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June 2011

June 8

First phase of Irish Church visitation concluded

June 8, 2011

ROME - Vatican representatives have completed the first phase of an investigation of major Catholic institutions in Ireland, ordered by Pope Benedict XVI to examine the response of Irish Church authorities to the clerical sex abuse scandal. A statement from the Vatican press office June 6 said that apostolic visitators to four metropolitan dioceses, as well as seminaries and religious institutes, had turned over their reports to the competent Vatican agencies. Among the visitators were Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins and Ottawa’s Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. In the coming months, the statement said, bishops and leaders of religious orders will receive notices on what they should be doing “for the spiritual renewal” of the Irish Church. The visitation was announced by Pope Benedict in March 2010 in a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics after an independent report showed widespread and historic abuse of minors on the part of Church figures in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. The report accused authorities of covering up and enabling a “culture of secrecy” regarding the problem.

A Christian journey into our universe

June 8, 2011

TORONTO - Science and religion were never at war for the creators of Journey of the Universe, a film that will hit its first Canadian audience June 15. The documentary film, co-written by religious historian Mary Evelyn Tucker and evolutionary philosopher Brian Thomas Swimme, is rooted in the work and ideas of cosmologist and Passionist Father Thomas Berry. It tells the story of the universe over 14 billion years, Tucker explains, integrating “the best discoveries of modern science with human history, art, philosophy and religion.” “Where do we come from and why are we here? This film tries to address these questions,” said Tucker, who will accompany her film at its Canadian premiere, hosted by the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. Journey of the Universe opens with Swimme, the film’s host and narrator, on the Greek island of Samos. As Swimme travels the island, he guides the audience through time and space — using vivid footage of the natural world and beyond — from the beginning of the universe until now.

Pope promotes family on Croatian visit

June 8, 2011

ZAGREB, Croatia - Pope Benedict XVI used his apostolic journey to the Croatian capital to encourage nations to build their communities on Christian values and to support the traditional family and the sanctity of life. A culture guided by truth, reason and love not only will lead to peace, justice and solidarity, the community's very survival is dependent on such transcendent values, he said during his brief two-day pilgrimage June 4-5. If religion, ethics and a moral conscience are banished from informing the public realm, "then the crisis of the West has no remedy and Europe is destined to collapse in on itself" and risk falling prey to every form of tyranny, he said in an audience with Croatia's political, religious, cultural, business and academic representatives. Free and just democracies thrive when citizens' consciences have been formed by love and Christianity's "logic of gift" in which the good of the whole human family is sought after, not narrow self-interests, the Pope said June 4 in Zagreb's ornate Croatian National Theatre.

Notice to Subscribers

June 8, 2011

Postal workers have begun a series of rotating strikes after rejecting last-minute contract proposals by Canada Post. [images/stories/canada/canada11/postalstrikescanada.jpg]Despite the launch of rotating strikes by Canada Post workers, The Catholic Register will continue to publish and deliver papers via the mail unless there is a full work stoppage. However, as negotiations continue between Canada Post and its workers, disruptions in postal service could affect timely delivery of The Register. We regret the inconvenience to our readers and advertisers caused by Canada Post's labour unrest, and we thank you for your patience. The Register relies on Canada Post to deliver more than 90 per cent of its papers each week to homes and churches across Canada. If there is a full strike, The Register will extend the subscription term of its paying subscribers in order to compensate for any papers lost due to a strike. For example, if a strike causes two issues of The Register to be cancelled, we would add two weeks to each up-to-date subscription. We are monitoring the situation closely. Please return to this page for updates or send questions to [email protected].

Taking the high road

June 8, 2011

An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. If you do something good for me, I will return the favour. But if you harm me, then I will harm you back. Should the goodness of our actions depend primarily on how others treat us? The all-too-common act of revenge in society, which lives this expression out literally, seems to answer in the affirmative. But as young Catholics, we must be wary of such desires for vengeance. Revenge focuses on punishing others — making them “pay” for their actions. It is commonplace in society, but because it is rooted in hatred aimed at punishing another person, it is contradictory to Church teaching and tradition. In seeking revenge, the avenger becomes the judge and determines the punishment. Some examples are more extreme than others, such as capital punishment and murder for vengeance, such as the recent killing of Osama bin Laden. Hatred is often a feeling that arises towards those individuals who commit atrocious acts in the world. As a response, revenge is pursued to quench the hatred, and supposedly, achieve justice.

