Ethical progress
In an age of polar opposites – right vs. left, science vs. religion, rich vs. poor, orthodox vs. heterodox, radical individualism vs. community rights – can we ever really hope to find common ethical grounds for how we order society? For ethicist Margaret Somerville, the answer to that question is yes.
Murder is not compassionate
Is Canada facing legalization of euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide by stealth? Recent court decisions and strategies used by euthanasia lobbyists suggest this is happening even though the law as it is written still bans both types of killing.
Time to vote
On Monday, Nov. 13, Ontario voters will go to the polls to choose their representatives for local governments. Top of mind for Catholic school supporters should be the selection of school board trustees.
Christian view can she light on globalization
Public protests against globalization — vociferous, often tumultuous affairs — gained momentum from the mid-1990s onward, peaking around the turn of the new millennium. Then, for reasons that are imperfectly understood, the potential Great Cause of a generation of young activists simply fizzled.
New Beginnings helps you move on
TORONTO - John Dubeau still remembers the pain he felt when he and his wife divorced more than 30 years ago.
Collateral damage
U.S. President George Bush made a startling admission last week. He agreed with a journalist that the war in Iraq is bearing an alarming resemblance to Vietnam. Now if only his administration would learn how not to repeat history’s mistakes.
The kids and their canine cousin
My sister, Cecile, and her husband, Philip, who live in Florida, recently spent two weeks visiting in our area.
- By Lisa Petsche
Who’s afraid of Halloween
When I was growing up I can remember being so excited about going out and trick-or-treating. Images of costumes that didn’t quite fit, reduced vision and streets full of parents accompanying their children to neighbours’ houses resound in my memory.
Facing the crisis
It is very easy to forget that Christianity has something to teach us about our responsibility toward the environment. After all, ecotheology was not invented by Jesus of Nazareth, nor did humanity in first-century AD have the potential to destroy the planet.
There’s life outside the news
I have lately taken to reading about God’s holy ones, as we find their doings and sayings condensed and compiled in such compendia as Butler’s Lives of the Saints and The Oxford Books of Saints. It’s an activity I can recommend to anyone who wants to broaden his or her understanding of God’s wonderful work in transfiguring and renewing human life. It is also fascinating to visit far-distant Christians (and not so distant ones) and get a sense of their struggles — which are often quite similar to the ones we face in modern times.
Rescuing 'spare' embryos has its concerns
With every in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure, many more embryonic human persons are created than are transferred to the mother’s womb. The “extras” are frozen and stored in the fertility clinic. Their fate is uncertain.