There was an interesting moment in the Republican presidential candidates’ debate in California a few weeks back. Brian Williams, the NBC news anchor and moderator, asked Rick Santorum, a prominent Catholic running for the Republican nomination, a question about poverty.


“The Catholic faith has as a part of it caring for the poor,” Williams said. “One in seven people in this country now qualifies as poor. Where do the poor come in? Where do they place? In this party, on this stage, in a Santorum administration?”

The Supreme Court of Canada in its decision handed down on the legality of InSite, the Vancouver drug injection site, has arrogantly decided that it is more capable of determining Canada’s national drug policy than the nation’s elected government.

It has ordered the Minister of Health to continue the operation of this controversial drug injection site even though, under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act (CDSA), this is supposed to be a matter for the Minister’s discretion.

Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Britain’s United Hebrew Congregation and a member of the House of Lords, is a remarkable man.

Educated at Cambridge, he obtained first-class honours in philosophy and pursued postgraduate studies at New College, Oxford, and King’s College, London, gaining a doctoral degree in 1981. He has been a visiting professor at several universities in Britain and abroad and holds honorary degrees from several universities. Unlike many academics, he writes clearly; unlike many clerics, he is not afraid to speak his mind.

All this is evident in a recent op-ed piece he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

The following is an extract from Dorothy Pilarski's forthcoming book "Motherhood Matters".

Click here to read more about the book or place an order.

One day at Sunday Mass a well-meaning dad arrived with a large plastic bag from a popular store. It contained a big, new toy for his young son. Something to entertain him during Mass. I can still see the bag’s big, green logo appearing from behind the kneeler, interrupting prayers.

Being a brand new toy, it was in plastic packaging that was torn open in the middle of Mass. What a racket! Several people nearby, including me, were mortified.  

I had to fight all my motherly instincts to lean over and give the man a scolding. What I really wanted to do was tug him out of the church by his ears and ask him: “What are you teaching your child? Do you want to teach him that no matter what is happening around him he is entitled to have fun?”

The Ontario election campaign has been on for a few weeks now and I have yet to hear Catholic education mentioned once.

That’s odd, considering all three main party leaders are graduates of the Catholic school system.
 Yet none of the three main parties specifically mention Catholic education or faith-based education in their platforms.

In the 2007 election, it seems that’s all we talked about.
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives promised to extend funding for faith-based schools beyond the Catholic system and include Protestant, Jewish and Muslim schools. The Liberals met that proposal with derision, claiming there should only be one public system that did not divide Ontario.

The first book that made me think seriously about Catholicism, that made me realize the depth of the faith and exposed its beauty to me, was Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain.

It literally put me over the hump past any lingering issues that were keeping me outside the Church.

The 1948 autobiography of the young American’s route from New York intellectual and man about town to Catholicism and finally the Trappist monastery in Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky is one of the great modern spiritual journeys.

I had to laugh the other day when my son kidded me at dinner time: “Steak? I don’t like steak!” He playfully suggested pizza, and my daughter chimed in that she wished I’d made a tossed salad instead of Caesar.

They reminded me of the teenage wisecracks I used to make about my mother’s cooking and, chuckling, I thought of how family dinners have been at the centre of my life since I was a little girl.

Not too long ago, a visitor from California was astonished to learn that our family gathered for a hot sit-down dinner almost every day.  

“Do people really still do that — have family dinners?” he asked.

It’s back-to-school time and, as the TV commercial jingle goes, “The most wonderful time of the year” . . .  for parents.

Reflecting on the summer holidays with our two children, aged 12 and 15, it was challenging at times juggling work and kids’ needs and demands. But, overall, it was clearly a “two thumbs up.”

What really tipped the balance for me was an impromptu, father-son excursion to a graveyard. It sounds a little strange, maybe even morbid, but hear me out.

My son and I were in Toronto running errands when it struck me that we were not far from Mount Hope Cemetery.

“Mind if we make a short detour?” I asked, needing to repeat the question after he finally pulled out his ear plugs.

On the morning after the concluding Mass of World Youth Day in Madrid, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were still roaming the streets with their flags and songs, and hundreds of buses were being loaded with luggage and weary pilgrims. An estimated 1.4 million people packed the Cuarto Vientos Airforce Base on Aug. 20 for the overnight Vigil and 1.5 million people attended Sunday Mass with Pope Benedict XVI the next morning.

Organizers, however, were not too pleased to admit that 250,000-plus pilgrims, including many Canadians, were turned away from the site due to overcrowding. I wonder if Spain was ready for the influx of so many pilgrims. Even many of the 6,000 accredited journalists got nowhere near the principal venues.

So, yes, there was much to be desired about the organization of this mega-event of the Catholic Church. But organizational issues were not the full story. No matter what was said during countless discussions around tapas, sangria and cerveza in Madrid, abundant seeds were sown. We must now pray for a bountiful harvest.

For me, some special memories from Madrid will endure.  

The depth of Roman Catholicism is so great it can keep those of us in the faith captivated for many lifetimes. And because of the Church’s position in society — a religion with one billion adherents, a head office that is actually a state, and facing endless criticism for moral positions that grate secular society — it is no wonder we can become obsessed with our own position in the world.

I spend an inordinate amount of time reading Catholic web sites and a theme that seems to emerge is that we are part of a mistreated, misunderstood minority. We should absolutely defend ourselves against prejudice and repression, combat plain ignorance and overcome the horrendous stereotype that the Church is a breeding ground for sexual abusers. But once in a while it is good to see which other religious group is taking it on the chin.

Last month I went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant, the annual celebration of the founding of the Mormon faith, at Palmyra, N.Y., where Joseph Smith, the religion’s first prophet, is said to have found gold tablets containing a new book of Scripture. I knew a little bit about Mormonism before going to Palmyra: that they used the Book of Mormon alongside the Old and New Testaments, that they believe a lost tribe of Israel settled in North America around 600 BC and that Jesus visited that tribe a few days after His resurrection. I have since learned they believe the dead can be baptized into the faith and their leaders are prophets who regularly receive revelations from God.