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November 2011

November 21

Vatican newspaper says Shakespeare was secret Catholic

November 21, 2011

VATICAN CITY - There is "little doubt" that William Shakespeare was a Catholic who was forced to hide his faith in Protestant England while leaving hints about his faith throughout his vast body of work, said an opinion piece in the Vatican newspaper. Taking a cue from renewed speculation about Shakespeare's true identity sparked by the film "Anonymous," L'Osservatore Romano wrote, "There may be questions regarding his identity, but not his religious faith."

November 22

Pope's critique of global economic system resurfaces in Africa

November 22, 2011

VATICAN CITY - A few minutes after landing in Africa, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stern warning against the "unconditional surrender to the law of the market or that of finance" in Africa and throughout the global economic system. His words were immediately seized upon by those wondering where the German pope stood on a recent Vatican document that proposed the creation of a world political authority to regulate financial markets and rein in the "inequalities and distortions of capitalist development."

Vatican plans pastoral guidelines for church personnel in AIDS care

November 22, 2011

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is committed to publishing a set of pastoral guidelines for church personnel engaged in AIDS care and prevention, but it probably won't happen for at least a year, a Vatican official said. The guidelines are expected to treat the issue of condoms in AIDS prevention, but as part of a much wider approach to the question of the treatment and spread of the disease. Msgr. Jean-Marie Mpendawatu, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, told reporters Nov. 22 that the first step toward the guidelines was the imminent publication of the acts of a conference on AIDS sponsored by the Vatican last May.

Jesuits fight recycling operation planned for next to Martyrs' Shrine

November 22, 2011

Plans to put an outdoor, industrial recycling facility next door to the Martyrs' Shrine have shocked the Jesuits and galvanized a campaign to protect the environmentally sensitive Wye Marsh. The Jesuits are asking Midland, Ont.'s town councillors to reverse their decision to rezone a site to allow Recycling Specialties Inc. to bring in truckloads of metal, paper, cardboard, wood, plastic and other material for sorting and processing. Neither the Jesuits who run Martyrs' Shrine nor Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons — a provincial park built around a recreation of the first Christian settlement in Ontario and the graves of St. Jean de Brébeuf and St. Gabriel Lallemant — were notified before the zoning change on April 26. Previously zoned highway commercial, the land directly across from the front steps of the shrine is now zoned industrial. The direct neighbours of the site fell outside of the Ontario Planning Act's mandatory 120-metre notification zone and on the other side of the town's border with the Township of Tay.

Love beyond naiveté and romance

November 22, 2011

Several years ago, a Presbyterian minister I know challenged his congregation to open its doors and heart more fully to the poor. The congregation initially responded with enthusiasm and programs were introduced that actively invited people from the less-privileged economic areas of the city, including a number of street people, to come to their church. But the romance soon died as coffee cups and other loose items began to disappear, some handbags were stolen and the church and meeting space were often left messy and soiled. A number of people began to complain and demand an end to the experiment: “This isn’t what we expected! Our church isn’t clean and safe any more! We wanted to reach out to these people and this is what we get!”

We can open the way to the Kingdom

November 22, 2011

Second Sunday of Advent (Year B) Dec. 4 (Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8) Time whizzes by like an express train when we are enjoying ourselves. An enjoyable vacation has scarcely begun before it is time to go back to work. But when we are anticipating something or waiting for something to occur time absolutely creeps by. Human time and God’s time are very different. We are an impatient people and want everything now or very soon. Human staying power is not the greatest. People become disillusioned or lose heart very quickly and easily. The Israelites had been in exile in Babylon for more than 50 years and it must have seemed like an eternity. Many had almost forgotten home while those born in captivity knew only Babylon. To many of the oldtimers it must have seemed that God had forgotten and abandoned them and that they were doomed to dwell forever in an alien land.

New Missal brings reminders of a bitter trial

November 22, 2011

Just in time for the new English translation of the Mass, Ignatius Press has released an expanded edition of Alcuin Reid’s A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Carmel Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes. This slender volume provides a fascinating look into the dismay that greeted the sweeping changes to the Roman rite between the start of the Second Vatican Council and 1971. It is also a postcard from a Catholic world where obedience to authority — of laypeople to priests, of priests to bishops, of bishops (suddenly) to experts — trumped almost every other consideration.

Penn State can take lessons from the Church

November 22, 2011

The tragic child sex abuse scandal at Penn State opens many wounds for Catholics. During the first seven-10 days after the story broke, almost every media report compared the scandal to abuse that has rocked the Catholic Church over past decades. The comparisons have not totally abated, either. “Like the Roman Catholic Church, Penn State is an arrogant institution hiding behind its mystique,” declared the National Post on Nov. 14.

Toss Section 13

November 22, 2011

Bills introduced from the backbenches of Parliament are typically cast adrift unless the government opts to throw them a life preserver. So we applaud Justice Minister Rob Nicholson for tossing a lifeline to a private member’s bill that seeks repeal of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Section 13 comprises the paragraphs of an otherwise worthwhile act that makes hate speech a punishable offence. Hateful language, however transmitted, is abhorrent and society has an obligation to combat it robustly. But Section 13, which evolved from legislation in the 1960s to silence racist telephone hotlines, is manifestly flawed and its repeal is long overdue.

