Moral relativism is becoming increasingly prominent in Western society. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he was elected pope, warned, “We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” It is important to recognize, especially in the Enlightenment thought, the sources of this [...]
Getting whipped up about the rising tide of “crime” appears to be all the rage in Canada these days. The media is filled with stories and opinion pieces which are intended to convince us that our streets have become a brewing cauldron of violence. There are now major newspaper and radio and television stations for whom news broadcasts have become little more [...]
In March 2009, LifeSiteNews.com revealed that Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, the official international development arm of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, had partnered with five different groups that promote abortion in Mexico in unrelated development projects. Later, further reports would show Development and Peace – or D&P for short – partnered with numerous pro-abortion groups around [...]
Life and family translates into growth and change. But change brings challenge. The basic challenges faced at Fe Viva World Missions in rural Guatemala are the same root challenges faced in Canada. Our response, whether Guatemalan or Canadian, is rooted in the depth and quality of our relationships, first with Jesus Christ and then within our families. How do we measure the [...]
There has been much debate about the impact of gambling on society and whether it has an overall positive or negative effect. Besides problem gambling, there are various societal problems – and benefits – that arise from the state monopoly over gambling. A significant societal problem caused by gambling is an increase in crime rates. It is generally difficult to track gambling-related [...]
As legal gambling becomes widespread, dangerous addictions grow Gambling has become a widespread practice in Canadian life. It may be found in the form of state-managed lotteries, casinos and even charity raffles. Every province in Canada holds a near-monopoly over the gaming industry. Lotteries, horse racing, charitable gaming, casinos, slot machines, video lottery terminals and internet gambling are all somewhere in Canada, [...]
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, and though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Psalm 46:1-3) On Jan. 12, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale rocked Haiti, [...]
15 years after Cairo, abortion controversy rages In October, the UN General Assembly held a high-level meeting for the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development. While some have used the anniversary to try and assess progress towards realizing the ICPD program of action, the UN Fund for Population Activities and pro-abortion non-governmental organizations have sought to use the [...]
Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values by Brian Lee Crowley (Key Porter, $34.95, 360 pages) In an important new book, Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values, Brian Lee Crowley persuasively argues that the future prosperity of Canada depends on a revival of marriage and the family. For Crowley, this is a new understanding. Until [...]
Canada’s anti-prostitution laws are being challenged by a prostitute, a former prostitute and a dominatrix, who argue that decriminalizing bawdy houses and scrapping the law prohibiting living off the avails of prostitution will make the sex trade safer for women. Countering the sex trade activists, the Ontario and federal governments have been joined by REAL Women of Canada, the Christian Legal Fellowship [...]
41.6 million abortions annually, yet report frets about access The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion think tank, has released a study which says surgical abortions decreased in 2003 from 1995 levels, but decried that abortion was not universally legal and that many women have “unsafe” abortions due to the fact the procedure is illegal or restricted in much of the developing world. In [...]
Titus Brandsma was a small, gentle, bespectacled man. He spent years working with the Dutch underground movement to smuggle Jewish people out of the Netherlands and away from the threat of the Nazi murderers. As a monk, he rejected violence and so would not, could not, pick up a gun to use against the oppressors of goodness and all he [...]
The sign outside the fire hall in Malton, just near Toronto’s Pearson airport, read “Remember 9-11.” It was just a couple of days since the 8th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, but I was pleased – and somewhat surprised – that someone was still making the effort. I was in my late thirties on the [...]
Agronomist who helped double agricultural production dies at 95 Norman Borlaug, one of the most important people of the 20th century, has died at the age of 95. Borlaug is often referred to as the “father of the green revolution” – the new processes and techniques in agriculture that brought food to hundreds of millions of starving people and helped lower the [...]
In an attempt to address concerns about expanding abortion coverage that might result from changes to the U.S. health care system, Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, amended his proposed bill to say that abortion cannot be mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services. The change echoes an amendment proposed by Rep. Lois [...]