Catholic Register Columns

Debating Christian ‘fascism’

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:53:53 -0500

Conventional wisdom can only take you so far. Take the notion that talk is better than fighting. On the surface it seems obvious. With experience you learn that it all depends on the nature of the talk and the people doing the talking. The perfect lesson for this took place at Innis Hall at the University of Toronto on Feb. 6.

There��Ƶapp plenty of room for more

johnbm@catholicregister.org (John Bentley Mays) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:51:32 -0500

Last month in Ottawa, the Anglican Catholic Church — not to be confused with either the Anglican Church of Canada or the Catholic Church — consecrated two new bishops. According to all reports, it was a moment of celebration for the small denomination, which, some 30 years ago, split off from mainstream Anglicanism over the ordination of women.

Pity the children

crstaff@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Staff) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 02:54:18 -0500

Every week brings new headlines of battles won and lost on the family front. Too often, they are depressingly familiar: another aspect of the traditional family bites the dust in the quest for personal self-fulfilment.

Liturgy of the Hours a treasure in our midst

johnbm@catholicregister.org (John Bentley Mays) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:06:43 -0500

Among the initiatives of the Second Vatican Council aimed at making the church��Ƶapp ancient rites more accessible to God��Ƶapp people, the reforms and translations of the Mass have been the most successful, as well as the most controversial. Less successful, however, have been the attempts to bring the Liturgy of the Hours — the church��Ƶapp majestic daily prayer — out of the cloister and the priest��Ƶapp study and into the daily life of Christians.

On being green

crstaff@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Staff) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:04:11 -0500

It��Ƶapp fascinating to watch how we’ve all become so busy being green. Blame it on our weird winter, or the ever-increasing traffic gridlock in our cities, but Canadians are finally beginning to join the world in their concern about environmental destruction.

We will miss Archbishop Meagher dearly

crstaff@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Staff) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 05:18:33 -0500

Many people will have their stories about Archbishop Anthony Meagher, who died Jan. 14 at age 66, but I will always remember him as the first-time visitor to my house who put his feet on my coffee table.

A modern Passion

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:52:44 -0500

I have long been a keen student of writers from Atlantic Canada. Wayne Johnston, Alister MacLeod and Lisa Moore are but a few of the more recent novelists who have managed to capture not only a national but an international audience. And their work is good. Very good.

Unity stills beckons

crstaff@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Staff) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:41:12 -0500

When Pope Benedict XVI was elected to replace the inimitable Pope John Paul II, he promised to carry on his beloved successor's work, particularly that related to ecumenism. As is often the case, the press of events can overtake the best laid plans and so ecumenism has often appeared to play second fiddle to other issues.

A case of too little too late

johnbm@catholicregister.org (John Bentley Mays) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 03:31:36 -0500

As one of those who opposed U.S. military intervention in Iraq from the outset of this adventure four years ago, I would have liked the quick official response of the American Catholic bishops to President George Bush's recent decision to boost U.S. military force in Iraq to go further than it did, and declare the intervention to be immoral at its very core. As it stands, however, the statement issued on Jan. 12 by Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is wise and sensible counsel about the extraordinarily difficult situation faced by the Western principals in the conflict.

Anything goes now

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 02:33:28 -0500

Five-year-old D. — in the brave new world parlance of the Ontario Court of Appeal — has "two mums." He has three parents: B., his biological father; C., his birth mother; and A., his mother's lesbian partner. Two parents are enough for most of us, sometimes more than enough; but thanks to the wisdom of our judges, D. now has three parents.