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December 10, 2010
TCDSB Logo [images/stories/schoolB_logos/TCDSBLogo.jpg]TORONTO - On the heels of a $2-million budget surplus, the Toronto Catholic District School Board should soon be out of supervision, provincially appointed supervisor Richard Alway announced at the board's inaugural meeting Dec. 8. Alway said having a balanced budget is one of the steps that will kick-start the return of decision-making powers to the elected members of the board, which has been under provincial supervision since 2009. He added that he would soon be submitting a report to Ontario's education minister to recommend that local powers to be restored to the board. This could happen as early as January, he said.
December 12, 2010
Given the size of the cache of documents that Wikileaks promised to release on the world, it was inevitable that The Vatican’s day would come and come it has. Needless to say, the copies of cables between Embassy and Home Country touch on just about every possible issue confounding the Church: reaction on the part of the curia to the Irish Sex Scandal gets serious mention; Benedict’s, or rather Cardinal Ratzinger’s, concerns about the possibility of Turkey joining the European Union; the continuing hints of anti-Semitism within Church ranks; the enticement of Anglicans to join Rome, climate change, even the style and content of the Church’s communications strategy was the subject of some cables. John Allen jr. in the National Catholic Reporter elaborates on the full extent of the issues mentioned in the cables. Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register notes that not much of what is released in and of itself is a surprise. Paul Moses of Commonweal Magazine shares Pentin’s sense that the cables are not too surprising but delves further into the issue of the Vatican’s communication style, or lack thereof. The Vatican acknowledged the publication of the cables with simple; some might say elegant, minimalism all the while advising people to treat the cables with prudence. And of course the Pope and the Church are not alone in trying to work out exactly how to respond to this unprecedented exercise in ‘whistle blowing”. Michael Cook at Mercator tries to work through some of the twists and turns that Wikileaks is causing for everyone, concluding ultimately that the impact is pernicious, though if you scroll down the comments section it becomes clear that his opinion is not universally shared. Margaret Somerville of McGill tries a similar ethical examination and admits she “finds herself agreeing with Hilary Clinton”.
December 16, 2010
nativity [images/stories/misc/xmas/nativity1.jpg]Every December the media runs stories on corporations or individuals who deliver bah-humbugs regarding the religious truth of Christmas. And without fail many Christians take the bait and allow anger and frustration to dilute their sense of peace and goodwill of the season. As an example, this year a billboard battle has erupted on either side of the Lincoln tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City. On one side, a group calling itself American Atheists purchased space to declare: “You Know it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.” Across the river, the Catholic League responded with a billboard that proclaims: “You Know it’s Real. This season, Celebrate Jesus.”
wikileaks [images/stories/international/international10/wikileaks.jpg]VATICAN CITY - A spate of U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks portray the Vatican as horrified over clerical sex abuse in Ireland but also deeply concerned that the procedures used by Irish investigators of the scandal were “an affront to Vatican sovereignty.” The cables, released Dec. 10-12, touched on a wide range of issues, from the Vatican’s efforts to deal with leftist governments in Latin America to its recent moves to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the Catholic Church.
Michael Ignatieff [images/stories/canada/canada10/ignatieff.jpg]OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff stunned many pro-family Catholics when he threw his support behind the so-called transgender “bathroom” bill now before the House of Commons. Party leaders do not generally vote for private members’ business, but Ignatieff rose to vote “Yea” for Bill C-389, which passed report stage 143-136 on Dec. 8. “Well, you know, we’re the party of the charter,” Ignatieff told journalists afterwards.
