The early days of 2020 have already relegated many best intentions and New Year’s resolutions to the try-again-next-year bin.

Moral cowardice

Canada’s ministers of foreign affairs and defence, Francoise-Philippe Champagne and Harjit Sajjan, should not have implied that our government generally supports U.S President Donald Trump’s actions toward Iran, including his order to assassinate an Iranian general on Iraqi soil. 

What does war look like? It has many faces and countless innocent victims.

Many posters promoting the theme of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity — “They Showed Us Unusual Kindness” — include photos of a small battered rowboat to illustrate the shipwreck which landed St. Paul on the island of Malta. The story in the Acts of the Apostles (28:1-10) is short on details about that unusual kindness.

I write a lot about euthanasia and associated issues. I will not dispute this nor will I apologize. What I think drives me is not only the abhorrence of such an evil practice but that there are ways to safeguard ourselves and our friends and family from this evil. However, to a large extent we are failing to do so. We need to wake up.

As I write this it is the feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28), the memorial day for children who endured the wrath of King Herod as he set out to ensure that the Light of the World would never be allowed to shine in the darkness of his kingdom. As it was 2,000 years ago, so it often is today. 

During a pre-Christmas trip to Toronto, New York Times columnist David Brooks offered a small vignette that can provide us with a new year’s resolution but, more, a spiritual shift for life.

This new year my resolution was to be less punctual. Why? Because punctuality has always been both my obsession and my curse. 

Room for all

Re: New Mass at 50: a face-to-face issue (Dec. 22):

I find much beauty in the Latin Mass. I grew up with it. But I also find beauty in the Novus Ordo in its simplicity and its native tongue, or mix of Latin and English.

It seemed fitting that Pope Francis began the new year by pointing a spotlight at women, given that integrating women into the everyday running of the Church will be a major theme of the new decade.