A Student's Guide to the Core Curriculum by Mark C. Henrie ISI Books, $7.95 (US), 109 pages.As the role of the university is being debated in society, so too is the legitimacy of the liberal arts. At one point in our history, a liberal arts education was held in high regard, a mark of distinction that qualified a university graduate for an [...]
The Educated Child: A Parent's Guide from Preschool Through Eighth Grade by William J. Bennett, Chester E. Finn Jr., and John T.E. Cribb Jr. (Free Press, $44.50 hc, pb, 666 pages)The Educated Child, written by a former US Education Secretary (Bill Bennett), a professor of education (Chester Finn) and a former education department bureaucrat (John Cribb), was published two years ago but [...]
The Earl of Longford died earlier this month, a fact that in Britain provoked a response from almost every adult citizen. In Canada, he is less - perhaps little - known. Even so, he merited half-page obituaries in some newspapers and several radio and television discussions. I write about him because Lord Longford, or Frank Pakenham, was my godfather. He was 95 [...]
I'm Still a Radical: An Anthology of the Writings of Father Ted Colleton, C.S.Sp. Interim Publishing Company Ltd. Toronto $15 Good old Father Ted. What an inspiration he has been for an entire generation of pro-lifers throughout this country and beyond. First taking up his pen for pro-life upon returning to Canada in 1971 from mission work in Kenya, Father Ted has [...]
I knew Jerry Young for 13 years, since the Family Coalition Party of Ontario had a small office on Dundas Street East in downtown Toronto. He was on the executive of the party as vice-president, president and past president for most of those years. Jerry's approach to business and to politics was very direct and professional. You did not have to guess [...]
Life is a Blessing: A Biography of Jérôme Lejeune by Clara Lejeune (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), tr. by Michael J. Miller from the original French, La Vie est un bonheur: Jérôme Lejeune, mon père, 156 pp. $12 USD, $18 CAD, ISBN 2-7413-0163-8. The name Jérôme Lejeune is well known to Canadian pro-lifers. The distinguished geneticist crossed the Atlantic several times to [...]
William Gairdner offers a sobering diagnosis of our dangerously corrupt political culture The Trouble with Democracy: A Citizen Speaks Out by William Gairdner (Stoddart, $50, 534 pages)William Gairdner, author of The Trouble with Canada and The War Against the Family, now takes aim at the problems with democracy in The Trouble with Democracy: A Citizen Speaks Out. According to Gairdner, Canada and [...]
"I may be a bit late for lunch tomorrow because I have to say Mass in the morning for the old people at a nearby seniors' home. They move rather slowly, you know, and sometimes it takes them a while to get around," said Fr. Ted Colleton, himself a delightful 88-year-old, in a phone conversation. During lunch, we talked about his 60 [...]
Anti-euthanasia leader wants a 'human rights bioethic' Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America by Wesley J. Smith (Encounter Books, $36.75, 285 pages). In Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, Wesley J. Smith, author ofForced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder and an attorney for the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, indicts [...]
A long time supporter of Campaign Life Coalition and the pro-life cause has died after a brief struggle with cancer. Francis (Frank) Xavier Finn passed away March 4, 2001 at his Gananoque, Ontario home, surrounded by his family. A long-standing member of Knights of Columbus Council 4177, past Grand Knight, bulletin chairman and church activity chairman, he was an extraordinary minister of [...]
If pro-life work is advanced by a quiet but steady resolve in defence of innocent, unborn life, then Toronto's Bill McArthur certainly was an exemplary pro-lifer. Bill died February 19 at the age of 73. He had been in declining health due to lingering problems related to asthma and weakened lungs. A long-time employee of Canadian National Railways, Bill was one-half of [...]
Just days before he was scheduled to leave for New York to assist with pro-life lobby efforts at the United Nations, Campaign Life Coalition Youth member Paul Jalsevac was very seriously injured in a car accident. On March 5, 20-year-old Paul, the son of LifeSite manager Steve Jalsevac of Toronto, was hit head-on driving into the grounds of Christendom College in Virginia, where [...]
Prominent Montreal bioethicist opposes cloning, but aims for elusive balance on abortion The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit by Margaret Somerville (Toronto: Viking, 2000). 344 pages, $33.99 CAD. Margaret Somerville, founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, says in The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit that it is time for the [...]
Henry B. Bieber, husband of Alice Bieber, died peacefully in Pembroke January 27, 2001, in his 82nd year. Henry and Alice were longtime supporters of the pro-life cause and are remembered from the early 1970s when they joined Action Life of Ottawa in response to an advertisement in the Ottawa Citizen. Henry was born and raised in Saskatchewan and came to eastern [...]
NRO Weekend E.M. ("Elizabeth") Anscombe, who died at the age of 81 in January, was a titan in the world of philosophy, and one of the 20th century's most remarkable women. At Cambridge, she studied with Ludwig Wittgenstein, and upon his death in 1951 became one of his literary executors. Among her most important early contributions to philosophy were publications (often requiring [...]