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November 2011

November 1

All Saints' Day calls for focus on holy vocation of Church, Pope says

November 1, 2011

VATICAN CITY - The feast of All Saints calls on Catholics to see the church as the communion of saints -- as Christ meant it to be -- and not to focus on it as an earthly institution with members who sometimes sin, Pope Benedict XVI said. "We are called to see the church, not in its temporal and human aspect, marked by fragility, but as Christ wanted it, that is, as the communion of saints," the Pope said Nov. 1 before reciting the Angelus for the feast of All Saints.

Shepherd's Trust - Giving back to a priest who gave to you

November 1, 2011

TORONTO - “He was always there for me.” “He anointed her.” These are just a few of the words Catholics Maria Silva-Alton and Betty Klauke have to say about priests who have meant so much to them over the years. Silva-Alton, a parishioner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Brampton, Ont., says priests like Fr. Vid Vlasic have been invaluable to her and her family. Not only was he a mentor to her as a student when he was chaplain at Toronto’s Notre Dame High School, Silva-Alton said, Vlasic was also a friend.

November 2

Dating advice from a Catholic mom

November 2, 2011

OTTAWA - Most girls dream of Mr. Right, and though they might find him, they will never meet Mr. Perfect, says Catholic mother Irene Freundorfer. Drawing from her experience as a wife for 25 years and a mother of 10, Freundorfer addressed an all-female audience at Valrideau, a female university residence run by Opus Dei in Ottawa on Oct. 29. Valrideau is not affiliated with any specific university but its residents include students from Saint Paul University, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and students on exchange.

Be bold enough to take risks

November 2, 2011

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Nov. 13 (Proverbs 31:10-13, 16-18, 20, 26, 28-31; Psalm 128; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30) A capable husband, who can find him? Perhaps this would have been the wording of a proverb penned by a woman. Its silence on the matter almost implies that the excellence of the husband is a given.

The view from the hospital corridor

November 2, 2011

Self-loathing. Am I, underneath all I have and have done, worth anything at all? Or is my secret suspicion true, that I’m really nothing? Or nothing good, anyway. When I was doing parish work, I found this question lurking hidden in the hearts of a surprising number of people — including people whom the rest of us might readily consider better, smarter or better-off than ourselves. Next time you walk down the street, imagine those you see having a huge rock on top of their head or great bulging sacks hanging from each hand and you may apprehend more than your eyes can see.

Christmas stamps honour the beauty of Kingston’s St. Mary’s Cathedral

November 2, 2011

KINGSTON - We are justly proud of our Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, and so should Catholics across the land, for Kingston is the mother church of all English Canada. I count it a great blessing that I offer the Holy Mass there every Sunday night. Now Canadians from sea to sea shall have the opportunity to honour our cathedral with every letter and card they send. On All Saints Day, Canada Post unveiled its Christmas stamps for 2011 at a special ceremony in our cathedral. Three images from the cathedral’s magnificent stained glass windows were selected. The angel appearing to Joseph will grace the domestic stamp, the Nativity the American stamp and the Epiphany was chosen for the international stamp.

The Pope may be infallible, but Vatican’s PR people aren’t

November 2, 2011

The Vatican bureaucracy has been known to make a mess out of public relations. This is not my own unique discovery. Last September I attended a course for journalists at the Vatican and this was a major topic of discussion. Even journalists from the Catholic press could not believe how poorly the Vatican handles the dissemination of information. There were journalists based in Rome who spoke of the gross incompetence of the Church in trying to explain itself to the world.

The Vatican and Occupy Wall Street

November 2, 2011

Pope Benedict may or may not bless the Occupy Wall Street movement. But an Eastern European former Marxist atheist intellectual has told protesters that they should really preoccupy themselves with the Holy Spirit. Leading up to November’s G20 economic meeting in France, and as the Occupy Wall Street movement entered its second month, media whoop-whoop made it sound like Benedict’s arrival at the barricades was imminent. The story turned out to be a torque job so clumsy it would make an apprentice mechanic at Dollar Bill’s Easy Autos blush.

"Win a baby" contest exploits life, family

November 2, 2011

When an Ottawa radio station hosted a “win a baby” contest last month, pledging to pay for fertility treatments for whoever wrote the best pitch about why they deserved the treatments, station officials claimed they wanted a catchy promotion that would shine a light on the cost of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which OHIP does not cover. In the end, five couples won $35,000 each for a series of treatments. Hundreds of entries were received, with tens of thousands reportedly voting online for their preferred candidate. It is true that Quebec covers IVF treatments while Ontario does not, but the reality is there are a great many things that OHIP does not cover. Most of them (prescription drugs, dental care, a lot of eye care and eye glasses, to name just a few) are used by a great many more people than use IVF. This is not to comment about what public health insurance should or should not cover, only to point out that there are many exclusions under OHIP that can cause hardship. The likelier reason for the contest is the opportunity for headline-grabbing publicity, particularly through those catchy ads with a cute baby and the disclaimer “may not be exactly as shown.”

