Conservative, Liberal, Vive la Difference?
I have an article on the ‘requirements for political office, posted this morning on Crisis magazine. Again, feel free to peruse, and I will post it here in a few days.
And speaking of ambition, there are so many contenders in the upcoming race for leadership of the Federal Conservative Party that I have lost count, with a wide spectrum from the most socially ‘liberal’ (we have to find another word to describe what that term means…immoral and anarchic come to mind) to the most socially conservative. I suppose you can guess where my proclivities lie, for the Conservative party is gradually ebbing away what conservatism it had. Was Stephen Harper a conservative, or just a slower and less radical liberal? (There we go again).
We do need a real conservative alternative here in Canada, not just a slightly less-socialist Liberal party, and here’s hoping we get one.
The Liberals (one more time!) apparently have no fear of retribution, racking up $130 billion in deficits, not-so-slowly moving Canada’s debt to the trillion dollar Rubicon. People will vote for them, for their votes are paid by them. Stalin once quipped that “the death of one man was murder, the death of millions a statistic”. The same could be said of money: Wasting $15 on a glass of orange juice, or deviating from abstruse Senate rules of expenditure in the mere thousands will garner you months of media vilification, and even a criminal trial. Yet Trudeau and his band of merry Liberal sycophants can waste billions, driving the economic bus of the country into the financial Grand Canyon, and a yawn is unheard across this fair land.
We dwell in a crony socialist State, with Trudeau as our very own Hugo Chavez, and I will leave it up to the reader to decide who is the worse of the two. If we don’t turn this ship around soon, our own made-in-Canada Venezuela may well be just around the corner.
In the meantime, in the next eight days, you may gain a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead, with the usual conditions.
A blessed All Souls. All the faithful departed, requiescant in pace.
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→