In our churches, Jesus takes precedence
It’s sad to think of a church in ruins.
Land and Sea, the entertaining CBC television documentary show that chronicles the joys and struggles of Atlantic Canadians, recently had an interesting feature on churches in the region that have fallen into disrepair.
A pre-Lenten journey shows just how blessed my life is
Like most Canadians, the thought of travelling to the Caribbean during the dead cold of winter has always had magical appeal. That appeal has been reinforced by two teenagers who have done a pretty good job over the years of reminding me that almost “everyone we know” had taken one of those all-inclusive trips to the sun.
Faith and politics mix with Hurricane Hazel
I am nearing the end of an interesting project — helping Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion with her memoirs — and one of the most enjoyable parts of it is something I never expected.
- By Robert Brehl
Pope John Paul II: Why we must remember
April 2 was the ninth anniversary of the death of Blessed John Paul II and the first “Pope John Paul II Day” in the province of Ontario. A private member’s bill passed by the Ontario legislature last month designated April 2 as a day to honour the soon to be saint. It’s a worthy initiative and a timely reminder to remember the late pontiff’s teachings.
Support vision of care
Parliament was presented recently with two visions of how a civilized society can respond to the emotional and physical needs of an aging nation. One is to permit caregivers to end the life, or help end the life, of a terminally sick or disabled consenting adult. The other is to provide the terminally ill with support and care to the end of their natural days.
Basilica hits the spot for Lenten renewal
Cradle Catholics sometimes miss the wonder of the universality of their Church: universality in two senses — the “here comes everybody” that overpowers the new convert, and the geographic universality of the Church being everywhere in the world so no one is ever without a home.
- By Ian Hunter
Weigel and the Station Church Pilgrimage
The Fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday — the Sunday of rejoicing, complete with rose vestments to lighten the Lenten purple. It complements Gaudete Sunday — the Third Sunday of Advent — but poses a puzzle.
School fights Quebec
In the name of neutrality, seven Supreme Court of Canada justices peered down from their red leather bench at 27 lawyers armed to the teeth with briefs and bristling with arguments in a courtroom full of spectators ripe for the legal fight.
Gauging the rights of religious institutes
Religious and conscientious freedom is at the heart of several ongoing news stories. Some of the stories involve institutions and others individuals, but they all raise the troubling spectre that these rights may exist more in theory than in practice.
Modern slavery
Human trafficking is a vile crime, a form of kidnapping and slavery that preys largely on women and children. It respects no boundaries and is conducted worldwide, in rich nations and poor, yet it rates alongside religion and politics as topics polite society prefers to avoid.
Fr. Georges Lemaître and the Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang has captured the scientific and popular mind as the spectacular beginning of the entire universe. There is even an eponymous sitcom which, to judge from what is available on airplanes, might just be the most popular television program ever made.