For more than 800 days, the Earth has been spinning its way around the sun, shining in spite of my sister’s death, but I struggled to see it. The sun and moon came and went, and I struggled to feel anything other than the sting of injustice at a world without her. 

Every day, we’re bombarded with the virtues of technology — from quantum leaps in health care to helping police solve crimes to simple conveniences enjoyed by holding more computing power in our hands than what was used to put humans on the moon.

Canada’s 43rd federal election is over — and for many Canadians it was dismal. It was a campaign of “gotcha” moments fought in the mud and a symptom of the greater rot in Canadian politics: the continued growth of so-called “affective partisanship,” or the tribal hostility felt by partisans of one party against partisans of another.

There is prudence in learning from the well-intended critiques of our critics even if the lesson isn’t what they necessarily want to teach us.

Papal dilemma

The moot question that concerns many attendees at the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon appears to be Pope Francis’ expected shift in mandatory clerical celibacy, which would be virulently opposed by conservatives. 

It was a humbled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who indulged the media after his Liberal Party was returned grudgingly to Ottawa with a minority government.

With 47 of 48 seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan going to the Conservative Party in the Oct. 21 election, those Tory MPs make up almost 40 per cent of their party’s caucus. They would have a dominant voice in government had the Conservatives won the election.

I’m still basking in the glow of the splendid Mass of canonization Oct. 13, presided over by Pope Francis and attended by tens of thousands of bishops, priests and faithful from all over the world.

I spent the two Sundays before election day handing out small booklets entitled “For Heaven’s Sake, Vote!” to parishioners after Mass. The booklet is a federal election guide published by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto.

I have been following an online course on St. Thomas Aquinas provided by the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans.