Intensifying tension over growing liberalism within the Anglican Church of Canada has broken into an open rift in recent months, as biblically orthodox congregations have moved to separate themselves from the Canadian church structure and align themselves with the similarly orthodox Province of the Southern Cone in South America. Although it was not the only factor, the Canadian church’s increasing acceptance of [...]
Concerned over the Anglican Church of Canada’s decision to bless homosexual relationships, many traditional and evangelical Anglicans have banded together to form the Anglican Network in Canada. At the forefront of this movement stands Dr. Trevor Walters, an Anglican priest who left the Anglican Church in Canada to provide ministry and leadership within the Anglican Network in Canada. His official title is [...]
But a number of Catholic MPs thumb their noses at his warning Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast set off a media storm over the responsibilities of Catholic politicians when he answered a question at a Feb. 19 Theology on Tap talk in Ottawa. He said that Catholic politicians who “obstinately persevere” in supporting abortion could be denied Communion. He reiterated this Catholic teaching [...]
"In the beginning, I was. I was for a long time. Then things began to happen. Inside me, something was beating fast and outside, something was beating slower. For a long time, that was all I knew.” So opens the marvellous first-person story of an ordinary unborn child, as told by Regina Doman in Angel in the Waters. It is a children’s [...]
Prayer and penance Having worked on the inside of the pro-life movement for a dozen or more years, I have become more and more convinced of the absolute necessity of prayer and penance as a support for the necessary frontline action. So, I would like to take a few examples from the Bible that teach us how dependent we are on God [...]
The Sisters of Life are a religious order founded in 1991 by the late Cardinal O’Connor of New York, who was convinced that there was a need for a religious order of women who would serve completely in pro-life ministry. In August, the Archdiocese of Toronto was blessed by the entrance of the Sisters of Life, who have established their first convent [...]
Billions of babies have been born during the past 2,000 years. A few of them, who happened to be of royal blood, had the privilege of having their birthdays celebrated with some pomp and ceremony in their own countries. With their deaths and the passage of time, not only have their birthdays, but the people themselves, been forgotten. There is but one [...]
As pro-life Christians welcoming the birth of our Saviour this Christmas, we can prayerfully contemplate the Gospel for a deeper understanding of how to build the culture of life in our contemporary society. In particular, Luke’s infancy narrative reveals certain clear needs of women, especially abortion-minded women such as those we counsel at Aid to Women. We need to rely on someone [...]
’Tis the season to call it anything but Christmas. As with each year in the recent past, there seems to be a concerted effort in an increasing number of sectors to avoid calling this holiday period what it really is. In response, however, there is also a countervailing emphasis being placed on reminding society at large of the real reason for the [...]
To the modern reader, the visit of the Wise Men can only be one more improbable detail in an already impossible story. And yet, every Christmas, no matter how secularized the season has become, the tableau of a caravan, crossing a desert and following a star, survives. What is it about these Wise Men, these kings, that still appeals to an un-Christian [...]
"In all my wanderings, it seems to me that the grace of God is in courtesy.” So wrote the famous English writer of the 1930s, Hilaire Belloc. As this is my first column for 1992 – the January column was written in December 1991 – I was trying to think of something positive as a subject. Then, on Sunday last, I happened [...]
Canadian families as a whole are surviving – although not doing as well as before The headlines in papers and announcements from broadcasters on Stastics Canada’s report Family Portrait: Families, Marital Status, Households and Living Arrangementsdeclared the traditional family nearly dead. Reporters pointed to census data that shows for the first time in Canadian history, “more than one-half of the adult population [...]
To a large extent, the recent election in Ontario was an utter waste of time. Democracy was shattered as one single issue was abused, exploited, caricatured and then used to frighten people into voting Liberal and re-electing a government that broke more promises than most in living memory. A shame and a sham. The issue, of course, was faith-based funding for schools [...]
Kitchener school board situation serves as a sterling example The elevation of an “open mind” to the status of an unchallengeable moral principle is, as a matter of plain fact, a perfect example of being closed-minded. Professor Allan Bloom made this point in his best-selling critique of higher education, The Closing of the American Mind, a book that offended a legion of [...]
On a mild fall day, I sit in the Dreamers’ Peace Garden in Regent Park South, contemplating the Month of the Dead. I offer my prayers in union with the one who, in another garden, brought his own agony to prayer. I hand to him my own grief and the grief of my counsellees. According to a plaque affixed to a rock: [...]