout India and around the world. But one suggested honour, lighting up the Empire State Building in New York has provoked an ideological battle over what meaning should be taken from her life. On one side is Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, who petitioned the Owners of the Empire State Building to join other prominent landmarks in New York City in lighting up in a birthday celebration. One the other side is a coalition of Catholic reform groups, led by Catholics for Choice, which is accusing Donohue of manufacturing a crisis. There's a certain sadness to the whole affair. Each side suggests the other is 'extremist' and not representative of Catholics generally and there's a whiff of insincerity about the argument, almost as if the birthday celebration is a mask for another type of argument entirely. Meanwhile India is focusing on the 'celebration' including the publication of a new comic book honouring the life and work of Mother Teresa. And for those who think there might be more to this story than temporary controversies, Sister Mary Prema, Mother Teresa's succesor has her own thoughts on how we might remember her.
August 25, 2010
NYC mosque demonstration [images/stories/international/international10/ncy_mosquedemo.jpg]WASHINGTON - The controversy over plans to build an Islamic cultural centre and mosque a couple of blocks away from ground zero in New York is but the latest manifestation of a historic cycle of distrust of immigrants — and their faith. Public outcry erupted this summer over plans to convert a former Burlington Coat Factory store, located a little more than two blocks from the World Trade Centre complex, into a nine-storey Islamic cultural centre, with a mosque included. The area’s Muslim community already uses the vacant retail space for worshippers who overflow from the al-Farah Mosque, about a dozen blocks north of the trade centre property, according to The Associated Press.
internet gambling [images/stories/misc/misc10/online_gambling.jpg]Within two years anyone in Ontario with access to the Internet and a credit card will be able — and probably encouraged — to gamble in a government-run online betting parlour. Cash poor and morally hobbled, the provincial government of Dalton McGuinty intends to bring legalized online gambling to Ontario by 2012 despite fears about dire social and spiritual consequences. To put this in language his betting public will appreciate, the premier’s decision is as unwise as drawing to an inside straight.
We watch as part of a 4,000-strong audience as amateur but skilled and dedicated actors portray the Last Supper. We are under a roof but they perform on a stage revealed to the open air and in front of the Bavarian Alps. Beauty unbound. Night is wrapping the town of Oberammergau like some comforting childhood blanket and, as daylight fades, a storm moves across the sky. It’s breathtakingly fast and begins to cover the entire background of the stage and as a consequence colours the play — dark ink squirted over a screen.
It’s hard to defend the faith when you don’t know what it is. It is also hard to defend the faith in the face of enormous public skepticism. Catholics in Canada have the comfort of knowing that they make up more than 40 per cent of the population. Catholics in Britain are a small minority, and fewer than 10 per cent of them go weekly to Sunday Mass. Meanwhile, bad feelings towards Catholicism have been stirred up during preparations for the Holy Father’s September visit to Britain. Faithful Catholics, who have never forgotten the English martyrs, like St. Edmund Campion, and the Scottish Martyrs, like St. John Ogilvie, are discovering what a modern “martyrdom by a thousand media cuts” feels like. Even the London Review of Books is in on the anti-papal action, with Colm Toibin’s frivolous review of the scurrilous, sniggering The Pope is Not Gay!
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 5 (Wisdom 9:13-18; Psalm 90; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33) Who indeed can learn the counsel of God? There are many, far too many, who claim to be able to do just that. The result is spiritual bedlam as so many diverse voices claim to possess the absolute truth.
When Values Collide [images/stories/books/1570758735.jpg]When Values Collide: The Catholic Church, Sexual Abuse and the Challenges of Leadership by Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M. (Orbis Books, 236 pages, softcover, $26). The horror of clerical sexual abuse rocking the Church around the globe is a decidedly multi-faceted phenomenon. Coming to understand and perhaps transcend exactly what the scandal means, it matters deeply which perspective you choose. Over the coming months and years there will be a wave of books available to everyone struggling to make sense of and move forward from the sensationalist detail that preoccupies much of the mainstream media. Joseph P. Chinnici’s When Values Collide is one of the first and it is a truly impressive starting point.
The youth are the future of our world — and the Church. That’s why it is my pleasure to introduce myself as the new Youth Editor of Youth Speak News. YSN is an important section of The Catholic Register: It is a place where young writers can reflect on fundamental issues that matter to us as Catholics, all the while building the writing and communication skills that will be transferable to a wide variety of careers.
Bert Cambre [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/bertcambre.jpg]TORONTO - After a decade of service as the director of deacons, Deacon Bert Cambre is leaving as head of the diaconate office following some internal restructuring in the archdiocese of Toronto. Cambre’s last day in office will be Aug. 31. He leaves the office with many accomplishments under his belt.
August 26, 2010
Pakistan flood [images/stories/international/international10/pakistanflood2.jpg]TORONTO - After a slow start, Canadian Catholics have responded, online and in parishes, to the flood crisis in Pakistan. Contributions over the Internet pushed the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace disaster relief fund for Pakistan over the $100,000 mark on the Aug. 22 weekend. In the archdiocese of Toronto, the ShareLife Pakistan Flood Relief fund went from less than $11,000 on Aug. 16 to $38,497 as of 3 p.m. Aug. 23. With the federal government giving in to pleas from Development and Peace and other agencies to establish a dollar-for-dollar program to match private donations, Development and Peace is hopeful Canadian generosity will begin to equal the massive scale of the floods in the Indus River valley.
