It all started innocently enough when I used the expression “children of God” in a recent column. Apparently in this secularized age it is an expression that some find insulting. 

Early in junior high school, I watched a kid named Frank play out what I was certain, even then, would be a pattern for his life.

Nine months ago, Cardinal Thomas Collins declared that a “cold shadow of euthanasia” that was spreading across Canada had to be resisted.

Plan B needed

In late June a prominent parishioner and Knight of Columbus died. An Honour Guard was requested by the family at the funeral. About 20 fourth-degree Knights attended in regalia — 19 in old regalia, one in new regalia.  

With the death of Bishop John Michael Sherlock on Aug. 12 at the age of 93, I expect that I am not the only member of the sprawling Diocese of London whose sense of bereavement is mixed with bursts of jubilation at a race that was so well run. 

In his work with the Mennonite Church of Canada, Steve Heinrichs encourages congregations across Canada to seek reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. He urges Mennonites to learn about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action and to study the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Scores of Catholic nuns bought, sold and bartered enslaved people in 19th century America, The New York Times unveiled in a fascinating in-depth account written by New York University professor Rachel Swarns.

I have always wondered what the conversation between Jesus and an image consultant would be like. 

“We’ll be coming to visit from July 22 to July 30,” I told my mother-in-law, who had come to Windsor from her home across the border in Michigan to see my son play soccer. 

In the spring I took a course to become a hospice volunteer. After spending 12 years railing against euthanasia, both in newspaper articles and through talks, I thought it was time to put my beliefs into concrete action.