Twelve years after legalizing euthanasia for consenting adults facing dire medical situations, Belgium now permits euthanasia of terminally ill children. Next it wants to extend euthanasia to adults, primarily seniors, who lack the cognitive ability to give consent.
When Pope Benedict shocked the world one year ago by abdicating the See of St. Peter there was no precedent to suggest how this would play out. It had been 700 years since a Pope freely resigned but even then the departure was for reasons other than frailty and declining health.
God was abundant at the Toronto archdiocese’s recent inaugural Chesterton Debate. Dear old G.K., unfortunately, was in notably shorter supply.
It’s hard to complain when the Church gets taken to the woodshed over the sex abuse scandals. But a UN committee has gone way too far in a narrow-minded report that, by its omissions, is dishonest to the point of appearing vindictive and written principally to humiliate the Church.
It is official: Pope Francis is a rock star. Or, at least that is what Rolling Stone magazine is announcing to the world by putting the Pontiff on its current cover.
Israeli leaders have a fundamental duty to provide safety and security for their citizens. But they must act reasonably, and that does not include a carte-blanche license to bulldoze the rights and livelihoods of innocent people who pose no threat to anyone.
“You just want to sell newspapers!” is one of the most interesting insults that every reporter and editor hears at some point. There aren’t many professions liable to quite that sort of calumny.
In a spat between the federal government and several provinces over health-care coverage for refugees, we have no hesitation in picking sides. We choose the side of compassion, the side that embraces what Pope Francis calls a “generous openness” to always comfort society’s most vulnerable members.
TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins knows all about saving souls but with his appointment to the Vatican bank he’ll be getting a crash course in savings of another kind.
JERUSALEM - I have been to Israel more than a dozen times — as a pilgrim, leading pilgrimages, with my family, on a private retreat, for Christmas, for Holy Week, for board meetings, for the papal visit of 2009 — but never for something quite like this. I was invited to be part of the official delegation accompanying Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his visit this week to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (West Bank).
It is never easy to hear the Church address the sinful litany of sexual abuse that has caused so much harm to so many people. The discussion is always painful, but it is necessary.