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September 15, 2010
Still gloomy over Peter Tatchell’s trashing of the Pope, I went to visit a fellow foreign wife. Natasa is from Croatia; the weeks of British anti-papal punditry have shocked her. She hadn’t watched the documentary. “It would have made me sick to my stomach,” she said. She asked if I had seen the mural outside St. John’s Scottish Episcopalian Church on Princes Street. I hadn’t recently: usually the space promotes some political cause or other, often dripping with red paint representing blood. This week, said Natasa, it featured Galileo, Copernicus and a woman all crossed out with red Xs. St. John’s is along Thursday’s papal parade route.
Trustees [images/stories/education/education10/trustees.jpg]TORONTO - The race for Catholic school trustee in Toronto is shaping up to be a battle between trustee veterans and new challengers, with eight incumbents from the current board, which has been under provincial supervision for the past two years, registering to run in the Oct. 25 election. Fifty-nine candidates registered to run as the Sept. 10 deadline to register for the election passed. Among the eight incumbents in the race are former chairs Catherine LeBlanc-Miller and Angela Kennedy.
September 16, 2010
A country pastor from Wolfe Island doesn’t get to offer the Holy Mass in the private chapel of the archbishop of New York without good reason. On Sept. 8, I had the best reason of all — to give thanks to God for a great priest, valued mentor and dear friend, who became Catholic on that very spot. Richard John Neuhaus, who died in January 2009, was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary (Sept. 8, 1990) 20 years ago by the then-archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O’Connor. Richard would be ordained a priest by Cardinal O’Connor a year later.
Holyrood Palace, 8:50 a.m. It's a sunny morning in Edinburgh, but as they say here, if you don't like the weather, wait a minute. The media tent is sparsely populated with journalists — mostly men in dark suits. Television screens line a wall, and a woman is cleaning windows with a pungent yellow fluid. The road to the palace is blocked off, with smiling police officers every few metres. As I passed one white van in the media-only route, I heard the barking of a pack of dogs inside. Happily for me, journalists are being allowed into the actual grounds of the palace. I am going to be very popular with my parish priest when next I see him.
My usual reason for going to Venice has to do with contemporary culture. I went there last month, for example, to write about the 12th Biennale of Architecture for a Canadian magazine. The famous show (which runs until late November) is a fascinating survey of the things advanced architects, artists and theorists in many countries are thinking about these days, and I’m glad I was able to take it in. But before I left for Venice, I made up my mind to do more than keep my nose to the architectural grindstone — to take some time off, that is, and revisit some old acquaintances among the religious canvases and murals that grace the island city’s churches, historic charitable foundations (called “scuoli”) and public buildings.
Pope Scotland [images/stories/international/international10/pope_scotland2.jpg]EDINBURGH, Scotland - Arriving in Scotland on the first leg of a four-day visit to Great Britain Sept. 16, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for preservation of the country's long Christian tradition and warned against "aggressive" forms of secularism and atheism. "Your forefathers' respect for truth and justice, for mercy and charity come to you from a faith that remains a mighty force for good in your kingdom, to the great benefit of Christians and non-Christians alike," the Pope said at a reception with Queen Elizabeth II and more than 400 distinguished guests at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital.
Two hours’ wait and the palace gates open. Motorcycles rush through closely followed by a fleet of small cars and vans with dark windows. A hand waves from behind smoked glass; only later do I wonder, was it him? The speeding procession ends with an ambulance service. The gates close. The brass band strikes up “God Save the Queen.” Through the wrought iron I see one red mozetta and then another. Was that a flash of white or just my imagination? The crowd continues to look eagerly for… what? A limousine? But the road has been closed off by six policemen on motorcycles.
September 17, 2010
[images/stories/international/international10/kashmir.jpg]VATICAN CITY - Police in India-controlled Kashmir surrounded Catholic churches and schools to protect them after violent mobs went on a rampage Sept. 13, throwing Molotov cocktails at government and Christian buildings. “There are policemen everywhere, wherever there are churches and schools, to protect Christian sites,” Bishop Peter Celestine Elampassery of Jammu and Srinagar, India, told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Development world poverty [images/stories/international/international10/poverty_mdg.jpg]Reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is “first and foremost a moral problem,” according to Jesuit Father Michael Czerny. Czerny will accompany Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to a Sept. 20-22 high level meeting at the United Nations in New York to review progress on the MDGs. The Canadian Jesuit is Turkson’s personal advisor on justice and peace issues.
The new English translation of the Mass will be ready for Canadian parishes only when the bishops have Vatican approval for all of the texts and an opportunity to put in place a program to teach people about the changes. With the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announcing the new Mass texts will become standard south of the border beginning in Advent 2011, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has received enquiries about the Canadian timetable.
Mine [images/stories/canada/canada10/mine1.jpg]After the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace flooded Parliament Hill with more than 153,000 postcards last spring calling for Ottawa to hold Canadian mining companies accountable for damage they do to the environment and communities in poor countries, the mining industry is countering with a campaign of its own. The Prospectors and Developers Association, dominated by junior mining and exploration companies, is urging its members to order up bundles of postcards that mining company employees can mail in opposing Bill C-300.
