May she find life, with her father
The early evening was warm and the sun had brought out the convertibles with their roofs down and music blaring. I was walking down Jarvis Street and passing Allan Gardens.
The health benefits of forgiveness
We’ve heard a lot about forgiveness lately, especially the immediate forgiveness from victims’ families to the shooter in the heinous murders in a Charleston, South Carolina, church.
- By Robert Brehl
Politics, pastor and presidents
When the massacre at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., took place, I was in the United States. I heard the news from another priest who, clearly devastated by the bloodshed in the house of God, added quickly thereafter a comment about the debate over gun control. I was struck at how even such a great wickedness was seen so quickly through the prism of politics. And indeed, in the days after the massacre, the talk shifted to political debates over gun laws and the confederate flag. The pastor of Mother Emmanuel, Clementa Pickney, murdered in his own church while leading a Bible study, was also a member of the South Carolina state senate, a pastor holding political office.
A people’s revolution
More than a call to clean up the planet, Laudato Si’ is a plea for humankind to clean up its act. The Pope’s straight-talking encyclical implores people of all nations and faiths to unite in a bold cultural and spiritual revolution to reverse the destruction of the environment.
Two steps forward, one step back
The Vatican last week released the Pope’s encyclical on the environment and while many pundits suggested the Catholic Church and its spiritual leader should butt out of ecological politics and economics, the Pope’s hard-hitting missive about our endangered planet got a relatively positive review.
Man must serve God through His creation
The Book of Job, one of the great masterpieces of not only biblical literature, but all literature, is rarely read at Sunday Mass. Yet it was there last Sunday, a brief excerpt from the devastating speech of the Lord God to Job, who has dared to question Him: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the universe?
Propping up the faith
Some Catholic friends and I recently had a discussion on the constant renewal of faith being necessary for faith to be truly faithful.
A woman offered up an intensely self-critical testimony about her frustration at how much she must struggle to keep her faith a matter of vital assent rather than mere acquiescence.
10-year-old becomes pawn for the pro-abortion lobby
By Michael Kinsalla, Catholic Register Special
A 10-year-old Paraguayan girl is at the centre of an international controversy over “reproductive rights” after she was allegedly raped and impregnated by her stepfather. All cases of child abuse are emotionally contentious and morally outrageous but, as is often the case with vulnerable young women and children, this girl is now a pawn in the wider gambit of the pro-abortion lobby.
Moral awakening
Corruption is a child of greed and vanity. It tempts those blinded by arrogance and seduced by money. It is found across society, in business, sports, the Church, but particularly in politics.
Ours is a religion of culture
Two recent papal-related events highlighted that Catholicism is meant to be a religion of culture. Every culture, as St. John Paul II taught, answers the fundamental questions of life and different cultures are differentiated by their response to the mystery of God.
Faith in the crosshairs
In a matter of days the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to release its decision on same-sex marriage. While it has ruled on issues related to gay unions in the past, this time it will address the big question: is marriage a fundamental right afforded to every citizen under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?