National Affairs Rory Leishman Should morally enlightened judges strike down any statute that sanctions pornography, abortion, or euthanasia? The late, great Antonin Scalia did not think so. As a devout Catholic, he clearly understood that pornography, abortion, and euthanasia are unmitigated evils, yet as one of the most learned judges ever to serve on the Supreme Court of the United [...]
Commentary St. Jerome’s University, in Waterloo, Ont., and purportedly a Catholic institution, has decided to fly the LGBTQ flag on its campus to celebrate “Pride” month. Interim President Scott Kline, whose term began on July 1, 2019, defended the action as a way of sending the message that “all are welcome in this place.” The immediate reaction to the move has shown [...]
"Separation of church and state!” “Canada is a secular country!” “We can’t let religion dictate policy!” I’m sure we’ve all heard variations of these, if not the phrases verbatim, at various points in our lives. Indeed, the mere suggestion that a course of action may have a moral element seems to trigger knee-jerk reactions along these veins. There’s some truth to them, [...]
Father Alphonse de Valk Fr. Alphonse Anthony Maria de Valk, a Basilian priest for 55 years, passed away peacefully April 16 at the palliative care unit of the Scarborough General Hospital in Toronto at the age of 88 after a battle with pneumonia. Fr. de Valk was born March 27, 1932, in Rotterdam, Netherlands to Martien de Valk and Christina [...]
Fr. Alphonse de Valk On Easter Sunday of 1932, Alphonse Anthony Maria de Valk was born in the Netherlands. What used to be known as Christendom had just endured one World War and would soon suffer another. After living through that ordeal, the young de Valk took the path of so many Europeans after the war in emigrating to North [...]
Fr. Alphonse de Valk, RIP Fr. Alponse de Valk died April 16. He was a Catholic priest, historian, teacher, and leader, Read the tribute to Fr. de Valk from Interim editor Paul Tuns on the occasion of his retirement as editor of Catholic Insight. The Interim will have an obituary in the May edition of the paper. Fr. de Valk honoured at [...]
Yukon looks to join provinces, cities outlawing the procedure Ann Gillies speaking at a Campaign Life Coalition clergy luncheon in February warning that bans on conversion therapy threatens religious freedom and parental rights. On March 6, Justice Minister David Lametti tabled a bill to make it a crime to outlaw conversion therapy for minors to help them overcome same-sex extraction [...]
Amusements Three years ago I was asked to write about HBO’s The Young Pope, which was expected to be a sucker punch attack on the Catholic Church and the papacy. It turned out to be a startling but surreal story that sympathized with a youthful and charismatic new pontiff who planned to reverse the Church back past the liberalizations of [...]
Rory Leishman National Affairs For a striking illustration of the moral and spiritual degradation that afflicts so many ostensibly Christian universities in North America, consider the contrasting reactions to the screening of the excellent pro-life movie Unplannedat Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and King’s University College at Western University in London, Ontario. Given that both Benedictine College and King’s [...]
Editor’s Note:On Feb. 25, Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, released a statement on the introduction of Bill C-7:An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying). The Interim reprints the statement in full. The federal government has introduced new legislation expanding the eligibility criteria for euthanasia. The inaccurate term, medical assistance in dying (MAiD), is currently used to describe [...]
The British Columbia court of appeal ruled Friday that a 13-year-old girl was old enough to consent to testosterone shots despite her father’s objections that his troubled daughter had been influenced by transgender advocates and did not understand the long-term consequences of her decision. The appeal ruling released January 10 also placed the father under a “conduct order” effective until April that [...]
Editor’s Note: The term “euthanasia” in Canada, in its legal voluntary form is called “medical assistance in dying” and became legal along with assisted suicide in June 2016. The term ‘assisted suicide’ means that the individual committing suicide dies by a self-administered drug rather than a doctor-administered lethal injection. “Medical assistance in dying” and “death by legal injection” mean that a doctor [...]
The film The Two Popes stars Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Jorge Marlo Bergoglio (later Pope Frances). You don’t expect to see religion being treated with respect or insight in popular media these days. For religious people that attitude might be paranoia, though it’s helpful to recall the old maxim that you might be [...]
Alex Schadenberg criticized the federal government's consultation process and plan to expand euthanasia. The media is reporting that there have been more than 6700 medically assistance in dying (MAiD) deaths in Canada since it was legalized in June 2016. I estimate that there have been at least 13,000 euthanasia deaths and here is how I defend this estimate. First, the [...]
Both federal government and province rush consultations ahead of court-imposed March deadline Justice Minister David Lametti has long supported broadening Canada's euthanasia rules. Ottawa gave the public two weeks to provide input on how it should expand euthanasia while the Quebec provincial government scheduled just one day of consultations ahead of broadening criteria for people seeking so-called medical aid in [...]