At Advent I’m flooded with memories of childhood and growing up in a devout Polish immigrant home. My family������Ƶapp life revolved around Toronto������Ƶapp St. Stanislaus Kostka Church at Queen and Bathurst. I would be there several times a week for catechism classes, Polish school, youth group, Polish folk dancing, my dad������Ƶapp choir practice, mom������Ƶapp Legion of Mary.

During Advent there were church rehearsals for the parish Nativity play, one of the biggest Sunday afternoons of the year when we’d await the spectacular visit from St. Nicolas. Dressed like a bishop, he brought goodies for all the kids.

My mother died on Nov. 13, age 99, just a few weeks short of her hundredth birthday. She had lived a long, productive life, including careers as medical secretary, teacher, librarian and homemaker. Her last three years were spent in a nursing home where, by the way, she received good care.

As the surly manifestations of age and decrepitude became more prevalent, she was oftimes spiteful and angry, but when death came it was quite peaceful. So, after a long life and calm death, who could ask for more. Certainly not me. G.K. Chesterton cautioned against looking a gift universe in the mouth, and I have always thought that sage advice.

There really is such a thing as the sound of a jaw dropping. And you can hear it over the phone.

“Dorothy, you’re home? You are not in Spain? I just wired you $500!”

That������Ƶapp when my friend������Ƶapp jaw dropped, and I got an instant pain in my stomach. Earlier that morning I learned that hackers had invaded one of my e-mail accounts. A professional ring of scammers, pretending to be me, told everyone in my address book I had been burglarized and left stranded at the embassy in Valencia. And I was desperate for financial help.

Armed with the extraordinary social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, I recently made a deputation to a City of Toronto committee examining contracting out work currently being done by unionized cleaning staff.

As a concerned citizen, father, grandfather and former educator who has taught social ethics to thousands, I am appalled at the attack on the workers’ rights to earn a living wage. But, sadly, this is not an isolated case involving one group of low-paid cleaners. There is a trend evident across many levels of public life and private enterprise to squeeze wages from working families.

Writing in the National Post Oct. 25, Terrence Corcoran insists that even more important than criticizing the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace for talking about the “ideology of markets” is a need to “head off the Roman Catholic Church������Ƶapp mad rush into global statism and authoritarianism.”

Corcoran was commenting on the recent statement by council president Cardinal Peter Turkson, entitled “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority.”

The Vatican bureaucracy has been known to make a mess out of public relations. This is not my own unique discovery. Last September I attended a course for journalists at the Vatican and this was a major topic of discussion.

Even journalists from the Catholic press could not believe how poorly the Vatican handles the dissemination of information. There were journalists based in Rome who spoke of the gross incompetence of the Church in trying to explain itself to the world.

The following is an edited excerpt from Motherhood Matters: Inspirational Stories, Letters, Quotes & Prayers for Catholic Moms by Dorothy Pilarski and published by Catholic Register Books.

At the beginning of November we celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day, and Remembrance Day follows soon thereafter. These three days remind Catholics to be united in mind and heart with both the saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory. We should be thankful for those who died as martyrs defending our faith and those who died to preserve our freedom.

There was an interesting moment in the Republican presidential candidates’ debate in California a few weeks back. Brian Williams, the NBC news anchor and moderator, asked Rick Santorum, a prominent Catholic running for the Republican nomination, a question about poverty.


“The Catholic faith has as a part of it caring for the poor,” Williams said. “One in seven people in this country now qualifies as poor. Where do the poor come in? Where do they place? In this party, on this stage, in a Santorum administration?”

The Supreme Court of Canada in its decision handed down on the legality of InSite, the Vancouver drug injection site, has arrogantly decided that it is more capable of determining Canada������Ƶapp national drug policy than the nation������Ƶapp elected government.

It has ordered the Minister of Health to continue the operation of this controversial drug injection site even though, under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act (CDSA), this is supposed to be a matter for the Minister������Ƶapp discretion.

Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Britain������Ƶapp United Hebrew Congregation and a member of the House of Lords, is a remarkable man.

Educated at Cambridge, he obtained first-class honours in philosophy and pursued postgraduate studies at New College, Oxford, and King������Ƶapp College, London, gaining a doctoral degree in 1981. He has been a visiting professor at several universities in Britain and abroad and holds honorary degrees from several universities. Unlike many academics, he writes clearly; unlike many clerics, he is not afraid to speak his mind.

All this is evident in a recent op-ed piece he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.