Arts and Culture

Play tries to bring redemption to the urban underside

May 31, 2010

A scene from The Ultimate Sacrifice, a Gospel musical opening at the Panasonic Theatre June 25. [images/stories/arts/arts10/thehumanexperience.jpg]TORONTO - As an actor, Michelle Lopez is accustomed to a theatre ensemble circling to practise lines, but before joining the cast of The Ultimate Sacrifice she’d never encountered an entire theatre group gathering for a lively half-hour prayer before and after rehearsals. Those sessions are just one reason Lopez calls her role in the Gospel musical a blessing.

Lorraine Williams' two vocations

May 19, 2010

Lorraine Williams [images/stories/arts/arts10/williams_lorraine.jpg]MARKHAM, Ont. - If Marshall McLuhan says you ought to be on the left bank of the Seine writing, perhaps you should book a trip to Paris and buy a leather-bound notebook. But that’s not what Lorraine Williams did after her famous English professor told her he thought she might have a career as a writer. Not that she didn’t appreciate McLuhan’s encouragement of her very young self as she sipped wine at a reception following graduation from Toronto’s University of St. Michael’s College in 1953.

Adding puzzling mystery to Jesus' story

May 19, 2010

The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ [images/stories/books/080212996x.jpg]The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ, by Philip Pullman (Knopf, 256 pages, hardcover, $27.) Well-known authors have tried to retell the Jesus story in fictional form over the last few decades. Some, like C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, used a highly imaginative and metaphorical setting. Nikos Kazantzakis with his very earthy Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ and Anne Rice with her recent and much more prosaic rendering in the Christ The Lord series both chose a literal retelling of the Gospel.

Finding grace in the meal

May 14, 2010

Paula Butturini [images/stories/books/paulabutturini.jpg]TORONTO - For Paula Butturini, 15 years of continuous tragedies were countered by moments of unexpected grace and solace found in the rituals of preparing and sharing food around the dinner table. In her book Keeping the Feast: One Couple’s Story of Love, Food and Healing in Italy, published this year by Riverhead Books, Butturini bounces the reader between a series of brutal, gut-wrenching events and peaceful, heartwarming stories that centre around food and fellowship — a gripping story of perseverance and hope.

Cambridge artist's monstrance a gift to Benedict XVI

May 14, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI accepts a monstrance [images/stories/arts/arts10/monstrance.jpg]When he was designing a monstrance around the idea of the Holy Trinity a decade go, sculptor Achim Klaas never thought he would be presenting it to the Pope. But that’s exactly what happened April 21 when Klaas, 59, met Pope Benedict XVI and gave him the monstrance as a gift just days after the official celebration of the Pope’s five-year pontificate.

The Richard family’s love of music, each other, shines on CD

May 14, 2010

The Richard family [images/stories/Music/richardsfamily.jpg]`Some jokingly call them the Catholic Von Trapp Family. And there are similarities as Mary and Louis Richard, with their children Nicole, 21, Cecile, 18, Catherine, 15, Daniel, 13, and Anna, 10, do sing together as a family. The Richards recently produced a CD of their own religious music — composed, arranged, performed and sung by the entire family.

Documentary shows Canadian connection in Peruvian mining conflict

May 7, 2010

Devil's Operation [images/stories/arts/arts10/deviloperation.jpg]The tale of a priest, the devil, a mine and the mine’s private army has hit the Toronto Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival just as Canada is debating whether it should give taxpayer money and government services to mining companies with poor human rights and environmental records outside Canada. The Devil Operation, produced and directed by Canadian filmmaker and journalist Stephanie Boyd, adds to a list of recent documentaries that feature a Canadian connection, mining, human rights violations and environmental disaster, including Return to El Salvador, the story of how a protester against a Canadian mine turned up dead, and Under the Rich Earth which explores the use of private paramilitary squads by Canadian mining companies in Ecuador.

Music a big part of Fr. Robbie McDougall's ministry

April 23, 2010

Fr. Robbie McDougall [images/stories/Music/frMcdougall.jpg]While attending Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto nearly 40 years ago, a renowned concert pianist discovered how he could better use his musical talents for God. Thirteen years later he would be ordained to the priesthood and for the past 21 years has been leading scores of people across Canada in retreats, parish missions, workshops and Christian concerts. Fr. Robbie McDougall is a priest based in the Manitoba archdiocese of St. Boniface. He founded a ministry more than 20 years ago to combine his love for sacred music and evangelization.

Convent stay helps shape angel novel

April 18, 2010

Danielle Trussoni [images/stories/arts/arts10/Trussoni.jpg]TORONTO - For 132 years, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of La Crosse, Wisconsin, have upheld an unbroken practice of perpetual adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. This Catholic tradition is the unlikely inspiration for acclaimed author Danielle Trussoni’s new action-packed thriller and novel-turned-Hollywood movie Angelology.

Plain and simple, killing is wrong

April 9, 2010

Autobiography of an Execution, by David R. Dow (Twelve, 320 pages, hard cover, $29.99.) David Dow may not believe in God, but he does believe in justice, love and compassion — and he certainly has a conscience. A death penalty lawyer, he works in Texas for a non-profit organization that attempts to save inmates from capital punishment. Dow does not try to save the prisoners because he feels for them personally. In fact, he dislikes most of his clients. But, as he makes very clear, they do not deserve to die, and certainly not through a biased, racist and classist criminal justice system.