Last winter, Quebec Catholics knelt on ice in Arctic weather to celebrate Mass outdoors after the provincial government sealed church entrances without warning.

The overriding “reform” of the Second Vatican Council was a renewed call to mission to the world. The reform of the liturgy, the expanded sense of Church as the pilgrim people of God, the openness to ecumenism and the paring back of Catholic triumphalism are all to be of service to that central idea.

If you are feeling discouraged about the state of the world and the Church these days, please remember that hope is one of the three theological virtues infused into you at your baptism. St. Paul tells us that “…these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13); but perhaps the “hardest of these” can be hope.

In 1946, George Orwell published a short essay entitled, “Politics and the English Language.” It is a gem that deserves to be ritually proclaimed on an annual basis in town squares across the land.

Communion, Participation and Mission are the three key words the Vatican has outlined for the synodal process. My last column was the first of a three-part series that tells the tale of living synodality through these three key words. The tale continues this month — moving on to the key word  “participation.”

In the classic movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, John Candy is driving late at night when a car comes alongside with the person at the wheel shouting with increasing urgency: “You’re going the wrong way.” Candy shrugs and rolls his eyes: “How would he know where we are going?” After careering through two oncoming semi-trucks — a near-death experience — Candy’s character comes to realize he was indeed going the wrong way. 

Historic wash out

I am having a hard time justifying renewing my subscription when The Catholic Register completely misrepresents the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops got a hot scolding last week from the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec for what the FPJQ called a “deplorable” decision to bar journalists from this week’s plenary meetings.

Once in a blue moon someone asks me what we can do to shake our fellow citizens, including fellow Catholics, out of their apathy.

Distinctly Indigenous

Beyond apologies and reparations, the Canadian Catholic Church needs to make fundamental changes to its relations with Indigenous peoples. After almost 400 years, the Church has produced only a tiny number of Indigenous clergy. The main reason is the requirement of clerical celibacy that goes against the fundamental Indigenous values of family and kin relationships.