Caring reality

Gerard Walsh of Saugeen Shores, Ont., states in a Nov. 27 letter to the editor of The Catholic Register there is a need to adjust for reality regarding falling church attendance. He claims there has been no adjustment at the parish level. 

When even the Toronto Star emits an editorial ululation against medically administered homicide, we know we’re at the event horizon of a national moral black hole. Forget slippery slopes. We’re in the gravitational pull of somewhere the light no longer shines.

It has been more than four months since the end of Pope Francis’ visit to Canada to meet with Indigenous people and apologize for the Catholic Church’s involvement and acts of terror in the Indian residential school system. It’s long enough for the next steps in the journey of reconciliation to have been at least discussed. Yet, there has been next to nothing.

Why are our young people leaving the Catholic Church en masse? Many “panic studies” and “exit polls” have been done to answer the question of this gargantuan exodus. 

About mid-way through his speech at what conceivably might be his last Cardinal’s dinner, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins paused and seemed to lean into the podium just after articulating the word homeless.

Remembrance Day is a powerful time for many, one where we are called on to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. As a long-time volunteer at Remembrance events, one of the minor, and comical, issues I have dealt with is the disappearing poppy.

Hee’s sign

I was moved by the picture in the Nov. 6 issue of the octogenarian priest Fr. Tony Van Hee holding up a sign that read, “The primacy of free speech is the cornerstone of Western Civilization.” 

Few things say “fallen humanity” better than the annual gaseous blowout of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

There are times in our lives when we feel sorry for ourselves and we cry out, “Why me?” Unfortunately for many it is followed by imagining that they hear God saying, “Why you? It’s because I don’t like you, that’s why.” They feel that if they had not sinned or made bad choices, then God would have loved them more and it would have all turned out differently.

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.