True sportsmanship or a great illusion?
The key to the great illusionist Harry Houdini was the art of misdirection. Houdini could do things like make elephants on stage disappear by misdirecting the eyes and ears of the audience so their minds believed something quite different.
- By Robert Brehl
Salvifici Doloris turns 30
Last week, Feb. 11 was marked everywhere in the Catholic world as the first anniversary of the abdication announcement of Benedict XVI. Understandably so, for it was without precedent — the very definition of news — and it opened the door for a renewed energy and enthusiasm under Pope Francis.
Smooth transition
When Pope Benedict shocked the world one year ago by abdicating the See of St. Peter there was no precedent to suggest how this would play out. It had been 700 years since a Pope freely resigned but even then the departure was for reasons other than frailty and declining health.
Catholic schools are winners in the education game
Next to hockey, education seems to dominate the Canadian media. And just like hockey, education is reported as a sport. Winners and losers, weaknesses and strengths, who should stay, who should be traded, who’s not contributing to the team, who’s first and who’s last.
May this be Ukraine’s 1989
A quadrennial custom I look forward to is writing a column mocking the absurdity of the Winter Olympics. Hockey aside, silly sports contested by people otherwise unknown somehow become moments of national pride. “Cheering on the oddballs” was how my editor headlined the 2010 version for Vancouver. Hoist the maple leaf — our man won skateboarding on snow!
G.K. and the God debate
God was abundant at the Toronto archdiocese’s recent inaugural Chesterton Debate. Dear old G.K., unfortunately, was in notably shorter supply.
An unfair attack
It’s hard to complain when the Church gets taken to the woodshed over the sex abuse scandals. But a UN committee has gone way too far in a narrow-minded report that, by its omissions, is dishonest to the point of appearing vindictive and written principally to humiliate the Church.
Rolling with the punches
Papa is in Rolling Stone. Which is not exactly what The Temptations sang in 1973, but then at that time who could have expected that the Pope — then Paul VI — would have been on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, the magazine of pop music, with occasional forays into cultural criticism?
Rolling Stone and the Pope: what a shame
It is official: Pope Francis is a rock star. Or, at least that is what Rolling Stone magazine is announcing to the world by putting the Pontiff on its current cover.
- By Robert Brehl
Say no to wall
Israeli leaders have a fundamental duty to provide safety and security for their citizens. But they must act reasonably, and that does not include a carte-blanche license to bulldoze the rights and livelihoods of innocent people who pose no threat to anyone.