Feature

Morality should trump politics on climate change

November 30, 2007

globeWarming.jpg [images/stories/misc/globeWarming.jpg]TORONTO - Grade 9 students at Pope John Paul II Catholic Secondary School probably won’t learn anything about Bali in their geography class this week. The Indonesian island might get a passing mention from their science teacher, but it’s not on the exam. But in religion class, Bali will definitely be a focus.

Investors showing an environmental conscience

November 30, 2007

pollution.jpg [images/stories/misc/pollution.jpg]The state of our environment has captured the attention of Canadian investors. A Harris/Decima poll of more than 2,000 Canadians for Investors Group found 56 per cent thought environmental considerations are an important part of socially responsible investment decisions. Environment out-polled such traditional ethical investment factors as alcohol and tobacco at 43 per cent, and weapons at 53 per cent. Only substandard human rights practices at 70 per cent and child labour named by 79 per cent were more likely to determine ethical investment decisions.

The seduction of sexualized commerce

October 25, 2007

Sex sells. That seems obvious enough to anyone who owns a television. But cultural critic Paul Rutherford has looked behind this most obvious truth about advertising to figure out how and why we have been sold so much stuff using so much sex.

Speaking out against the HPV vaccine

October 4, 2007

HPV.jpg [images/stories/bioethics/HPV.jpg]When the news broke early in 2007 that a new vaccine (Gardasil) was available that would protect young girls from the effects of the human papillomavirus (HPV), the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute issued a press report outlining our objections to the way in which this vaccine was being promoted. In the United States, some states had urged mandatory vaccination for girls from Grade 6 onwards. The main reason given was that HPV has been shown to be one of the causes of cervical cancer in women.

St. Thomas More as a model of Christian service

October 1, 2007

Editor's note: The following speech was presented by Archbishop Thomas Collins to the Thomas More Lawyers' Guild of Toronto at their annual Red Mass dinner on Sept. 13. It describes how St. Thomas More is a worthy model for today of a Christian responding to God's call.

The rupture of Canada's multicultural mosaic

September 22, 2007

MONTREAL - What kind of society won’t admit religion? Apparently Canada. Douglas Farrow believes Canada’s grand experiment in multiculturalism is doomed. Or rather that it dooms its citizens to cultural relativism, a moral quagmire and the absence of true community.

Ontario school boards leave HPV decision up to parents

September 20, 2007

HPV.jpg [images/stories/bioethics/HPV.jpg]TORONTO - It appears most Catholic school boards in Ontario are on board with the province's plans to vaccinate girls against the HPV virus. It's predicted the vaccine will reduce cervical cancer rates by 70 per cent.

Private health a question of ethics

September 10, 2007

The market won’t save Canadian medicine, and Canadian Medical Association leaders who are suggesting private health insurance and a parallel system of private clinics and hospitals are ignoring the scientific evidence, said a Catholic doctor.

St. Mike’s grad ‘honoured’ by 9/11 memorial

September 6, 2007

On June 10, 2006, the unveiling of the memorial to the Manhattan firefighters who had given their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Centre disaster took place. The New York Times described the memorial as “ bold, literal, almost neo-classical.” One important onlooker was University of St. Michael’s College graduate, Viggo Rambusch, a liturgical artist and restoration specialist whose firm created the memorial.

An election guide for Catholic voters

September 6, 2007

Editor’s note: On Oct. 10, Ontario voters will return to the polls to choose a provincial government. In the run-up to the election, there will be numerous “election guides” issued by many different interest groups to highlight their particular concerns. While they all have their importance, The Catholic Register is using this opportunity to highlight the 2007 Election Guide issued by Catholic Charities of the archdiocese of Toronto.