On December 31, 2022, Pope Benedict XVI went to his reward. Despite his age and poor health, the reality of his death left many of us heartbroken. 

On that December morning, I looked at the website of the National Post, a paper where I worked for 15 years. Part my time there was covering religion and ethics and it was through my reporting that I was finally convinced to become a Catholic.

We live in an altered universe in which some have the power to destroy a group or individual without proof but with vile labels. Worse, they are funded by our federal government with your tax dollars.

They are the arbiters what may be expressed and what should be suppressed, and even what may be believed. Some call it cancel culture. It should be called what it is: bigotry.

What happens to a society in which killing replaces care? What happens when ending a life is considered compassionate and the preserving of life cruel?

In the early 1970s there was a movie called Soylent Green. It starred Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. It was the first film I saw that was a dystopian vision of the future. It took place in a New York City in which the population has exploded to the point of anarchy. In response, the state came up with a voluntary suicide program to lessen the crowding.

The Catholic Church is in decline. That’s the takeaway from a Statistics Canada report released in October. It found that in the past 10 years the number of Catholics in Canada declined by two million souls. It seems straightforward enough, but I’m not sure what it means.  

Throughout history anti-Semitism has consistently raised its ugly head. From murderous pogroms in Russia to the ultimate in hatred that played out in the Holocaust. Even in Canada when Jews were trying to find refuge in Canada in the 1930s the popular slogan was: None Is Too Many.

My inclination is to defend whoever is our pope. I say this for several reasons. For one a pope is Christ’s shadow on Earth. I also believe popes are chosen by men influenced by the Holy Spirit. Lastly, I’m a convert. The idea of criticizing a pope seems presumptuous for someone relatively new to the faith.

Once in a blue moon someone asks me what we can do to shake our fellow citizens, including fellow Catholics, out of their apathy.

We are about to turn a corner into madness. In March of next year, the mentally ill will be eligible for euthanasia.