Total contradiction

Re: Faithful find worship restrictions harsh (April 11):

It’s true that government COVID restrictions put on religious groups have been harsh. In Toronto, the Catholic Church has co-operated in following COVID protocols. Despite this, our churches have been given stringent restrictions not applied to liquor, beer and big box stores. Why?

About 30 years ago, a catalogue of Prince Philip’s personal library revealed more than 8,300 books, over 450 of them classified under the label of religion.

“Paid Sick Days.” This phrase keeps showing up in my social media and news feeds. Mostly it comes from Catholic social justice and labour union friends as well as from my local MPP (a member of the New Democratic Party). The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association has been calling for paid sick days in Ontario for some time as part of their COVID-19 advocacy. As far as I can see, they are the only significant Catholic institution that has been doing so. Does our Catholic faith support this position? Absolutely.

Those of us living with serious health concerns know the days can be long. I have always appreciated an expression I heard years ago: The days are long, but the years are short. 

In At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, Roger Ekirch discusses a practice in the early modern era whereby Western Europeans divided their nights in two, with a “first sleep” until midnight, and a later “second sleep” running through until morning.

In recent weeks, I have encountered a few Catholics who believe the current pandemic is not real, that it has been created by an anonymous “they” who want to restrict the civil liberties of ordinary people.

Assist D&P

Re: Religious raise concerns with D&P investigation (March 28):

Kudos to Mr. Swan’s report, in which Fr. Eric Oland, Jesuit Provincial Superior, and Br. Louis Cinq-Mars, former president of the Canadian Religious Conference, deplore the withholding of funds from the poorest of the poor for fear some of the funds could be used for family planning.

No one is exactly sure what was going through the mind of explorer Ferdinand Magellan when he landed on the island of Cebu in the Philippines in March of 1521.

The Church loves you, single people!

The Holy Week chaos that hit Ontario churches when the Ford government slammed on its COVID “emergency brake” hours before Good Friday is part of the chain reaction of frustration faithful Canadians are experiencing.