Jesuits welcome two new priests

June 8, 2011

TORONTO - When Canada’s first Jesuits, Frs. Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé, arrived 400 years ago, the ship they were sailing was called the Grace of God. As William Mbugua and Michael Knox were ordained by Ottawa’s Jesuit Archbishop Terrence Prendergast June 4, the two new Jesuit priests found themselves in the same boat. Prendergast called the two young priests “Fresh hope for the mission of the Jesuits today.” With dozens of Jesuits present from all over North America, Knox and Mbugua stood up and lay down for the same ordination. But they came from vastly different starting places. Toronto boy Knox entered the novitiate in 1997 at 18, straight out of Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts. Mbugua started off in small-town Kenya and worked his way to the University of Manitoba where his encounter with Canadian Jesuits changed his life.

Pro-life activist Gibbons freed

June 8, 2011

TORONTO - After more than two years in prison, long-time pro-life activist Linda Gibbons was freed on June 3. The 62-year-old great grandmother was in jail for the past 28 months for picketing a Toronto abortion clinic and violating a nearly two decades-old court injunction. Gibbons was set free after Ontario Court Justice Mara Beth Greene granted her lawyer’s application requesting that she be released without conditions. She was issued a summons to attend court on Jan. 15, 2012. Gibbons has always refused to sign a bail condition that orders her to abide by a 1994 temporary injunction barring pro-life activists from picketing, sidewalk counselling and interfering with access to abortion services or the “economic interests” of downtown Toronto clinics. But Gibbons has chosen to disobey by peacefully picketing outside abortion clinics. This has led to her 20 arrests for various Criminal Code offences leading to her spending 10 of the past 17 years in jail.

OECTA choice ‘undermines’ Catholics

June 8, 2011

TORONTO - Campaign Life Coalition says the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association’s choice of prominent gay rights advocate Ilana Landsberg-Lewis to speak at its upcoming conference is “outrageous” and “undermines” Catholic values. Landsberg-Lewis will be one of the guest speakers at OECTA’s “Common Good Conference: The Soul of Teaching — Changing the Human Condition” which runs July 6 to 8 in Toronto. She is the executive director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation and daughter of Stephen Lewis, a former UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and a renowned abortion advocate. Landsberg-Lewis is not an appropriate speaker at a Catholic teachers’ conference because her views on abortion and same-sex marriage reject core Catholic teachings, said Jim Hughes, Campaign Life president. “Every time one of the Lewises shows up, it undermines who we are as Catholics. There are many other speakers who can speak up on other positive topics that don’t outrage Catholic parents,” said Hughes. “This is another example of why Catholic parents feel they are being undermined by the Catholic teachers.”

Small budget changes could have big social impact say critics

June 8, 2011

OTTAWA — The June 3 Throne Speech reiterates modest campaign promises and the June 6 budget is virtually identical to the budget tabled Mar. 22. However, these little changes could have a huge impact on Canadian society, observers say. Though the 400-page budget document emphasizes stability, a think tank concerned about a flourishing civil society says the Conservative government is “preparing for a coming storm in Canadian politics: one which they intend to shape and survive.” That storm involves the aging of Canadian society that will see 2.5 workers for every retiree, up from the present 4.7 workers per retiree; a coming health care crunch that has not been publicly addressed; and the ways an increased free trade environment might hurt some sectors of the economy, Cardus warns. “The increased emphasis on expenditure review and the advanced targets for returning to surplus are just two indicators that this budget is really about battening down the hatches and rolling out the foundations for shaping tomorrow’s social architecture,” said an analysis by Cardus, a think tank that now incorporates the former Centre for Culture Renewal.

June 9

Pope calls for reform in Syria, promotes clean energy to protect nature

June 9, 2011

Syrian children and women arrive in Dabbabieh, in northern Lebanon. Civil strife and unrest has left hundreds of people dead in Syria. [images/stories/PopeBenedictXVI/Pope11/pope_syria.jpg]VATICAN CITY - The civilian unrest ripping through Syria and other Arab countries is a sign that people want a better future, Pope Benedict XVI told Syria's new ambassador to the Vatican. "These events also demonstrate the urgent need for genuine reforms in political, economic and social life," he said in a written address June 9 to Hussan Edin Aala, the new ambassador. Reform and social progress, however, must not be brought about through actions that are discriminatory, intolerant or violent, but must be achieved in ways that respect the rights and dignity of all individuals and communities as well as respect truth and peaceful coexistence, the pope said. Government authorities should be guided by such principles and take into account the hopes and needs of their citizens as well as international mandates, he added.

