Catholic Insight

Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World

Catholic Insight

Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World

The End of Castro

Justin Trudeau shows his true colours once again, eulogizing Castro as a ‘friend’ of his Dad’s, who ‘made significant improvements to the healthcare and education of his island nation’, whom he also had the ‘opportunity to meet’, along with his Castro’s three sons, ending up praising him as a ‘remarkable leader’.

The reaction has been swift and brutal, with the Prime Minister ridiculed with parodies of eulogies of Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and so on, who also ‘improved’ their nations in various insignificant ways, at least  compared to their brutality. But Trudeau has doubled down:

He certainly was a polarizing figure and there certainly were significant concerns around human rights,” Trudeau told reporters Sunday. “That’s something that I’m open about and highlighted, but on the passing of his death I expressed a statement that highlighted the deep connection between the people of Canada and the people of Cuba.”

And the clincher: Trudeau “understands that some people who had been affected by the Castro regime would view things differently” than his enlightened view.

People who have been ‘affected’ by the Castro regime?  Like all those shot, tortured, imprisoned, thought-controlled, brainwashed, subdued, held in coercion, and died trying to flee  his corrupt regime through shark infested waters to the safe haven of Miami, Mr. Trudeau? Condescension, thy name is JT, comfy and safe within his enclave, from which he issues forth idiotic banalities.

Contrast Trudeau with Trump’s statement:

The world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

I will leave the reader to determine which of the leaders is more accurate in his assessment.  Not that one should feel schadenfreude in anyone’s death, but reality is reality.  The government of Cuba has decreed nine days of enforced mourning, with no loud music or partying.  I guess the people of Miami, especially those who made that crossing or descendants thereof, did not get that communiqué, and feel a bit differently from Trudeau, holding parades in ‘honour’ of the end of Castro’s regime, now that he has gone to his eternal reward, in the hands of the God in Whom he did not believe.

All we can hope is that the dictator remembered some of his early Catechism, and repented before his nonagenarian body gave out.  Requiescat in pace, as I would wish to anyone, but may someone more worthy take your place.

 

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

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