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September 22, 2010
ShareLife logo [images/stories/logos/shareLife_new.jpg]TORONTO - It was a record year for ShareLife as total donations to the annual campaign came it at an all-time high — $14.33 million. And it was all inspired by an anonymous donor. “A generous parishioner in the archdiocese of Toronto came forward last year and offered to match all new or increased donations up to $500,000 to ShareLife during the 2010 campaign,” said Arthur Peters, executive director of ShareLife, the charitable fundraising arm of the archdiocese of Toronto.
Senator Noël A. Kinsella [images/stories/education/education10/senatorkinsellaaward.jpg]On Oct. 1, St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont., will be honouring Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate, for his leadership in Catholic education at its 10th annual Feast of St. Jerome. “I’m quite honoured and thrilled,” said Kinsella. “I don’t know why they chose me. There’s so many more deserving people.” But Nadine Collins, university advancement officer at St. Jerome’s, which is federated with the University of Waterloo, found plenty of reasons for Kinsella to be honoured.
September 23, 2010
euthanasia [images/stories/misc/euthanasia.jpg]Quebecers have seldom felt obligated to be in step with the rest of Canada, so the road show currently marching across La Belle Province is no surprise. The Quebec government has been holding public hearings across the province on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Ostensibly, this is a fact-finding tour but the name of the committee betrays its true sentiment. It is called the “Dying with Dignity Special Commission,” implying, of course, the odious notion that euthanasia and assisted suicide bring dignity to death.
LONDON, ENGLAND - As per usual, it went better than expected. For veterans of papal travel, the routine is now well known. In advance of one of Pope Benedict’s trips, there is much wringing of hands about how badly things will go, how difficult things will be, how hostile a particular country is. Then the Pope arrives with his shy gestures and kindly manners, no one is frightened and everything is pronounced a success.
September 24, 2010
Haiti Church [images/stories/international/international10/haitianchurch.jpg]WASHINGTON - Haitian bishops were expected to agree Sept. 24 to the creation of a broad-based reconstruction program involving Church partners from around the world that will guide how parishes and Catholic schools destroyed in the January earthquake are rebuilt. They were meeting in Miami Sept. 22-26 with Catholic officials from Canada, the United States, Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guadeloupe and Mexico and the Inter-American Development Bank. The bishops were considering the proposal developed over several months primarily by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services.
September 27, 2010
New Padre Pio [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/Padre_Pio/new_padrepio.jpg]The mostly Italian parish of Padre Pio in Woodbridge welcomed relics of St. Padre Pio as they inaugurated their new church Sept. 23. It was no small affair, with an overflow crowd peering in the windows from the parking lot to see Archbishop Thomas Collins baptize and anoint the new church. Photos and commentary by Michael Swan
Bishop Crosby [images/stories/canada_bishops/bishopdouglascrosby.jpg]Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Douglas Crosby as the new bishop of the diocese of Hamilton Sept. 24. Crosby will replace the retiring Bishop Anthony Tonnos who has led the diocese since 1984. “I’m very pleased and honoured by the appointment,” said Crosby, who remains administrator of the diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador until he is installed as bishop of Hamilton at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Nov. 8. Born in Marathon, Ont., in the diocese of Thunder Bay, all of Crosby's ministry as a bishop has been done in Newfoundland and Labrador. Installed as bishop of Labrador City-Schefferville in 1998, he was also installed as bishop of St George’s, Nfld., in 2003 and retained responsibility for the former diocese. Then, following a realignment of the boundaries of the two dioceses, he became bishop of the diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador in 2007.
[images/stories/schoolB_logos/TCDSBLogo.jpg]In the lead-up to Catholic school trustee elections, a group of former trustees, teachers and parents is leading a campaign to raise awareness and encourage Catholic supporters to vote on Oct. 25. “Lately, the reputation of our board has been badly tarnished in the public eye, and the Minister of Education found it necessary to place the Toronto Catholic District School Board under supervision. It is a time for healing. It is a time for change,” said former principal Mary Ellen Lawless at a Sept. 26 press conference outside St. Paul's Basilica. Lawless is a member of the new group C.U.R.B., Catholics United for a Responsible Ballot. “It is imperative that we reunite the parent, teacher, principal, priest, trustee and the total Catholic community in carrying out the aims of Catholic education and the mission of the Catholic school,” Lawless said in a statement. The group urged Toronto's Catholic voters to get to know the issues and their trustee candidates as their “right and privilege to do so.”
