Where the Rubber Hits the Road

My former boss, +Richard Smith (Edmonton) is interviewed in the wake of his election as President of the CCCB (Canadian Bishops Conference). In it, he speaks of the life agenda as the most immediate and pressing issue for Catholics to confront today. I couldn't agree more. We were incredibly fortunate to have been under his leadership in our Pembroke Diocese from 2002 - 2007. To use a modern secular analogy, we were his 'practice diocese' where he learned the lessons of his craft and ministry among Canada's friendliest people, the folks of the Ottawa Valley. New head of Canada’s bishops: Abortion is ‘the most outrageous injustice today’ | LifeSiteNews.com

My former 'boss' gets a new job! Congratulations Archbishop Richard Smith on becoming the President of the CCCB. I have no doubt at all that he'll do a great job. Canadian bishops elect new president : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

I have only one problem with this letter from the Bishops. They have again published something that is putatively addressed to the laity, (in this case, married couples) but they employ language that's beyond their understanding. It makes excellent use of theological language to express the nuance and finesse of this teaching but this renders it almost incomprehensible to anyone without training in theology. Until the Bishops learn how to present their message using the parlance of everyday life, comprehensible to the majority of Catholics, they're wasting their time and resources as few can take advantage of what they offer. They must come to understand that people are bushed when they get to that point in their day when they would be free to read such a document. They're too tired to slog their way through the dense theological language that the letter is written with. The Bishops have forgotten that the Catholics that they are addressing, lack the catechetical training...

Everyone is going to die. Life is a terminal illness. The concern the proponents of euthanasia  are raising deals with the means and conduct of death. If we have the desire and capacity when we are able, we can legally suicide. What they are speaking to is that moment when one no longer has the capacity to effect their own death. This desire to have someone else act as our agent when we approach our end is our fear of pain and profound existential angst.  If a medical coma is as effective as claimed, in as much it can suppress all conscious and unconscious thought, then it would seem to provide the same conclusion sought for with suicide. Why change the law to permit euthanasia when palliative care can provide the same abyss that is desired by those who rush to embrace in death just to alleviate an irrational fear?  This irrationality is all the more ironic coming as it does primarily from those who claim Voltaire's model of reason 'above all else' as their clarion call...

Father Tim, I just couldn't figure out how to email you at your blog.  I hope this will suffice.  I am trying to get some leverage for a fast/pray initiative this Monday.  Could you please help by mentioning it on your blog?  (besides, the radicals will love to hear that we STILL fast and pray in desperate times!) Thanks so much, Father Tim. Kathie Hogan Parry Sound, Ontario ---------------------------------------------------- John Pacheco (SoCon or Bust) has called for a day of fasting and prayer this Monday.  (and you thought I'd ask you to write a letter!) The Canadian bishops will be talking about Development and Peace at 11:45am on Monday, at their annual plenary session, in Cornwall, Ontario.  Pro-lifers have been waiting a long time to hear the bishops speak definitively on why - 1. Development and Peace is giving money to fund 47 pro-abortion groups in the Third World? (see: http://www.socon.ca/index/dp_abortion.html and http://www.li...

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:...

I am often saying that the Canadian Bishops (all Bishops for that matter) need to be judged not on how they dealt with sex abuse cases in the past, but by how they are living up to their policy today. So here is a link that will take you to the official policy of the Canadian Bishops. Use it to measure and determine whether or not the Church is currently practicing what it preaches!