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July 29, 2021
To say this is a challenging summer for Catholics and their Church in Canada is putting it mildly. But where there is challenge, there is also opportunity and it’s vitally important that it is seized.
Honourable way The Pope will not visit Canada unless he is first invited to do so by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Indigenous peoples no doubt wonder why the bishops of Canada have arranged for a delegation of their leaders to meet with the Pope, but they did not invite him to come to Canada to deliver the apology requested in the Truth and Reconciliation’s final report.
It has been my experience that defence often follows discomfort when reconciliation is needed. In my Catholic faith tradition, the discomfort can be understood as a gift that invites us to turn back, to repent, to make right. And defensiveness is a self-protective strategy to avoid taking responsibility. Defences divert us (for now, or forever) from being in real relationships with the ones we have had conflict with.
July 30, 2021
What makes it so difficult to overcome conflicts? Between a couple or family, groups or nations, often we just can’t sort things out and move on.
COVID has been hard on families, but just how hard is only now coming to light, as society gradually opens up to a post-pandemic reality.
July 31, 2021
In mid-July, my wife had the opportunity to interview a 92-year-old former opera star at her home in a village between Quebec City and Montreal.