September 29, 2010
D & P and Lifesite [images/stories/canada/canada10/LifeSite_DP.jpg]TORONTO - The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace obtained a Federal Court injunction Sept. 12 to block an access to information request for the names and funding levels regarding its nearly 200 partner organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The request was made to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) by LifeSiteNews, an online news organization that has published a series of articles over the past 18 months alleging links between Development and Peace-funded partners and pro-abortion lobbying in Mexico, Bolivia, South Africa and Nigeria. Development and Peace has denied those allegations and an investigation into five of its Mexican partners by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops cleared the Catholic aid agency of wrongdoing while also warning it to be more prudent in selecting its partners. LifeSite called that investigation “deeply flawed.”
Margaret Somerville [images/stories/canada_people/SomervilleJanet.jpg]OTTAWA - International pro-euthanasia forces see Quebec as a vulnerable beachhead for legalizing euthanasia in Canada and then spreading across North America, warns Margaret Somerville. Somerville, founding director of McGill’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, and others are keeping an eye on Quebec, where a legislative committee is holding public hearings on euthanasia.
It’s always a toss-up as to what makes the most headlines and grabs the most attention and a bit confusing when fundamental issues go missing in the mix. The Vatican Bank (Institute For Works of Religion as it is more formally known) story caught everyone by surprise when it broke late last week. Most major media outlets couldn’t resist the temptation to somehow link the freezing of Vatican accounts with the Clerical Sex abuse scandal. But while the cheap shot is simple the actual story about what is or isn’t going on at the bank is truly confusing. The Financial Times tried to put it all in some context but ends up with more speculation and some potted history. Granted the Bank has always confused people, even its Wikipedia entry is “disputed”, and proven the source and inspiration of a great deal of conspiracy thinking and novelistic thriller writing. What seems clear from veteran Vatican Watchers in the United States like David Gibson or John Allen is that all the evidence seems to suggest that the Bank, under the new leadership of Ettore Tedeschi is actually shaping up into a modern financial institution while avoiding some of the major mistakes so-called modern institutions have been guilty of over the past couple of years. Pope Benedict XVI has gone on record supporting Tedeschi’s work, which only stands to reason given Tedeschi’s status as a moral thinker and the author of a well-regarded commentary on Benedict’s Encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Ettore Tedeschi, and others, see much of the controversy as originating in other agendas, ones hostile to the Vatican generally. The bolt out of the blue from the Ontario Superior Court striking down Canada’s prostitution laws has everyone shaking their heads. The Government announced an appeal but some thoughtful critics are calling for something more. This is an issue the Church has been out front of for some time now, with its persistent calls for a strategic effort to putting an end to Human Trafficking. It is ironic that while the media can obsess on what is seen in secular circles as the Church’s out-dated attitudes towards sex. But on an issue like human trafficking, which is at the heart of a great deal of prostitution, the Church’s leadership is ignored. Margaret Somerville’s observations in the Catholic Register on the ‘targeting’ of Quebec as the next front in the Euthanasia movement is only unusual given the relatively little sustained coverage the story is receiving anywhere. When the current round of public hearings inquiring into changing the laws on assisted suicide and euthanasia began there was a flurry of attention but moral issues often slide by the wayside as ‘more pressing’ matters such as the machinations of Parliament or MacLean’s magazine’ cover story on corruption in Quebec push aside what maybe the fundamental issue of our time. Somerville isn't the only voice being raised on the issue, but she is one of the more consistent.
September 30, 2010
maternal health [images/stories/canada/canada10/maternalhealth_can.jpg]With much fanfare a decade ago, international leaders unveiled a noble 15-year blueprint to reduce world suffering. The ambitious plan, named Millennium Development Goals, heralded significant reduction in poverty and hunger, expansion of primary education and gender equality, investment in child and maternal health and HIV/AIDS, and achievement of environmental sustainability. It was a bold undertaking launched before 9/11 sent many richer nations to war and before international financiers sent the world into recession. Without those crises, the challenge was daunting. With them, it became Herculean.