Some more hypocrisy and Catholic-bashing

November 22, 2011

A confession. I don’t like American football very much, and I’m not enormously fond of Episcopalian theology either. But most of all, I hate hypocrisy and Catholic-bashing. So let’s take a trip to Pennsylvania, via Kansas. Bede Parry is a former Benedictine monk who has a history of abusing young men. When this was discovered he was ejected from his abbey and then refused by another monastery in Las Vegas. Rejected by the Roman Catholic Church, in 2004 he became an Episcopalian priest, even after informing the then bishop of Nevada, Katharine Jefferts Schori, that he had sexually transgressed just a few years earlier. She was also told by his former monastery about his sordid past and given highly damaging psychological records. Surprise, surprise. In July this year he resigned from his post and is currently facing criminal charges.

Religious liberty under fire, even in the land of the free

November 22, 2011

BALTIMORE - Last week the bishops of the United States gathered in their premier diocese and protested the erosion of the founding liberties of the American republic. In their annual plenary meeting the bishops designated threats to religious liberty as a key pastoral concern. The American bishops are right to be alarmed, but not only them. Religious liberty is under threat all over the world. The most grievous attacks are lethal, with Christians being killed for their faith in Egypt, Iraq and India, just to mention the sites of massacres in the last year. Then there is the routine and brutal persecution of Christians in communist states, like China, or Islamist ones, like Saudi Arabia. Indeed, the vast majority of acts of religious persecution around the world are against Christians.

November 23

Weekly Catholic Crossword #9 - Nov 27th 2011

November 23, 2011

"Saints Who Were Lawyers" 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.

Embracing change to renew communal worship, faith

November 23, 2011

NEWMARKET, Ont. - As the catechist in an active suburban parish, I have been responsible for helping parishioners and teachers in our parish schools prepare for the changes that English-speaking Catholics will experience now that Advent is here. When I first learned that we would be using a new translation of the Mass a few years ago, I knew that it would be very important to prepare people for the change. In my 20+ years of experience in pastoral ministry, I have learned that change in general is difficult for people. Change in peoples’ traditions and rituals, however, can be exceedingly difficult.

Abortion battle heats up in PEI

November 23, 2011

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI - Pro-lifers in Prince Edward Island are taking on an aggressive campaign that aims to restore abortion services in Canada’s island province. The PEI Reproductive Rights Organization has launched the campaign to allow abortion in PEI, a province that has been officially abortion-free since 1986. In a compromise solution reached at the time, off-island, in-hospital abortion costs are covered if the procedure is recommended by two doctors, while abortions at the private Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton, N.B., which cost roughly $800, are not covered. Travel is a personal expense.

Pro-lifers cast suspicions on abortion numbers used in study

November 23, 2011

TORONTO - A new report says the number of abortions in Canada has fallen below 100,000, but instead of being pleased with the numbers, pro-lifers are doubting their accuracy. Campaign Life Coalition project manager Jack Fonseca says the studies don’t represent the national picture because there are no statistics from British Columbia, New Brunswick and Manitoba. Also, reporting is voluntary for private abortion clinics, he said. Fonseca believes a more accurate estiamte is 106,000 abortions annually in Canada.

‘Choice’ Chain takes a stand at UVic

November 23, 2011

VICTORIA, B.C. - If a picture is worth a thousand words, then pro-life students at the University of Victoria (UVic) have been doing a lot of talking in an effort to show the truth of what abortion is. Youth Protecting Youth (YPY), UVic’s pro-life club, partnered with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform to bring the campaign “Choice” Chain to campus Nov. 16-17. “Choice” Chain is a campaign where volunteers hold pictures of fetuses aborted in the first trimester of pregnancy with the word “Choice” emblazoned on the top and seek to engage passersby in discussion about the meaning of abortion.

The power of prayer during a difficult time

November 23, 2011

My mother was recently diagnosed with cancer. She had suspected it for awhile, but reading the emotionless official hospital papers was still difficult. Breaking the news to my sister and I was a challenge in itself. She tried to hide the fact that she was scared, but her forced smile and unusually high voice proved otherwise. Somehow, though, she was able to say: “Well, whatever God has in store for me.”

Catholic comic raising awareness of struggles in the Congo

November 23, 2011

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has created a new comic book as an educational tool to raise awareness of the struggles faced by those in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We believe in the power of youth to change the world and that they hold the future in their hands,” said Shelley Burgoyne, youth programs officer at Development and Peace. “So by reaching out to them in such a dynamic format we really hope to raise awareness of the struggles of our brothers and sisters in the (Congo) and encourage our Canadian youth to speak out.”

In Mexico, Pope to address issue of violence, Vatican official says

November 23, 2011

VATICAN CITY - Mexico's high level of violence is of deep concern and will surely be addressed by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the country next year, said a Vatican official. The Vatican missionary news agency Fides reported that during a news conference in Merida, Mexico, Nov. 22, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to Mexico, said the Pope's visit will provide hope for the country and bring a message of "peace and encouragement" to people suffering from violence.

Royal Society of Canada's assisted suicide report disputed

November 23, 2011

OTTAWA - Opponents of euthanasia have slammed a Royal Society of Canada expert panel report advocating decriminalization of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. Margaret Somerville, founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, called the “End-of-Life Decision Making” report “a “pro-euthanasia manifesto” and “thinly veiled euthanasia and assisted suicide propaganda.” The report, released Nov. 15, failed its mandate to provide a balanced review of arguments pro and con, Somerville said, adding five of the six authors are well-known euthanasia advocates.