I am back to the basic I was raised with: to know, to love and to serve the Lord supported by the grace received from the sacraments. I have grown in my faith these past 10 years with learning how to have a quiet meditative and reflective time in the morning, which allows me to be more aware of those around me and of their needs. In my Church family, my awareness has increased with 52 years of Catholic Women’s League involvement and five years of assisting with the RCIA program at Transfiguration. It’s being part of a community, you pray for and with others in times of joy and sorrow. I believe that I am living my faith each and every day as a Christian Catholic.

Thank you to Deacon Andrew Bennett for his inspiring article and to the editor for posing this challenging question. It is one that needs to be asked on a regular basis to assist every person that dares to call themselves Catholic to stop, ponder, reflect and respond. For us, our Catholicity began at our baptism, was nourished through our parents, family, parish communities, faithful priests who guided us (and continue to do so), faith-filled elementary school teachers, receiving the sacraments and taking advantage of the many opportunities our Church offers today, encouraging us to learn and grow in our faith as we journey through adulthood, marriage and our senior years. 

Being Catholic, for me, is believing in the Apostle’s Creed and the sacraments.

Did wearing my big brother’s army jacket make me a soldier? Does attending the Eucharistic celebration and praying aloud, while “going our own way” otherwise, make me a Catholic? Certainly not. Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote that attending Mass religiously is the least one “must” do to be Catholic.  There is knowledge, education, training and an absolute “way of life” to be lived, to be a soldier, and probably even more so, to be a genuine, mature, Catholic. Belief in acceptance of, and surrender to, Christ and “all things Catholic” is of course necessary for true Catholicism. 

The Catholic faith is to submit to the Good Shepherd and the rock, His Church. Humans are flawed so we fall short. Humans are culture and the dominant culture is skewed from the way, the truth and the life so I was neither shocked nor surprised by the results of the poll. A devout Catholic is one who enters through the narrow gate because that is where the treasure resides. 

Clergy changes for the Archdiocese of Toronto, as of June 26 unless otherwise noted.

An attempt to overturn a decision to not fly the Pride flag on Dufferin Peel Catholic school properties was defeated June 11.

The only church to feature artwork by members of the famed Group of Seven Canadian artists burned to the ground, taking with it the “stunning” murals on its walls and dome.

Fr. Michael Brehl, leader of the Canadian Redemptorists, has been named new bishop for the Diocese of Pembroke.

Sr. Helena Burns foments the old Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory that the Freemasons were behind the French Revolution and Karl Marx’s writings in her May 26 column (“Christ’s face defeats anti-God Communists”).