L’Arche, Pronouns and Police
L’Arche, the community founded by Jean Vanier, has clarified his ambiguous comments upon euthanasia, upon which I wrote a few months ago. You can read their brief, one page comments here, and make up your own minds how clear they are. I find that there is still a trace of ambiguity in this clarificatio, but perhaps that is just me. Anyway, I am glad that they wanted to reaffirm the commitment of L’Arche to the protection of life at all stages and conditions, as only befits such an apostolate.
Rex Murphy has a good commentary on Professor Jordan Peterson, the infamous teacher who has dared rebel against the Perpetually Vigilant Pronoun and Politically Correct Language Everywhere and At All Times Police. As you may know, Dr. Peterson has produced a few YouTube videos explaining why he refuses, and will continue to refuse, to use the ridiculous, mind-altering gender-inclusive pronouns such as ze, zhe, zir and so on, made up out of thin illogical air. I am glad to see that sane minds think alike, as I wrote on this recently. But sane minds are becoming more rare, as the zombification of our culture, and especially the Millennials, spreads ever further afield in the bizarre, stifling halls that count for modern academia. It truly is like the invasion of the body snatchers, but here they steal your mind and souls. The Spanish Inquisition had nothing on these ideologues, who will apparently stop at nothing to have their way. The dictatorship of relativism, as predicted by the ever-prescient Pope Benedict, is fast afoot. Continue to resist, good Dr. Peterson, and be not assimilated.
A recent RCMP arrest has raised questions of over-use of police force, as burly officers are seen dragging an ‘elderly man’ down a staircase. Of course, we don’t know ‘all the facts’, but we should recall that the rule of law requires that any authority be balanced by other authorities in society, along with written and strictly enforced codes of conduct. The great the force, the greater the vigilance required, and we should recall that police have deadly force at their disposal. Quis cusdoiet ipsos custodes? Who indeed will guard the guardians, if the guardians themselves are ungoverned?
Do I even comment on Tom Hanks and Ron Howard and the newest instalment of Dan Brown’s series of misinformed, slanderous novels on Christianity? No. But I will say that even secular reviewers are wishing this whole sorry mess would just die the death it so deservedly deserves.
And on that note, here’s wishing all our readers, their friends and families a very joyous All Hallowed Eve and All Saints Day. Remember that you can gain a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery in the next octave of days, saying a prayer for the faithful departed, with the usual conditions.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→