Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Archbishop Tim Dolan (NY) posted this excellent article on his blog addressing the current spate of cries calling for radical 'reforms' or 'harmonization' of Church teaching to current mores.  Gotta love these JPII & B16 appointments to the episcopate. Some have failed to make the grade but many have excelled at 'preaching, governing and sanctifying' the Church and effectively engaging with modern culture at the same time. +Dolan, +Chaput in the US, +Smith, +Prendergast, +Henry and +Collins in Canada are a few who rank  among the best of them! What ever they offer is well worth reading for any serious Catholic. Preserving Our Faith « The Gospel in the Digital Age

Here is a recent article from Bishop Fred Henry (Calgary). He is one of Canada's most effective Bishops when it comes to writing clearly. He is also one who practices what he preaches! When he was rector of the Seminary I studied at he implemented a practice that would have saved us all a great deal of pain if it were implemented throughout the Church. "The benefit of the doubt" he would say "must always flow to the Church". This meant that if there was some doubt that a candidate for the priesthood would be a holy and effective priest that he should not proceed to ordination. Prevention is first defence against child abuse, says bishop

Wrong Ruling on Same-sex Marriage by Bishop Fred Henry (Calgary) Regrettably both the Calgary Herald editorial and the Saskatchewan Appeal Court got it wrong re marriage commissioners. Religious belief is intertwined with our nation’s history, the spirit of the founding fathers and mothers of our nation, our national anthem, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms  which begins “Whereas Canada is founded upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Immediately, the Charter proceeds to list our fundamental freedoms. The first one is the freedom of conscience and religion. The second is freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression. Only after, not before,  asserting our fundamental freedoms, does the Charter begin to spell out rights - first democratic rights, then mobility rights, followed by legal rights, then equality rights , etc. Freedom of conscience and of religion. is a primary and inalienable right of the human p...

A real shot in the arm -- a holistic and holy approach to health For The Calgary Herald Published: Saturday, November 06, 2010   Re: HPV decision show Catholic school trustees should be appointed by the bishop, by Juliet Guichon, Nov. 2. One of the few things that Juliet Guichon and I agree upon is that society ought to embrace the means available to prevent diseases like the human papillomavirus (HPV). The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada in its recommendations regarding HPV prevention states as its first recommendation: "1. Counselling and other educational activities should stress (a) that abstinence is the most efficient way to prevent HPV infection but must include avoidance of not only penetration of the vagina or the anus but also any anogenital contact and the sharing of sex toys." In Catholic education, we take that very seriously and we seek to teach students about the beauty and nature of human sexuality, marriage and conjugal love, abstinence a...

It's wrong to point finger at Pope in sex abuse scandals

I've been saying this for years! It is time for the church to go on the offensive in trying to answer its critics. Failure to do so is counted not in convictions or cases but in souls lost to God. At least the latest set of attacks have brought some Bishops into the public square to defend the faith and its leaders. Still not enough though. Bishops Collins (Toronto), Smith (Edmonton) and Henry (Calgary) have set the example that their brother priests need to follow. PLEASE PRAY that more Canadian Bishops will find the courage to do the same. Fr. Tim Catholics' ties to church tested by crisis

Working as I do within the beauty of the Ottawa Valley, I see many cars pass by from “la belle province” emblazoned with the motto “je me souviens” imprinted on each licence plate. These words is a declaration of the desire of the majority francophone people to  “remember” the struggles of “la révolution tranquille” (the Quiet Revolution) ; an epoch which transformed Quebec society into the modern secular state, within whom the francophone population, seemingly all at once, have turned a deaf ear to the voice of the Catholic Church within their culture. They've chosen instead to follow the siren cry of the modern secularist project. In the wake this sudden shift, the Catholic Church was  rendered  impotent and irrelevant in the minds of the overwhelming majority of the Quebec population. Within the few years of the Quiet Revolution, virtually 400 years of Catholic practice had vanished.   The most graphic illustration of this variation can be seen in statistics re:...

Here is an excellent article to contemplate when challenged to prove that the voice of faith has a right to be heard within every medium of modern society. In a letter, written in defense of Pastor Steven Boissons, Bishop Henry of Calgary viscerates the philosophic underpinnings of modern day secularism as practiced today in Canada. It is this philosophy which dominates the public square these days, creating an ever increasingly hostile atmosphere for the free expression of one's religious convictions. You can say that a church is still free to speak and preach its creed and beliefs, however you demand that they be punished for believing in values contrary to current public opinion, then their speech is hardly free. Given Bishop Henry's involvement in the NP Holy Blog story about a Calgary church being stripped of its charitable status , thus denying it the right to offer tax receipts. This decision is not made because they are not a charitable organization...they serve ov...

The rain has been falling steadily all day, so it seems appropriate to share a few thoughts about those who have recently been raining on the efforts of others to work to promote Catholic values in our society. It would not be so bad if these voices were coming from those who are agents of the "Culture of Death", but alas this is not the case. The criticisms have come from those who claim to be fighting for the church. Allow me to offer an example. Bishop Fred Henry, (Diocese of Calgary, AB) has released a letter that calls for the defeat of Bill 384 which is imminently to be voted on in the Canadian House of Commons. This proposed piece of legislation would permit the widest possible application of the "right to die", a.k.a. euthanasia for everything from people suffering with terminal diagnoses through to those who suffer from depression or other mental diseases. Clearly this bill must be opposed. It is one thing for individuals to refuse treatment or to be tr...