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 26 (Amos 6:1, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31) Tough times are rarely equally tough for everyone. Even during the present economic crisis the sales of extreme luxury cars has actually increased. The beautiful people have continued to play, CEOs of failing companies have continued to receive fabulous bonuses and oil companies have raked in record profits.
Newman’s Unquiet Grave [images/stories/books/1441150846.jpg]Newman’s Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint by John Cornwell (Continuum Books, 256 pages, hardcover, $22.95). Every book has an agenda, sometimes blatant, sometimes unintentional, but always present and needing to be judged at least partly on the question of whether it achieves its goal. A new biography of John Henry Newman, published mere months before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland, during which the Pope will beatify the 19th-century cardinal, thinker and theologian, is a natural subject for agenda detection.
Bill Steinburg [images/stories/canada/canada10/steinberg.jpg]TORONTO - Canadians are a giving people, according to report released by the Charities Aid Foundation America. In the Alexandria, Va., foundation’s 2010 World Giving Index, Canada ranked third in terms of charitable behaviour. The report tracks how willing a nation’s people are to help those in need.
Archdiocese of Toronto [images/stories/logos/ArchToronto.jpg]TORONTO - Toronto’s new rules for what to do when a priest or Church employee is accused of sexual misconduct will be revealed in early October. Over the summer a panel of experts, working with the archdiocese’s judicial vicar Fr. Brian Clough, reviewed and revised Toronto’s Church law governing sex abuse cases, bringing it in line with the latest directives from the Vatican.
Fr. de Souza [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/de_souza.jpg]The Catholic Register is pleased to welcome Fr. Raymond de Souza to our stable of talented columnists. Fr. de Souza, whose debut column appears on Page 19 of this issue, has established his credentials as an accomplished journalist while writing for several publications over the past decade. He is a regular contributor to The National Post and a past Rome correspondent for the U.S.-based National Catholic Register.
Catholic Charismatic Renewal Council [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/jesusinthecity.jpg]TORONTO - Star-chasers and visitors to the city for the Toronto International Film Festival may have been surprised to see a parade travelling down Yonge Street Sept. 11. They were probably even more shocked to learn that the parade was in celebration of Jesus. The participants in this year’s Jesus in the City Parade, a multi-denominational festival of music, dance and worship, were looking for just that reaction, and to challenge it. Though the downtown core of Toronto may feel secular, they said, the Lord is no stranger to the city.
Growing old is inevitable — so it’s important to view aging with the right perspective and not undervalue its importance. Aging should be seen as a privilege, a new chapter in life, that must be accepted with open hearts. Sadly, and too frequently in our modern world, it is not always seen that way. Ageism is rampant. Ageism is a form of discrimination that does not show moral Christian conduct but denies the freedom and responsibility of older adults. Ageism is all around us, and I am sure each of us can identify an incident in which ageism has occurred.
Arguably everything in the news the past few weeks has been about the key importance of tolerance and freedom, especially religious tolerance and freedom. Three different moments capture a sense of the forces at work. Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom, which started on Thursday, provoked numerous reflections on the nature of anti-Pope bigotry and it’s deeper uglier anti-Catholic bigotry on the part of Brits and throughout the world. In the first day alone, Benedict made clear that despite the criticism, he was intent on fighting back the tide of secularism and insisting on the need for religious liberty. In his first sermon, the Pope, as is his wont, delved into history for evidence of the evil that can flow from the desire to kill off God and Religion. He was referring to Nazism but it seemed to require a media interpretation to calm the secularists. But as is often the case, the reality of a Papal visit can soothe and charm, though of course the jury is still out. The Papal visit, and its attendant arguments about ‘extreme’ atheism and religious liberty comes in the same week as the 50th anniversary of a critical talk given by John F. Kennedy while running for President. It’s difficult to imagine now, but in that campaign the idea that a Catholic might be President was the subject of bitter debate. And the young candidate traveled to a meeting of the Greater Houston Ministerial Association where he delivered a plea and forged an argument about religious tolerance, liberty and the distinctions between “rendering unto Caesar and rendering unto God”. By all accounts it defused the issue and made his Presidency possible. But while possibly creating the space for Catholics in politics, the long-term result may have been to render Catholic values in politics difficult, or so argues Archbishop Chaput of Denver and a former Communications officer with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Stephen Hawking creates the third corner of this triangle of tolerance and liberty. The physicist made news this month with the assertions in his new book of the ‘non-necessity of God’ in the creation of the universe. This is a shift from his thinking as expressed in early works. Hawking used to believe the universe needed a prime mover but now believes the Universe came into existence on its own. The list of people unimpressed is extensive and includes philosophers, a Jesuit Physicist and thinker, columnists and theologians. The intriguing think about Hawking and the God issue is the ease with which much of the media assumed that if Hawking says so then it must be so. The reality is that an assertion by Hawking that God didn’t exist is still an assertion, not a fact, which takes us back to the ideas of religious freedoms, religious tolerance and the dangers of extreme atheism.
TORONTO - As the school year slowly gathers steam, so does a new year of The Catholic Register’s Youth Speak News, with a brand new team of writers. For the past 11 years, YSN has offered guidance to young Catholic writers from across the country who cover events and provide insight on important issues affecting Catholic youth, while sharing the ups and downs of being faithful and young in today’s world. While they are building their clippings and experience, YSN helps them in their writing, interviewing techniques and photography.