A colleague and good friend of mine is an intractable Leafs fan, meaning he is generally unaware that NHL hockey exists after the palest first quarter moon of April.
TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins has been receiving an unprecedented outpouring of support in the wake of his open letter that urged Liberal leader Justin Trudeau to reconsider an inflexible stand against pro-life supporters.
Just as elected officials are required to uphold the law they also have the right, and sometimes the duty, to advocate for reform. That doesn’t mean they’ll get their way — and most times they don’t — but in a free and democratic society it does mean they can follow their conscience, act on principle, voice reasonable opinions and, hopefully, not be judged for their beliefs, particularly those founded in faith.
Just before Christmas, 1967, then-justice minister Pierre Trudeau famously said: “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.”
Catholics sometimes forget what the Pope's job is. It's not hard to mistake the Masses, meetings, audiences, addresses, encyclicals, photo opportunities and tours of St. Peter's Square in the popemobile for the Pope's job.
These are trying times to be a politically hopeful citizen. At almost every turn, politicians at all levels of public life are exhibiting scandalous behaviour and dishonouring what should be the honourable profession of advancing the common good.
It was a dark, overcast and drizzly morning in the beautiful city of Vancouver. Tens of thousands of runners passed by the hotel in the mis-named Vancouver Sun Run, the largest annual 10-kilometre road race in the country and the second biggest of its kind in the world. The taxi driver deftly manoeuvred through a number of side streets to avoid the countless runners in an effort to bring his fares to the busy airport in time for flights.
In a decision that might be unenforceable and is certainly misguided, the Law Society of Upper Canada has barred future graduates of a Christian law school from practising in Ontario. In a 28-21 vote, the law society branded aspiring lawyers from B.C.’s Trinity Western University persona non grata because students and staff agree to live by a moral code of conduct that, among other things, prohibits sexual intimacy outside of marriage.
It has been said that courage is the most important virtue because without courage a life of true virtue is impossible.
Ninety-five years old, in failing health, evangelist Billy Graham has summoned his energies to write what will almost surely be his last book: The Reason for My Hope. As I read it, I was struck by the extent to which Graham’s prose carries out the “new evangelism” to which Pope Benedict XVI insistently called the Catholic Church.
Palm Sunday this year began with the fundamental question being asked in Matthew 21: “And when He entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, ‘Who is this?’ ”