CCCB logo [images/stories/logos/logos10/CCCB_logo.jpg]OTTAWA - Canada’s bishops hope the faithful will generously support its work as the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual collection approaches the weekend of Sept. 26. “The primary purpose of the collection is to help the dioceses in Canada meet their annual per capital contribution to the CCCB,” said conference president Bishop Pierre Morissette in an Aug. 9 letter. “This is the conference’s main source of financing.” Each diocese is assessed on a per capita basis for its contribution to the running of the bishops’ secretariat of 40 staff members and the work the bishops do in common, whether it is government relations, those with other episcopal conferences or the Holy See.
Michael Duggan [images/stories/education/education10/duggan_michael.jpg]Michael Duggan has been appointed the first CWL Chair for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University College in Calgary. This is the first endowed chair of its kind in Western Canada and is funded by the Catholic Women’s League. The permanent, senior academic position was established to encourage the advancement of Catholic education through exemplary teaching and research. St. Mary’s is a Catholic, student-focused liberal arts and science teaching institute.
child abuse [images/stories/misc/abuse.jpg]The Basilian Fathers are encouraging any possible victims of sexual abuse by Fr. Kenneth O’Keefe to come forward. O’Keefe was charged Aug. 11 with one count of indecent assault stemming from his contact with a teenaged boy at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa in 1972. But if there are other victims or other unreported incidents to be dealt with, the Basilians want to hear about them and will work with police and the court system to see justice is done, said Basilian spokesman Fr. Tom Rosica.
Angela Kennedy [images/stories/education/education10/kennedyangela.jpg]TORONTO - Catholic parents are looking forward to the Oct. 25 municipal elections so they can elect a new slate of trustees, says the head of a Toronto parents’ group. Parents are “fed up” with hearing of another trustee scandal, said Murielle Boudreau, chair of the Greater Toronto Catholic Parent Network, in response to news that Toronto Catholic District School Board chair Angela Kennedy had been found guilty of conflict-of-interest charges. “We want Catholic supporters to be really ready and do something about it, to recognize that these trustees failed and that (voters) can bring about change through their vote,” Boudreau told The Catholic Register.
Northmount Catholic School for Boys [images/stories/education/education10/music_class.jpg]TORONTO - At Northmount Catholic School for Boys, a replica of a medieval knight’s metallic armour stands in the hallway as students process into class. The days of chivalry and valour may seem like lessons for young men from a bygone era. But at Toronto’s Northmount, teachers are aiming to form tomorrow’s leaders as young men of faith and virtue. Principal Carmen Mombourquette said the school’s mission is to provide a well-rounded education based upon Catholic teachings and values.
Mother Teresa [images/stories/features/feature10/theresacover.jpg]It’s been 13 years since Mother Teresa died of a heart attack at age 87 on Sept. 5, 1997 in Calcutta. Aug. 26 marks her 100th birthday. How well I remember those days . . . my own father died on Aug. 27 that year. One week later, Mother Teresa was called home to God. I provided commentary of her funeral for several networks in Canada. The pomp, precision and sombre majesty of Princess Diana’s London farewell one week earlier were hardly visible in the turbulent scenes of Mother Teresa’s simple wooden casket riding on a gun carriage through the streets of Calcutta for her state funeral. Mother Teresa’s life was not a sound byte, but rather a metaphor for selfless devotion and holiness. Her most famous work began in 1950 with the opening of the first Nirmal Hriday (Tender Heart) home for the dying and destitute in Calcutta. Her words remain inscribed on the walls of that home: “Nowadays the most horrible disease is not leprosy or tuberculosis. It is the feeling to be undesirable, rejected, abandoned by all.”
Child Soldier Cycle [images/stories/ysn/ysn10/childsoldiers.jpg]Five young Canadians had 250,000 reasons to cycle across Eastern Canada this August; one for every child soldier in the world. The Child Soldier Cycle was a month-long, 1,800-km trek from Ottawa to St. John’s, Nfld., and a call to raise awareness about the reality of child soldiers worldwide. The tour began Aug. 1 and ran through Aug. 29. “The goal of the ride was to increase the demand for the media to report more on conflicts that involve children,” said Philip Schleihauf, 19, who rode the entire trip on a unicycle.
Leadership and Peer Support [images/stories/ysn/ysn10/leadership_program.jpg]TORONTO - For a group of high school students in summer school this year, it’s not just about the credit. The Leadership and Peer Support summer course, run out of Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Secondary School since 2004, may seem like an unorthodox form of education. But for these volunteers, it’s more about getting involved than getting ahead.
Online gambling [images/stories/misc/misc10/gambling.jpg]Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is about to unleash a new dimension in a spiritual crisis that already grips nearly 80,000 problem gamblers in Ontario, addiction counsellors say. Duncan announced in August that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation will be “extending its brand” into the Internet. By 2012 the province will deal poker, sell lottery tickets and run bingo games online. The province worries its citizens already spend $400 million a year on unregulated, off-shore gambling sites. It expects the provincial take from OLG-run web sites will be in the neighbourhood of $100 million. Charities may be given the opportunity to fundraise directly by running online bingo games. But the toll in addiction will be high, particularly for young males most at risk for Internet gambling addictions, said Christiana Ashabo, Southdown Institute’s addiction and relapse prevention therapist.