Catholic Register Editorial
The Catholic Register's editorial is published in the print and digital editions every week. Read the current and past editorials below.
January 13, 2018
Editorial: A lost opportunity with NAFTA
One failing of the ongoing negotiations to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement is that leaders are fixated on wealth, not poverty.
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December 31, 2017
Editorial: Our 125-year-old promise
On Jan. 5, 1893, founding editor Fr. John Teefy introduced the debut issue of The Catholic Register to Canada’s growing Catholic community with these words: “We are a Catholic journal — Catholic first, last and always.
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December 22, 2017
Editorial: Christmas prayers
For much of the past two decades, Christmas celebrations in the birthplace of Christ have been muted. Recent Decembers, however, have seen Bethlehem start to become a more joyous place and the annual Christmas tree lighting last month in Manger Square was said to be the most festive in years.
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December 14, 2017
Editorial: Our Father
The Our Father is the foundational prayer of Christian faith. So perhaps it is fitting that Pope Francis has placed it in the spotlight as we make ready to celebrate the Saviour’s birth.
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December 7, 2017
Editorial: Pope gets it right in Myanmar and Bangladesh
In a media world where absurdity abounds, one of the silliest statements of late is a claim that a trip to Myanmar damaged the moral authority of Pope Francis. Quite the opposite.
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December 1, 2017
Editorial: Housing rights as human rights
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the government’s new housing initiative, even moreso than a multi-billion-dollar pledge, is recognition in Ottawa that every Canadian has a fundamental right to housing.
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November 22, 2017
Editorial: Good riddance, Mugabe
More than 100,000 people turned Zimbabwe’s capital Harare into a big dance party following the bloodless overthrow of their tyrant-president Robert Mugabe. Goodness knows they earned it.
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November 9, 2017
Editorial: A call for respect
Astronaut John Glenn believed science and faith were interconnected parts of the same world. He had no trouble reconciling Heaven and Earth.
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October 6, 2017
Editorial: Shame on MPs for walking out on nominee
Status of Women Canada exists to promote women’s equality and “full participation” of women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada. Among its many worthy objectives is to encourage women to become community and political leaders, active players in shaping a just society.
Compare that mandate to what happened Sept. 26 when MPs from the Liberal and NDP parties aligned to publicly shun a 30-year-old woman who was properly appointed as the chair of the House of Commons standing committee on the Status of Women. They walked out en masse minutes into Rachael Harder’s first meeting for the sole reason that, in the past, she has exercised her Parliamentary right to vote in support of pro-life motions.
It was an act of public shaming, of bullying, to be expected perhaps in a schoolyard but quite undignified among elected members. A committee that, above all else, should exemplify fairness, accommodation and tolerance, instead opted to belittle and stigmatize a woman because of a sincerely held belief of conscience.
The explanation given by Pam Damoff, who led the shunners, was that the chair of the committee “should be someone who is representative of the Supreme Court decision that was made in 1988.” If the MP is going to cite Supreme Court decisions, she should perhaps first read them. Harder, not Damoff, very much reflects the spirit of the infamous 1988 Morgen-taler ruling. None of the justices back then advocated for abortion on demand. Although they ruled aspects of the law at the time were unconstitutional, they agreed unanimously that the State has a legitimate right to legislate limits on abortion.
But Damoff is not stumbling alone in the dark. The Prime Minister claims to be an advocate of equality for women but apparently not equality among women. He defended the public shaming because, he said, the committee chair should be able to “unequivocally” defend women’s rights.
“That’s sort of the point of the status of women committee,” he said.
Actually, the point of the committee is to defend women’s rights and advance women’s causes across a broad spectrum, not to be a tunnel-visioned advocate of abortion. The committee should respect and represent the views of all women, and it should be a pit bull when a women’s Charter rights of freedom of conscience, belief, opinion and expression are under attack. It should never become the attacker.
It should also never fail to encourage young women of all political stripes and beliefs to become engaged in the democratic process. In that regard, the committee should be ashamed of how it demeaned Harder, an accomplished female millennial.
She should be held up as a role model for other intelligent, young women, not cruelly branded with a scarlet letter and shunned in an emptying room.
Compare that mandate to what happened Sept. 26 when MPs from the Liberal and NDP parties aligned to publicly shun a 30-year-old woman who was properly appointed as the chair of the House of Commons standing committee on the Status of Women. They walked out en masse minutes into Rachael Harder’s first meeting for the sole reason that, in the past, she has exercised her Parliamentary right to vote in support of pro-life motions.
It was an act of public shaming, of bullying, to be expected perhaps in a schoolyard but quite undignified among elected members. A committee that, above all else, should exemplify fairness, accommodation and tolerance, instead opted to belittle and stigmatize a woman because of a sincerely held belief of conscience.
The explanation given by Pam Damoff, who led the shunners, was that the chair of the committee “should be someone who is representative of the Supreme Court decision that was made in 1988.” If the MP is going to cite Supreme Court decisions, she should perhaps first read them. Harder, not Damoff, very much reflects the spirit of the infamous 1988 Morgen-taler ruling. None of the justices back then advocated for abortion on demand. Although they ruled aspects of the law at the time were unconstitutional, they agreed unanimously that the State has a legitimate right to legislate limits on abortion.
But Damoff is not stumbling alone in the dark. The Prime Minister claims to be an advocate of equality for women but apparently not equality among women. He defended the public shaming because, he said, the committee chair should be able to “unequivocally” defend women’s rights.
“That’s sort of the point of the status of women committee,” he said.
Actually, the point of the committee is to defend women’s rights and advance women’s causes across a broad spectrum, not to be a tunnel-visioned advocate of abortion. The committee should respect and represent the views of all women, and it should be a pit bull when a women’s Charter rights of freedom of conscience, belief, opinion and expression are under attack. It should never become the attacker.
It should also never fail to encourage young women of all political stripes and beliefs to become engaged in the democratic process. In that regard, the committee should be ashamed of how it demeaned Harder, an accomplished female millennial.
She should be held up as a role model for other intelligent, young women, not cruelly branded with a scarlet letter and shunned in an emptying room.
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October 1, 2017
Editorial: Taxes must be fair
Pay unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, said Jesus, yet few topics rankle people more than taxes.
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