Celebrate life

November 2, 2011

The birth of a baby should always be a celebration of God’s will being done. But much of the joy accompanying the arrival of tiny Danica May Camacho on Oct. 31 was offset by joyless fretting about the future of the planet. Danica May, born in Manila, was one of several babies symbolically presented to the world on Halloween as the planet’s population reached seven billion, according to the United Nations Population Fund. She was the second child born to Catholic parents who subsist on the meagre salary of a Filipino bus driver. Naturally, they were delighted to welcome a new baby into their family.

The e-Word of God

November 2, 2011

There are nearly one million e-books available for purchase on Amazon.com alone. One quick click on the “religion & spirituality” genre reveals that there are nearly 100,000 books and more than 30,000 on Christianity alone — more than any other subgenre in this category. For today’s younger generation, e-readers and other electronic books are a new and crucial resource for accessing religious texts and testimonials of fellow Catholics.

New Supreme Court of Canada justices have no record of activism

November 2, 2011

OTTAWA - Christian observers with an interest in Canada’s courts are pleased — so far — that the latest picks for Supreme Court of Canada justices have shown no record of judicial activism on the bench. Justice Michael Moldaver, a former Ontario appellate judge, and Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, a former Ontario government civil servant, were sworn in Oct. 27. A public ceremony will take place Nov. 14. “They don’t have a judicial history of being activists,” said REAL Women of Canada national vice president Gwen Landolt, a former Crown prosecutor. REAL Women frequently intervenes in cases involving moral issues. “They have been strictly interpreting the law in their decisions.”

Weekly Catholic Crossword #6 - Nov 6th 2011

November 2, 2011

"Quotes From Mother Teresa" See how you get on with the latest crossword in our new series. Select "file > print" in your browser to print off your own copy.

Development must be at core of G20 agenda

November 2, 2011

LONDON - The urgent need to address global poverty and the threat of climate change may be overshadowed by the financial crisis engulfing the world’s richest nations, a British aid agency said. The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development warned the leaders of the Group of 20 nations that they will perpetuate the global economic crisis if they fail to put international development “at the core” of their agenda at their Nov. 3-4 meeting in Cannes, France. In a six-page briefing paper released Oct. 31, CAFOD, the aid agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said the failure to address development would result in the poverty gap widening and economic woes becoming the norm.

Papal buzz for Manila archbishop?

November 2, 2011

IMUS, Philippines - On a recent Sunday morning, Nemie Anciado squinted against the searing sun shining on the doorway of the crowded Our Lady of the Pillar Cathedral. Anciado has been a longtime custodian at the cathedral, where Archbishop Luis Tagle served as bishop from 2001 until his recent appointment as head of the Manila archdiocese. Anciado said he has mixed feelings about Tagle’s new assignment. He said he’s sad to lose him and happy that “he will be able to grow in his new position.”

Irish eucharistic congress a time of communion

November 2, 2011

TORONTO - The 50th anniversary of the International Eucharistic Congress will be a time of communion, reflection and renewal of faith, says Fr. Kevin Doran, secretary general of the congress to be held next year in Dublin. With the theme “The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another,” the congress will be held June 10 to 17, 2011 in the Irish capital.

World in crisis goes beyond armed conflict at Assisi II

November 2, 2011

ASSISI, Italy - A common thread ran through many of the speeches and invocations of this year’s “prayer for peace” encounter in Assisi: the uneasy sense that the world is facing not merely conflicts and wars, but a much broader crisis that affects social and cultural life in every country. Environmental damage, the rich-poor divide, erosion of cultural traditions, terrorism and new threats to society’s weakest members were cited as increasingly worrisome developments by speakers at the interfaith gathering in the Italian pilgrimage town Oct. 27.

Religious leaders call for spiritual solutions to climate change crisis

November 2, 2011

OTTAWA - Representatives of 30 faith communities and organizations have asked politicians to mine the world’s religious traditions for the spiritual resources to meet the climate change crisis. “Climate change is a global crisis and requires global solutions that put the well-being of all people first — especially the most vulnerable,” said the Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership on Climate Change, issued after a meeting here Oct. 23 and 24 organized by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ).

Weaving justice in B.C.

November 2, 2011

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. - Friendship can often be symbolized in the simplest way: the classic friendship bracelet. Jordyn Sinkie, a Grade 12 student at Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School in Port Coquitlam, B.C., has taken this concept a step further to create ties with underprivileged girls in Ghana. Sinkie founded the fundraising group, HandmAID. HandmAID is a group of 20 senior students from Archbishop Carney that came together in July to create handcrafted bracelets by weaving embroidery floss to form colourful braids of string and sell them to the community at parish functions, flea markets and around the school.

D&P expects to hear on funding request by Dec. 1

November 2, 2011

The countdown is on to a Dec. 1 D-Day for the next five years of funding for the Canadian bishops’ international development agency. The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has been quietly working the past two years on its proposal to spend almost $50 million of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) money over the next five years. Development and Peace has been combining CIDA funding with donations almost since the organization was founded in 1967.