Borrow now

Because some Indigenous people will die before they can benefit from the five-year fundraising plan to raise $30 million for residential school survivors, it would be better for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to borrow the money and fundraise afterwards.

Mainstream outlets and social media players had kittens last week over remarks attributed to Pope Francis about the “selfishness” of people keeping pets in place of raising children.

I was recently interviewed by a secular news outlet about a new fictional film featuring nuns. I almost didn’t do the interview. Why not? Because I know better.

Growing numbers of commentators are warning of “a grave danger” to American democracy — the possibility of a civil war or other anti-democratic actions by right-wing extremists aimed at overthrowing the United States government.

It was one of these soft evenings when a gentle snowfall enveloped the drabness of the streets, and with no breeze to speak of, the chill had been taken from the air. As I walked the downtown streets the ancient hymn came to my mind, “See Amid the Winter’s Snow.”

Our world is filled with positive and negative spaces — cracks and openings, fissures and holes. It is human nature to want to fill these spaces, whether through words into silence or action into stillness. How often have we seen someone babbling to fill in an uncomfortable silence, unable to let the stillness take hold?

Missing piece

In his favourable review of the biography of Pope Benedict XVI by Peter Seewald (A Thorough Look at Benedict’s Life, Dec. 19), Ian Hunter admits the biography “does not shed much light” on Benedict’s 2013 resignation. To uncover the truth about this historical event requires more than research. The facts would yield only to the most tenacious and painstaking investigative journalism.

Finalizing a “framework” for a five-year “campaign” to “fundraise” for a cause are hardly the whiz bang motivational words most of us need to roar out of the blocks for 2022. Set alongside, say, “sprinkling pixie dust to miraculously end the pandemic,” they might even appear a little, well, beige.

Around Christmas we often hear about the miracle of God coming to us as a baby. To think of God, the being who is being itself, of whom nothing that exists is higher, made Himself vulnerable and poor. Many scholars think He was born in a cave. It must have been cold as hell.