June 10

Pope to get manga comic treatment in time for WYD

June 10, 2011

WASHINGTON - Move over, Spider-Man. Here come some new comic-book heroes. Among this new breed of heroes are Pope Benedict XVI, St. Paul and Old Testament figure Judith. They are the stars of comic books done in a style older generations never saw in the comic-book rack at the neighborhood drugstore growing up. The genre is called manga, a Japanese genre of cartoons and comic books, and Jonathan Lin, who runs Manga Hero, may well be the world's only publisher of Catholic manga comics. A 32-page Pope Benedict manga comic will be distributed in August during World Youth Day in Madrid. Lin said he expects to have 300,000 copies produced in Spain to meet demand. He hopes it will whet World Youth Day participants' appetites for a longer Pope Benedict manga to be produced this fall in the United States.

Toronto Archbishop Zora to lead new Chaldean eparchy

June 10, 2011

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has erected a new Chaldean Catholic eparchy in Toronto and named Archbishop Hanna Zora, who has worked with Catholics in Toronto for nearly 20 years, as its head. The new eparchy, or diocese, will be known as the Eparchy of Mar Addai. In making the announcement, the Vatican said there are 38,000 Chaldean Catholics in Canada. Archbishop Zora, 74, and four priests have been involved in the pastoral care of Toronto-area Catholics, the largest community. On May 28, Chaldean Catholic officials consecrated Good Shepherd Chaldean Church in Toronto.

June 11

Exploring Harry Potter’s ethics

June 11, 2011

The Harry Potter series, both the film (above with Daniel Radcliffe as Harry and Gary Oldman as Sirius Black) and the books, are being studied in an ethics course at Saint Paul University. [images/stories/features/freature11/harrypotterethics.jpg]Is Harry Potter a good person? That depends on which ethical theory you use to examine his character and actions, said Iva Apostolova, professor of The Ethics of Harry Potter, a new course being offered at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. From June 1 to 29, the philosophy course is giving students at the Catholic and bilingual university an understanding of different ethical theories by situating them in the context of the Harry Potter series. The course runs in the lead up to the final movie instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which hits theatres July 15. “Aristotle — which is virtue ethics — is the theory that fits perfectly for Harry Potter because it is all about courage, ambition and happiness,” said Apostolova. “It is all about virtues in the books.” This is the first time the course is being offered at the university. And with 16 students enrolled in the class, it’s quite a large class size for the university, said Apostolova.

Pope meets Gypsies, urges end to prejudice, oppression, rejection

June 11, 2011

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI prayed that the world's Gypsies no longer be subjected to prejudice, oppression and rejection. Gypsies should always uphold "justice, legality, reconciliation and strive to never be the cause of someone else's suffering," he said in a festive meeting with nearly 2,000 Gypsies, Roma, Sinti and Travellers in the Vatican's Paul VI hall June 11. Pope Benedict recalled the painful past of the Gypsies, especially when hundreds of thousands of men, women and children "were barbarically killed in extermination camps" during World War II. He acknowledged that even today, many Gypsy communities and individuals still face "serious and worrying problems, such as often-difficult relations with the societies in which they live."

June 12

A modern-day Superstar

June 12, 2011

Paul Nolan stars as Jesus in the Stratford Festival’s presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar. (Photo by David Hou) [images/stories/arts/arts11/superstarstratford2.jpg]STRATFORD, Ont. - Forty years on we might suppose Jesus Christ Superstar has slipped into our culture’s vast pool of nostalgia — another thing to be revived by and for the generation with money and memories to spare. For the first third of a preview performance of the Stratford Festival’s new production of Jesus Christ Superstar there’s a hint of that sort of cynical, money-spinning spectacle. It rushes through hit songs with the overbearing efficiency of a K-tel commercial. The clockwork efficiency gets an injection of life when Lee Siegel emerges as Simon Zealotes to tempt Jesus into political power and guerrilla war. Suddenly the production has a pulse and passion. Siegel sings with genuine rock’n’roll intensity, excitement and energy. From this moment forward, the Stratford Jesus Christ Superstar has something new to say.

