Feature

The moral debate around safe injection drug sites

April 21, 2012

TORONTO - There are 9,000 injection drug users in Toronto and another 3,000 in Ottawa. They face arrest all the time. Many addicts live in neighbourhoods with a concentration of counselling and detox facilities. The federal government has launched anti-drug subway posters to combat the problem. Chances are there will still be 12,000 injection drug users in Ontario’s two biggest cities next year and the year after that.

Quebec churches on board for Earth Day protests

April 21, 2012

What could be the largest protest ever on the streets of Montreal has full Church backing. Earth Day protesters who gather next to the Place des Arts in downtown Montreal will be backed up by Church bells ringing from most of the city’s 230 Catholic churches. Organizers are predicting the April 22 protests will draw more people than March demonstrations against a 75-per-cent tuition hike. The student protest brought about 100,000 onto Montreal’s streets. Earth Day has a broader appeal in Quebec than the tuition fee issue, said Green Church director Norman Levesque.

Religious liberty: Why a battle 1,700 years ago is relevant today

April 19, 2012

VATICAN CITY - For Vatican historians, the roots of a Christian idea of religious liberty go way back: in fact, back 1,700 years to the Emperor Constantine's victory on Rome's Milvian Bridge and to his conversion. At a Vatican conference in late April marking the anniversary, the head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences said Constantine's victory in 312 under the sign of the cross was "the foundation of a new world" marked by religious freedom for Christians and separation between church and state.

As a man grows older: Papal milestones prompt celebration, speculation

April 15, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI's 85th birthday, April 16, and the seventh anniversary of his election, April 19, are obviously occasions for wishing the Pope well and reflecting on the events of his reign thus far. Inevitably, however, these milestones also prompt speculation about what Vatican officials and observers refer to diplomatically as "papal transition." Pope Benedict, after all, is already the sixth-oldest Pope since the 1400s, when records became available. It has been almost two years since he told a German interviewer, "My forces are diminishing" and that, when it comes to public appearances, "I wonder whether I can make it even from a purely physical point of view."

Irish survey: Gap between church teaching, self-identified Catholics

April 13, 2012

DUBLIN - Three out of four Irish who identified themselves as Catholics find the church's teaching on sexuality "irrelevant," according to new research published by the Association of Catholic Priests. The survey -- conducted by the research association Amarach -- also showed that almost 90 percent of those surveyed believe that divorced or separated Catholics in a stable second relationship ought to be able to receive Communion at Mass. Under church law, divorced and remarried Catholics who have received an annulment may receive Communion.

Does money lead to happiness?

April 12, 2012

TORONTO - Most Canadians are richer than their parents, far richer than their grandparents, infinitely richer than their great-grandparents. But are we happier for this? For plenty of indebted, stressed and uncertain Canadians, their country’s rising Gross Domestic Product has not translated into a more meaningful, more satisfying life, either individually or on the level of community. How many can claim to live in a more harmonious, more confident community than the generation that endured the Great Depression and two World Wars? What we measure matters. If our politics and our headlines are driven by the weekly, monthly and annual pulse of the GDP we end up living narrow, nervous lives on a shrinking and poisoned planet, according to Dennis Patrick O’Hara, a University of St. Michael’s College theology professor.

Working to change Latin America's culture of violence against women

April 9, 2012

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - On a Friday in mid-March, Dominican police were called to a three-story hotel that sits off a major highway in a busy neighborhood here. Inside, they found a grisly crime scene: a woman, strangled to death, and the 37-year-old man who'd killed her hanged dead with the bed sheets.

Easter brings out the Spirit of life

April 8, 2012

The hard part of being a Christian isn’t staying on the right side of canon law or the 10 commandments or the catechism. It’s living a resurrected life — obeying the law of life. It’s easy to forget what St. Paul tells us about living in Christ. Easy to forget because it can seem impossible to figure out what he means. He tells us, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2). What is “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?” In what sense is it a law? We all die and we all sin, so how have we been set free from either one?

Finding strength in prayer, despite Holy Sepulchre throngs

April 6, 2012

JERUSALEM - With Easter in full swing, it can be a daunting task to find a quiet moment of contemplation at any of Jerusalem's holy sites, but it is especially so at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Throngs of pilgrim groups and tourists with cameras pack the church, posing for photos at the spots where Jesus was crucified or laid in the tomb. Some place souvenirs on the sacred sites for a blessing. But at the Stone of Unction, which commemorates the anointing of Jesus before burial, some faithful find the noise from other visitors fades away. The smell of rose water with which the stone is periodically bathed permeates the immediate vicinity.

Cuts not the cure to what ails Ontario health system

April 5, 2012

TORONTO - We live in a sick society and the illness can be measured by the depth and the prevalence of poverty across Ontario, faith leaders who run shelters, food banks and counselling services heard on a visit to Queen’s Park March 29. They weren’t talking about sickness as a metaphor for moral corruption. Rabbis, imams and bishops were discussing the epidemiology of diabetes, cancer, depression, hypertension, addiction, obesity and a dozen other conditions. “The poor and the vulnerable are always the sickest,” Dr. Phil Berger, St. Michael’s Hospital chief of family and community medicine, told Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition delegates at a day-long exploration of health and poverty.