Catholic Register Columns

Remember the poor

editor@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Editorial) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:34:38 -0400

{mosimage}Where is Paul Martin Jr. when you need him? Oh yes, we threw him out of office in 2006. Yet while he had his problems as prime minister, his track record as finance minister still gives heft to his economic advice, especially in these turbulent times.

Martin has kept a low profile since resigning as leader of the Liberal party. But he was in the news in late October with the release of his political memoirs, Hell or High Water. In it, he mused about the current economic crisis. He may have been boasting a bit, talking about how his government pulled federal finances out of deep deficits and put the government��Ƶapp house in order. But he earned his bragging rights and one of his points was well worth remembering.

Gratitude is a lifestyle choice

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:53:00 -0400

{mosimage}“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God��Ƶapp will for you in Christ Jesus.” I Thessalonians 5:18

Thanksgiving has come and gone once again, but I’m still in a thankful frame of mind, for a couple of reasons. First, my American friends and relatives are gearing up for their Thanksgiving celebration this month. Second, I like the warm, fuzzy feelings of gratitude and its by-product, generosity, that Thanksgiving inspires, and I’ve been contemplating how to perpetuate them.

A tale of two elections

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:11:28 -0400

{mosimage}If there is such a thing as election envy, and the degree of fascination Canadians have with Sen. Barack Obama suggests there may be an element of wistfulness if not outright envy, the difference between this fall��Ƶapp Canadian election and the U.S. presidential race would surely provoke it.

It��Ƶapp not just that the stakes are higher; being prime minister is a somewhat less exalted and demanding role than U.S. president. It is as if the response to higher stakes seems to be an elevated discourse, an appreciation that politicians shouldn’t just be about tactical considerations but should also be concerned with fundamental values. It also encompasses a notion that political decisions might actually touch on issues of who we are as well as what we might do this fiscal quarter.

Moral leadership

editor@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Editorial) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:54:08 -0400

{mosimage}It��Ƶapp probable that a majority of Canadians felt deflated by the Oct. 14 election. Nobody really won, even though the Conservatives emerged with a slightly larger minority. Instead, we lacked real leadership — the kind that people truly want to follow instead of just tolerate.

The resignation of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion reminds us of what real leadership requires, mainly because his own deficiencies revealed the missing ingredients. It��Ƶapp true that Dion showed intelligence, integrity, boldness and creativity (in his poorly understood GreenShift). And by stepping down, he displayed a rare selflessness. But he failed at an essential task of leadership: getting others to follow.

We are all exiles

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:06:49 -0400

{mosimage}The appearance of a new Ron Hansen novel is always the occasion for careful scrutiny and delicious pleasure. He is the finest contemporary Catholic fiction writer in the United States, in my view (sorry Anne Rice), and his latest — — is one of his finest.

The author of several novels of inventive power and historical elasticity (Hitler��Ƶapp Niece, Mariette in Ecstasy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Hansen delights in mixing historical fact with possibility, religious feeling with erotic need, saintly endeavour with the cold winds of reason.

Let's learn from this 'teachable moment'

johnbm@catholicregister.org (John Bentley Mays) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:01:40 -0400

For all the damage it��Ƶapp doing, the crisis shaking the foundations of the world��Ƶapp financial system has spawned at least one booming industry: economic punditry.

If you haven’t been camped out in Algonquin Park for the last two months, you are surely familiar with what I’m talking about: the endless parade of experts before the cameras of cable TV news networks, each with learned opinions about what��Ƶapp gone wrong with the world and what��Ƶapp to be done about it. Finger-pointing abounds. Some blame consumers, chronically addicted to the cheap, easy credit of the last several years. Others confidently blame “predatory” lenders, or absent-minded regulators, or the profligacy of public-sector spending by governments living far beyond their means.

A Catholic monarchy?

editor@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Editorial) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:31:30 -0400

{mosimage}One of the last vestiges of official anti-Catholicism in the world is the British Crown. Yet most Canadians are probably unaware that the Queen of England (or King) — Canada��Ƶapp head of state — is prohibited by law from being Roman Catholic or marrying a Roman Catholic.

Blinded by science

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:35:29 -0400

{mosimage}The cheapest shot against scientists, who rail loudly and at length against religious believers, is that they are scientific fundamentalists. It��Ƶapp a cheap shot simply because science is supposed to be open, inquiring, rational and devoted to truth wherever it is to be found.

So when scientists set out to act like fundamentalists and do so in the manner of the Inquisition, the first reaction has to be disbelief. The second has to be a sober look at the growing phenomenon of scientific fundamentalism.

Market idolatry

editor@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Editorial) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:24:02 -0400

{mosimage}The international financial crisis is no longer just about Wall Street — if it ever was. Today, increasingly, it is about Main Street and its residents, about people who are losing homes, jobs, pensions and savings.

In a way, the international economic system is a kind of Tower of Babel, built on its own internal logic, but a logic that essentially created a house of cards. It was built on an ever-expanding consumption of goods; when the production of wealth could not keep up with the need to feed mass consumption, developed nations simply turned to debt. When that tower of debt began to crumble as some of its weaker bricks gave way, the whole edifice began to tumble.

Christian persecution stains India

johnbm@catholicregister.org (John Bentley Mays) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:45:09 -0400

The worsening persecution of Indian Christians by fundamentalist Hindus is a black mark on India��Ƶapp modernizing democracy and a violation of Hinduism��Ƶapp basic principle of tolerance for other religions.

Western Christians should stand in solidarity with our Indian brothers and sisters who are being murdered, mutilated and driven from their homes, whose houses are being burned and whose churches are being desecrated and destroyed. In this Canadian election season, we should exact a promise from our prospective members of Parliament that they will urge the next government to encourage Delhi to beef up its current, woefully ineffective campaign to halt the violence.