There is a new social phenomenon affecting thousands of families. For many, it is bewildering, even infuriating. For others, it’s addictive.

I call this new phenomenon Together but Texting — people socializing through text messaging. We’ve all seen it and, quite likely, been with people while they’ve had their eyes, minds and fingers focussed on their cellphone, Blackberry or iPad. Sometimes it’s as if their very soul is immersed.

QUEBEC CITY - It used to be that Quebecers who wanted to hear good preaching or be instructed on right and wrong went to Mass on Sunday and listened to their priest. The clergy were the principle arbiters of public and private morality in all spheres of life in Quebec. They preached on everything from how to dress, who to consort with (or not) and what to read, think vote and so on.

One famous saying from this era — “heaven is blue and hell is red” — was a not-so-veiled reference to  vote Conservative in elections. The Church believed the “red” Liberals stood for secular reform and social change that would lead people away from their faith. And that’s what happened, people eventually voted red in order to hasten improvements in material living standards and, as predicted, what eventually followed was a widespread abandonment of faith in Quebec.

One thing the “great gay divorce crisis of January 2012” has shown is that our government can move fast when it feels a need to get something important done. The same-sex marriage debacle lasted all of about three days and ended with the government assuring all gay couples who married here, but do not reside here, that not only is their marriage valid but they can come here any time to enjoy the weather, curling and get a divorce.

Meantime, the government’s office of religious freedom, promised almost a year ago during the federal election campaign, still sits in limbo with no details being released to the public about what such an office would look like or when it might open.

The next big battle facing Catholics is over euthanasia. Already a few preliminary salvos have been fired.

For example, an “expert panel” on euthanasia set up by the Royal Society of Canada recently reported: “The underlying premise — namely that all human beings are possessed of dignity in virtue of a special relationship to a God — is incapable of being used as a basis of public policy proven in the context of a democratic, multicultural and multi-faith society that must cleave to the strictures of public reason in ethical deliberation.”

Vibrant public discourse is highly desirable, but it demands thoughtful application.

During climate negotiations at December’s UN conference in Durban, the discourse was sour. On Day 1, disgruntled environmental activists presented Canada with a “Colossal Fossil” award after Environment Minister Peter Kent declared “Kyoto is the past.” Following media reports that the Canadian government planned to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, Kent clarified on Dec. 5 that Canada was not actually withdrawing but would simply not agree to a second commitment period.

That was followed by a torrent of exaggerated invective launched in Canadian media in response to a full-page ad published in the Globe and Mail. The ad, signed by South African dignitaries, including the Nobel Peace laureate,  Anglican Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, praised Canada for its role to end apartheid in South Africa but also questioned Canada’s current commitment to prevention of climate change, which was called “a life- and-death issue” for Africans. The ad went on to criticize the sacred cow of Canadian energy policy: the Athabasca oil sands.

Anyone who has been passing newsstands lately will have noticed that magazine covers aren’t what they used to be. They’re more showy and sensational, much different from days gone by.

At Christmastime especially I have noticed more magazines and advertisements shouting out “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” It drives me crazy.

My 86-year-old mother has also noticed this change. She made a comment the other day that made me pause.

Writing in this paper more than 30 years ago, Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter wrote that parents in Ontario would lose the Catholic school system when they stopped caring about whether it was Catholic. We might be approaching that moment.


Faced with a premier who seems determined to force issues and teachings that go against Catholic teaching, and a Catholic educational establishment that thinks there is nothing to worry about, parents will have to either fight back to preserve Catholic schools or watch them fade into distant memory.

As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as a Christmas resolution. It seems resolutions belong exclusively to New Year’s Day and normally involve such self-help promises as lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, pay off the credit card, learn a new language or take dancing lessons.

But maybe Catholics should shift their emphasis to resolutions that reflect the birth of the Saviour and make promises that align ourselves to what the Incarnation means to us in our Christian pilgrimage.

At Advent I’m flooded with memories of childhood and growing up in a devout Polish immigrant home. My family’s life revolved around Toronto’s St. Stanislaus Kostka Church at Queen and Bathurst. I would be there several times a week for catechism classes, Polish school, youth group, Polish folk dancing, my dad’s choir practice, mom’s Legion of Mary.

During Advent there were church rehearsals for the parish Nativity play, one of the biggest Sunday afternoons of the year when we’d await the spectacular visit from St. Nicolas. Dressed like a bishop, he brought goodies for all the kids.

My mother died on Nov. 13, age 99, just a few weeks short of her hundredth birthday. She had lived a long, productive life, including careers as medical secretary, teacher, librarian and homemaker. Her last three years were spent in a nursing home where, by the way, she received good care.

As the surly manifestations of age and decrepitude became more prevalent, she was oftimes spiteful and angry, but when death came it was quite peaceful. So, after a long life and calm death, who could ask for more. Certainly not me. G.K. Chesterton cautioned against looking a gift universe in the mouth, and I have always thought that sage advice.