Not long ago I was invited, along with half a dozen other men, to debate the proposition: “Resolved: That agnosticism is the only honest religious position.” It was an old-fashioned evening — shades of the 1860 debate between Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley when Huxley said he would rather be descended from an ape than from a bishop (alas, an often sympathetic position) — but it was enjoyable all the same. Afterwards, one participant remarked: “I didn’t know people met to discuss serious questions.” Each participant got five minutes to state his position without interruption. When all had finished, everyone could intervene freely to probe or comment upon what others had said. Then followed a free-for-all discussion. The format worked well. After precisely two hours, we shut off debate, had a cup of tea, and departed into the night. I contended that the proposition that agnosticism is the only honest religious position, while useful to provoke discussion, suffered three basic flaws: it is an oxymoron; it is contrary to human experience and therefore likely to be false; and it is a placebo for the spiritually timid. The Oxford English Dictionary defines agnosticism as the belief that nothing beyond material phenomena can possibly be known. Given that definition, the proposition is an oxymoron. It refutes itself. If nothing about religion can reliably be known, then it cannot be known whether anything about religion can reliably be known. If it is impossible to decide the truth or falsity of religious claims, then it is impossible to decide whether agnosticism is a preferable religious claim to even the narrowest or most fanatical religious prejudice.
It used to be the only news. Apparently it is now old news. But there was something new when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain. The issue is sexual abuse by priests. In the run up to the papal visit to the United States in April 2008, it dominated the commentary. What would the Pope do? What would the Pope say? The Holy Father addressed the issue forthrightly on the plane en route, spoke about it a half dozen times in his formal addresses, and then met with a group of victims in a private, prayerful and emotional meeting. He did the same thing in Australia later that summer. His approach was well received by most.
Toronto mayoral hopeful Rob Ford first appeared on my political radar screen late last spring, when I chaired an all-candidates meeting on the topic of architecture and urban design. Held at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the session was sponsored by the Pug Awards people, who celebrate artistic achievement in our city’s built form. Ford’s performance that evening was remarkable. While the other candidates at least took stabs at the questions I asked about urban planning and the quality of the city’s architectural environment, Ford ignored both the questions and every attempt on my part to get him to answer them. Instead, he relentlessly repeated the mantra that has characterized his whole campaign: cut costs, cut staff, cut the size of city council — cut, cut, cut.
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Oct. 10 (2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19) What happens when your hated enemy comes asking for help? Naaman the Syrian was a foreigner and non-Israelite as well as the commander of the enemy army — not much to commend himself to Elisha. There was more than enough reason to reject his request for healing of his leprosy.
“It’s hard getting to church in the city,” a man remarked. “By the time you’ve finished judging everybody you see on the subway, you’re not really in the frame of mind for church.” Why is it so difficult for us to stop judging? Even becoming aware we’re doing it is a task-and-a-half. The subway man may be readier for church than most of us, since he at least sees that he’s judging.
Father Patrick Desbois [images/stories/features/feature10/desbois1.jpg]TORONTO - On TV serious, scientific crime scene investigators appear within hours of a murder to gather minute, detailed evidence. Fr. Patrick Desbois of France and his team of micro-historians show up three generations after 1.5-million murders committed by Nazi Einsatzgruppen soldiers to piece together precisely who was killed, when, how and by whom. “Each time when we land in Belarus or Ukraine or Russia I tell my team, ‘They are waiting for us,’ ” Desbois said in an interview from Paris. “Very frequently people ask me, ‘Father, why do you come so late?’ ”
Sr. Anicetus, CSJ [images/stories/education/education10/sister_anicetus1956.jpg]TORONTO - Maureen Curtis has fond memories as a St. Clare Elementary School student and will be celebrating and reminiscing with other alumni on the school’s legacy of faith and formation over its 100-year history. The school marks its 100th anniversary this year with an Open House and a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Clare Church celebrated by Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins on Sept. 29. There was also a school blessing and the unveiling of a new statue of St. Clare at the school. And an archival display of St. Clare’s history since it opened in September 1910, including school and class photos, was to be featured. An alumni reunion was planned for Oct. 2.
Padre Pio Woodbridge [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/padre_pio_keys.jpg]WOODBRIDGE, Ont. - A humble Franciscan from a little town in southern Italy had them singing and dancing in the aisles in Woodbridge Sept. 23. The overcapacity crowd that came out to greet three relics of St. Padre Pio and inaugurate a new church named after the 20th-century Italian saint broke out in frequent applause as Archbishop Thomas Collins baptized their new church.