Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Death is an uncomfortable fact of life, one we should face head-on | National Catholic Reporter

"(T)here is a curious blind spot in these various calls for the Church to repent. Secular figures rarely feel a need to disavow their own complicity in crimes, even when many of them, still living to this day, bear no little guilt for atrocities that make the Church’s sins pale by comparison. Take the Inquisition. Beyond question the Church was involved in religious trials that probably led to the deaths of several thousand people over the centuries. Though the process was conducted under a strict legal code, it was wrong to execute people for their beliefs. But as the Polish poet Cszelaw Milosz has reminded us, communism in some of the larger countries killed more people on average per day than the Church killed in centuries . Rare is the Western intellectual who supported communism and repented of that monstrous error." Interesting perspective! On Secular Repentance | Crisis Magazine

This link will take you to a blog written by a parent after his daughter died 24 hrs after being discharged from an Ontario hospital in the G.T.A. He has asked other bloggers from Ontario to help him to get the government to properly investigate what occurred so as to spare another family from the grief and pain that has befallen them. Check out his website and offer a word of encouragement - or better yet, take up your virtual 'pen' and join him in his campaign. No Accountability or Transparency in Ontario

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and perpetual light shine upon him. May the soul of Tyler Todd, rest in peace. Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan - CTV News

Brett & Kate McKay write an simple etiquette on how one responds to a death of a family member or friend. Death is always a part of our existence, and it is almost certain that we will experience the death of others before we face our own. As a priest I appreciate how difficult this time can be for mourners and their friends. Alas, I also have experienced more than a few inappropriate moments when people committed some major faux pas that has made the grief experience worse for the people intimately involved. Click here or on the title of this post to read it for yourself if you want to review how to act in such difficult times.