St. Brother Andre School [images/stories/education/education10/andreschool2.jpg]MARKHAM, Ont. - Brother André High School in Markham has officially added “St.” to its name. It’s the first school in the archdiocese of Toronto to officially change its name by adding the “St.” designation since the Quebec-born saint’s Oct. 17 canonization. The school is working with the board to change its name on the school building as well as developing a new school logo, said interim principal Peter Bahen.
athiest poster [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/poster2.jpg]TORONTO - The new ad campaign from the atheist group behind last year’s “there’s probably no God” campaign suggests that Christ and Allah have the same amount of credibility as UFOs, Big Foot, psychics, Zeus and homeopathy. “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence” reads the new campaign poster set to run on TTC vehicles in Toronto. While the ads are still pending approval, they are expected to make their debut on streetcars in January, said Justin Trottier, national executive director of the Centre for Inquiry, the group behind the campaign. If all goes according to plan, Trottier said the ads will then run in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal. “Broadening our focus from just God, we’ll now call for skepticism and rational inquiry into any conceivable extraordinary claim,” said Trottier.
magi [images/stories/misc/xmas/magi.jpg]We weren’t sure what to expect when we launched our Poems of Christmas contest. But three dozen readers took the time to send us rhyme, and what splendid creativity poured forth from the nativity. Entries were received from the young and the old, and we had one wonderful entry from a 66-year-old woman who forwarded a poem written when she was 17. Every entry stayed true to the example of Msgr. Tom Raby, the former Register columnist whose annual Christmas poem was the inspiration for this contest, by focussing on the peace and joy of the true meaning of Christmas.
You know how NORAD every year does the fake alert about incoming flying objects that instead of bombers and missiles from Russia turn out to be a sleigh and 8 reindeer and we all chuckle? Well Christmas and Nuclear Weapons are linking up in a slightly more serious vein this year. We may all think that the threat of Nuclear War is a dim nightmare from the 1980s and that our biggest concerns are rogue states such as North Korea and Iran but the reality is that the world is filled with weapons of mass destruction despite President Barack Obama’s declaration that he wants to see a world without the bomb. Earlier this year on the 65th Anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Pope said the “experience in Japan should remind the world of the need to find political solutions to international problems, and of the need to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.” All of the moral and strategic arguments about Nuclear War have landed in the United States Senate this week as debate over the START treaty got underway. The U.S. Bishops and most of America’s leading Evangelical clerics have long been onside with the idea of getting the START Treaty in place. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the USCCB put the Catholic case starkly “Nuclear war is rejected in Church teaching because nuclear weapons cannot insure non-combatant immunity and their awesome destructive power and lingering radiation cannot be meaningfully proportionate” and Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals was equally blunt “In the long and tragic history of human warfare the nuclear weapon occupies a singular position due to the scope and scale of its terrible and indiscriminate power to destroy human life. Evangelicals strongly believe in the sanctity of life.” Opponents of the new START treaty engaged in what might be the ultimate in chutzpah when they objected to making the Senate work during the Christmas Break alleging that to do so was to violate the true meaning of Christmas. Religious Leaders were not amused. Stephen Schneck, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America lashed out at the Senators saying “Working men and women are at their jobs in this holy season---before Christmas, after Christmas, and for some even on Christmas Day. I'm convinced the Christ Child specially blesses those first responders, military personnel, health care providers, and other emergency workers who spend His birthday in service to others. Senators, truly honor Christians. Stay at your desks until this work to which you have been called is resolved”. By Thursday debate was underway, it remains to be seen whether the Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals will get their Christmas present.
December 17, 2010
Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge [images/stories/canada/canada10/bruinooge.jpg]OTTAWA - Roxanne’s Law may have gone down to defeat, but Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge sees signs a version of his anti-abortion coercion bill might succeed some day. “I was not too disappointed,” said Bruinooge, who chairs the Parliamentary Pro-life Caucus, after the 178-97 defeat Dec. 15 of Bill C-510. Roxanne’s Law would make it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion. It was named for a constituent in Bruinooge's Winnipeg riding who was beaten with a hockey stick by three men and left to die in a snow bank because she refused to have an abortion. Bruinooge said he “learned a lot about Canada” in telling her story, which also attracted international interest.
haiti camp [images/stories/international/international10/haiti0710.jpg]MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Amid the sights and smells of death and tragedy, volunteers from the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board found hope and resilience in the people they met in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Maria Masucci told The Catholic Register that the volunteer trips by a team of teachers, university students, plus a doctor and dentist from Woodbridge’s St. Peter’s parish to Haiti in April and then again in July were inspired by the Gospel of Matthew about feeding and clothing the poor, welcoming strangers and visiting prisoners. They were helping in the aftermath of the January earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left millions homeless.
