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November 25, 2010
Archbishop Martin Curries [images/stories/canada_bishops/currie.jpg]TORONTO - Despite the challenges of an aging population, high unemployment and Newfoundland’s Catholic Church recovering from a painful chapter in its history, Archbishop Martin Currie of St. John’s and of Grand Falls, Nfld., says there is an opportunity to evangelize communities in a province with deep Catholic roots. “I believe with all that has gone on in the Church, in some way it’s part of the mystery of God. God is trying to purify the Church,” said Currie, who has served as a bishop for 10 years and 42 years as a priest.
Jenny Cafiso [images/stories/education/education10/cafiso.jpg]TORONTO - Promoting the option for the poor and working for justice go hand-in-hand with the Gospel values that students are learning at Catholic schools, says Jenny Cafiso, director of Canadian Jesuits International. And the United Nations, a forum of diverse nations, beliefs and ideas, is precisely the place where Catholics should be making their voices heard on behalf of the marginalized, she said.
Green Churches [images/stories/canada/canada10/greenchurch.jpg]TORONTO - More help is being offered to churches that want to do something about climate change. The Montreal-based Canadian Centre for Ecumenism has launched the Green Church program to advise churches on ways to reduce their carbon footprint and lower heating bills. Joined with Toronto-based Greening Sacred Spaces, Green Church will offer certification to churches that achieve a high level of environmental awareness and act on it starting in April 2011.
landolt hughs [images/stories/canada/canada10/landolt_hughs.jpg]OTTAWA - Pro-family groups are raising alarms about a bill before Parliament that would give expanded rights to transgendered and transsexuals. They argue it could expose businesses, schools and religious groups to a host of new human rights complaints that trample on their religious freedom and freedom of expression. “Our government has come one step closer to passing the ultra-radical, private members’ Bill C-389,” warned Campaign Life Coalition Nov. 5 shortly after NDP MP Bill Siksay’s bill passed through the Justice Committee by a 9-2 vote. “If passed, it would add ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression’ as a protected class within the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.”
Light of the world [images/stories/books/1586176064.jpg]VATICAN CITY - The use of condoms may be a sign of moral responsibility and acceptable in some specific situations when the intention is to reduce the risk of AIDS, said Pope Benedict XVI in a new book. The Pope addressed the issue in the book-length interview, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times. He indicated that condom use in a heterosexual relation is a lesser evil than transmitting disease.
Tony Blair, the most famous catholic convert of recent years, takes the stage with/against Christopher Hitchens, the most famous of anti-religion polemicists of recent years, before a sold out crowd in Toronto on Friday evening. “Be It Resolved Religion is A Force For Good in The World” is another provocative outing for the Munk Debate series. The Munk Debate organizers have a talent for combining hot button topics with even hotter button personalities. Blair, famous for his acceptance that in politics “We Don’t Do God”, converted to Catholicism almost as fast as a plane can get from London to Rome, and has since 2008 been a roving ambassador for the value of religion. Christopher Hitchens loves to ‘do religion’ and has taken on every one from Mother Teresa through to Mohammed in his effort to blame all the misery in the world on religion. It has been a much-anticipated match since it was first announced in October and as the event approaches, the anticipation is growing. The British newspaper The Guardian couldn’t wait for the actual to and fro and even speculated 6 weeks in advance what the night might be like. The tone, the content is funny, hints at the event as spectacle. A legitimate point of view and the sense of most of the anticipatory coverage is akin to that which might accompany a world champion prizefight. On the other hand Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes in the Independent that both sides, belief and scepticism deserve “better champions than these two”. Alibhai-Brown has a point. This is a serious debate, one working its way through a lot of different forums and touching on politics, science, medicine and even the simple accommodation of one another in society. There are important issues about truth and meaning at stake, issues unlikely to be explored deeply while trading barbs and one-liners. And there is the difficulty that this outing has a sense to it of special pleading in that both combatants are focused on religion. Let’s hope there’s a sense throughout the debate that it isn’t only Religion that needs to justify itself as a force for good. Even though you can’t get a ticket, well you can from scalpers on Craigslist for 500 dollars, you can sign up for a live feed of the debate for 5 dollars or if you want to go cheap, you can take the twitter feed being promised by the Blair people. Odds are if you opt for a Blairite tweet you might be getting a one-sided perspective. Next time out on The Scroller, catching up with the fall-out from a Pope speaking candidly and an assessment of the Great Debate.
November 26, 2010
Light of the world [images/stories/books/1586176064.jpg]VATICAN CITY - In the middle of Pope Benedict XVI's new book is a story about a hat, and it sheds light on the trials and tribulations of the modern papacy. The book's interviewer, German journalist Peter Seewald, recalled a public appearance one winter day when the Pope donned the "camauro," a red velvet cap trimmed with ermine that was last worn by Pope John XXIII. Seewald suggested this was one of those subtle signals that marked a return to the old ways of the Church.
November 29, 2010
Archbishop Collins [images/stories/canada_bishops/collinsvigil.jpg]TORONTO - The only sound to be heard at a vigil for the unborn at an otherwise silent St. Michael’s Cathedral was the cry of an infant. This child’s parents had chosen life. On Nov. 27, a crowd gathered at St. Michael’s Cathedral for the worldwide Prayer Vigil for All Nascent Human Life at the request of Pope Benedict XVI. It was one of countless parishes, homes and religious communities across the globe that stopped to pray and reflect on the sanctity of all human life. The service marked the eve of the new liturgical year and the Advent season, a season of expectation, according to Archbishop Thomas Collins, who presided over the vigil at St. Michael’s. The time we await Jesus, he said, is much like the time we await the coming of any child. “This time of expectancy is also a time of vulnerability,” said Collins.