June 14

Evangelize with courage, conviction, joy, pope says

June 14, 2011

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said that a proper transmission of the faith to the young or the uninitiated depends on a solid grounding of the basics of Catholic formation -- baptism, first Communion and catechism. Pope Benedict XVI told participants of a diocesan conference in Rome June 13 to not be afraid of their duty as Christians to evangelize and to pass on the word of God "with courage, with conviction, with joy." Speaking from Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran, the pope called for renewed efforts for evangelization, which he said, "is not the duty of a few, but of all the members of the church." Special attention should be given to the education of children, adults who have not been baptized and those who have left the church, he said.

Aboriginal anguish

June 14, 2011

For Canada’s First Nations people, last week’s auditor-general’s report must evoke deja vu. In her farewell report to Parliament, outgoing auditor-general Sheila Fraser took the government to task for repeated and ongoing failure to address numerous barriers preventing First Nations people from sharing in Canada’s prosperity. It is Canada’s shame that so many native people live without such basic needs as a warm home and safe water. The auditor general itemized what previous reports had said about the failure of successive governments to improve living standards on native reserves. Yet these observations barely made the news. The headlines went to the splashier findings about outrageous expenditures from last year’s G8/G20 summits and, in particular, excessive spending in the Parry Sound-Muskoka riding of Conservative cabinet minister Tony Clement. As the new Treasury Board president, Clement is expected to introduce spending efficiency to a cash-strapped government. Today, that seems a bit rich. Clement was rebuked by the auditor general for blowing some $45 million tax dollars in his riding, using funds approved for border security on local projects without proper oversight or an appropriate paper trail. While he was authorizing gazebos and other projects in Ontario’s cottage country, First Nations people were living in mould-infested homes, boiling drinking water to avoid disease and sending children to ramshackle schools.

Finding nourishment through Christ

June 14, 2011

Body and Blood of Christ (Year A) June 26 (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-59) Faith and trust are not all that difficult when all is well and everything is in harmony with our desires. It is easy for people to praise God and pledge devoted service even as they continue to do things their own way. But when everything collapses and the going gets tough it is a different story. Faith — or what passes for it — evaporates as cynicism, fear and doubt take command. God wanted to cure the Israelites of human game-playing and conditional faith. The people were led into an extremely hostile environment — no food or water, and a host of lurking dangers. It was very simple: they had to trust God and rely on Him or die. They could not call the shots or manipulate God, although on a couple of notable occasions they tried. They had to wait faithfully for the life-sustaining manna that would be given daily. Even gathering more than a day’s supply was forbidden — no room at all for self-sufficiency or stubbornness. Life itself and every breath is a gift from God. We really own nothing and have control over very little. Our pretentions, however, far exceed this reality.

June 15

Search for meaning to find happiness

June 15, 2011

Am I happy? Is my life a happy one? Am I happy inside my marriage? Am I happy with my family? Am I happy in my job? Am I happy with my church? Am I happy inside my own skin? Are these good questions to ask ourselves? No. They’re questions with which to torture ourselves. When we face our lives honestly this kind of question about happiness is more likely to bring tears to our eyes than solace to our souls because, no matter how well things are going, none of us live perfectly fulfilled lives. Always there are unfulfilled dreams. Always there are areas of frustration. Always there are tensions. Always there are deeper hungers that are being stifled. And always, as Karl Rahner puts it, we are suffering the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable as we are learning that here in this life there is no finished symphony.

Priests from abroad serve as fathers to Canadian Catholics

June 15, 2011

On Father’s Day, many Catholics take time to say a kind word to priests – their spiritual fathers. Might I suggest that this Father’s Day, a special word of gratitude be extended to those priests from foreign countries – India, Poland, Philippines, India, Nigeria and other nations – who are working in Canadian parishes, hospitals, prisons and universities? To extend the familial metaphor, they have become fathers to Canadian Catholics left orphaned by our own lack of priestly vocations. It’s hard to overstate the catastrophic decline in priestly vocations. A senior Holy See diplomat, intimately familiar with the Canadian situation, once reported a devastating statistic: In one recent year there were more bishops in Canada than there were seminarians. “A Church where there are as many bishops as seminarians is dead,” he told me. By that standard, if not dead, the Church in Canada is at least in intensive care.