What time is midnight Mass? It’s the season for that question, and the answer is not predictable. Over more than a generation, we Catholics have fumbled away one of our most distinctive customs. Indeed, the Christmas Mass schedule has become something rather different than what the Church intends, and what our tradition refined over centuries.
This Christmas Eve, that most magical of times, I will fall to my knees at church and thank God for the birth of His Son. Why? The numerous and compelling arguments for the truth of Christianity, the evidence of the early Church, the eyewitness accounts from neutral or even hostile sources, the indisputable logic offered by an Aquinas or a Newman, the ever-increasing tangible proof from archeological digs and the simple evaporation of liberal and secular objections that were once taken seriously.
’Tis the season for Christmas-themed articles, and my editors have hinted that I should write about “Christmas in Scotland.” This just goes to show how sentimental Canadians are about Scotland, since in reality Christmas festivities were frowned on by the Scots Protestant population from about 1550 to 1950. For 400 years, Christmas was seen by most Scots as a suspiciously Catholic thing, and why American design magazines wrap their Christmas trees in Stewart tartan ribbon is anyone’s guess.
Holy Family (Year A) Dec. 26 (Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14; Psalm 128; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23) Years ago a Catholic theologian wrote of one of his first lessons in humility and gratitude for his parents. After leaving home for the monastery, his first letters home were filled with a sort of youthful and self-righteous zeal. He related to his father the routine of rising several times in the middle of the night for prayer while the rest of the world slept. His father’s sage response: Son, your mother and I did that with you and your siblings for years!
With the countdown on until Christmas Day and pressure to buy the perfect gift for friends and family in full swing, it can be easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas. But we must realize finding the true meaning of Christmas can only be done through rejection of materialism. Western culture has inherited a slew of ideas from folklore, ultimately adopted by North Americans through mass media influences.
December 22, 2010
Sr. Gwen Smith [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/sr_gwensmith.jpg]TORONTO - With Christmas coming, it’s socks, not Christmas stockings, that the Sisters of St. Joseph are hoping will come by way of gifts for people living on the streets. “On Holy Thursday, when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and said, ‘Do likewise,’ it’s always a privilege for us to do that. It reminds us of who we’re called to be,” said Sr. Gwen Smith, director at Mustard Seed, the Sisters’ ministry to help the homeless and individuals at risk.
Anthony Camilleri [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/camilleribest.jpg]TORONTO - There’s no mention of a donkey loaded with pomegranates, windmills or a group of musicians playing the zaqq, the tanbur and the safzava in Gospel stories of the birth of Jesus. But for the Maltese it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them. Traditional Maltese Christmas nativity scenes, called presepju, contain all these Maltese elements and more. At Toronto’s Maltese parish, St. Paul the Apostle, the Maltese tradition is on display in a big way.
dina fatohi [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/dinafatohi.jpg]MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - It will likely not be a silent night at the Fatohi household this Christmas, but it is expected to be a memorable one. A year after coming to Canada to flee persecution in Iraq, Dina and Fawaz Fatohi, and St. Dominic’s parish which sponsored them, are expecting an early Christmas present: the birth of the family’s first son, who will be named David.
Christina Panzini [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/panzini3.jpg]TORONTO - This Christmas, Christina Panzini is going to be making Christmas gifts for her grandparents using the nicest beads she can find. But she won’t be making bracelets or necklaces. This year, Panzini will be making homemade rosaries. “I never know what to buy my grandparents and I want to give them things that are sentimental,” she said. “Something they’ll use and appreciate.” Panzini, a third-year geography student at York University, said it’s easy to make beautiful rosaries at reasonable prices. She buys all materials at art supply stores, like Michaels, which stock all the required parts.