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February 13, 2014
Next to hockey, education seems to dominate the Canadian media. And just like hockey, education is reported as a sport. Winners and losers, weaknesses and strengths, who should stay, who should be traded, who’s not contributing to the team, who’s first and who’s last.
They’ll know we are Christians by our love.
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Feb. 23 (Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48) What does it mean to be holy? We use the word often and usually have in mind someone who is kind, generous and eager to do the will of God. The concept had a somewhat different connotation in the ancient world, especially in Israel. The Hebrew word kadosh described something that was set apart from the ordinary and dedicated to God. This would be true of objects, such as the utensils used for sacrifice and worship, as well as the temple itself with its various zones of ascending holiness. It also described the land of Israel, with holiness increasing as one moved closer to Jerusalem the holy city and its temple.
In our normal, daily lives we are invariably so self-preoccupied that we find it difficult to accord others the same reality and value we give to ourselves. It’s difficult for us to live in true empathy because we are forever consumed with our own heartaches and headaches.
WASHINGTON - Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, Ukraine, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, capped a week-long visit to the United States by asking all people of goodwill to join Ukrainian Catholics in prayer to resolve the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy has generally been viewed as a unified bloc in opposition to gay rights, but the emergence of especially punitive measures against gays in various countries has opened unusually stark and public fissures among bishops in different nations.
February 14, 2014
Last month, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that she would raise the province’s minimum wage to $11 up from the $10.25 that it has been for the last four years. Reactions to the announcement have been polarizing. From economists to high school students, everyone has either praised the announcement as evidence of a government that is helping those in need, or have condemned it as a move that will doom those in poverty, which is what the wage increase promises to erase.
WINDSOR, ONT. - Veteran CBC journalist Alison Smith said Pope Francis is a compelling media story because he’s created “a new narrative” about faith and the Church’s role in society.
Chris Stefanick, a 14-year youth ministry veteran, is troubled by the exponential drop in teens attending church.
TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins brought The Divine Comedy to life for students at the University of Toronto in Mississauga.
MADRID - A Spanish bishop urged medical personnel to stop performing all abortions, even though the church has backed new legislation that would still allow abortion in cases of rape.
February 15, 2014
BALTIMORE - The baseball field where legendary slugger Babe Ruth learned to play the game is being preserved.
Superheroes have gotten too super. In their original form, comic book characters like Superman, the Flash and Spiderman were drawn in a way that emphasized their humanity as much as their prodigious abilities.
Canada’s Catholic broadcaster has opened its first French-language bureau.
February 16, 2014
TORONTO - If Pope Francis intends to reshape the college of cardinals so it more roughly approximates the Catholic world, he’s made a start by appointing Val Felix’s big brother.
The seeming uncomfortable paradox of the Catholic Church in Quebec is illuminated by two pieces of legislation making their way through the province’s National Assembly.
February 17, 2014
Mention the name of Maria Rosevilla Margate and many of the residents of the community known as Barangay 54A nod approvingly. They know exactly where to find her.
The beginnings of the Church in Canada include a series of firsts that go beyond reminding us of who we are. If Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation and Blessed Bishop François de Laval become saints this year, in time for the 350th anniversary of the founding of the diocese of Quebec, these new saints could inspire Canadian Catholics to imagine what their Church will become.
February 18, 2014
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis met for the third time in late February with his international Council of Cardinals, an eight-member group advising him on the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy and other issues.
OTTAWA - The secretary of Quebec’s College of Physicians has mused Belgian-style euthanasia of Alzheimer’s patients and terminally ill children could follow should Quebec’s euthanasia Bill-52 become law.