Last Holy Thursday I was asked to join other volunteers to have a foot washed by our parish priest during Mass as part of the symbolic re-enactment of the great lesson of serving others that Jesus shared with His disciples.
Writing and speaking out against euthanasia is a blessing. There is something bracing about standing up for the truth.
The real tragedy surrounding a suicide crisis that has devastated a remote Manitoba community is that it represents just the latest instalment in a Canadian saga that shows no sign of a final chapter.
Canadian law permits abortion at any time for any reason during a pregnancy. Despite the Supreme Court’s position that Parliament is entitled to legislate some protections for pre-born children, what has developed instead is de facto government endorsement of an absolute right to choose.
While America entertains itself with the likes of Donald Trump and the presidential primaries, Canada is inching towards what’s bound to be a monumental decision with repercussions on both sides of the border. Euthanasia. State-sponsored suicide. And by inching I mean we’re barrelling towards it at breakneck speed.
Six years ago, 89-year-old Kay Carter, a terminally ill Vancouver woman, circumvented Canadian law by purchasing a doctor-assisted suicide in Switzerland. Her death prompted a 2011 lawsuit that sought access to assisted suicide for other Canadians who were suffering and near death.
A long-anticipated trip to Ireland, researching ancestors, a poignant story about children playing with a potato, even the name Barack Obama, all eventually led me to pondering the plight of Syrian refugees and the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.
TORONTO - A statement from Cardinal Thomas Collins to be read in the Archdiocese of Toronto’s 225 parishes urges Catholics to oppose a “chilling” parliamentary committee report on assisted suicide that Collins said “should shock us to the core.”
Governments are usually criticized for political flipflops, but the federal Liberals deserve at least faint praise for hitting the pause button on a daft plan to deny party members a free vote on upcoming assisted suicide legislation.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Jesus gave us the Beatitudes to remind us that we are called to show compassion to our brothers and sisters in Christ. The eight Beatitudes, from the Gospel of Matthew, provide an opportunity to reflect on how we live out these values in our daily lives.
Standing recently inside one of the oldest tombs in the world, with about 200,000 tonnes of stone above and around me, strange thoughts manifested in the darkness. The thoughts were not of fear but of perplexity about today’s materialistic, even hedonistic, culture.