Young Sam and Somalis
Another Islamic terrorist attack in America, this time in Ohio, where a Somali-born student, ‘self-radicalized’ according to reports, went on a rampage with his car, ramming into a crowd of his fellow students, before jumping out and stabbing two with a butcher knife. A campus police officer checking out a nearby gas leak showed up at 9:43 a.m., and the perpetrator, refusing to drop the knife, was deceased by a police bullet at 9:43 a.m. God rest his troubled soul, and thank God also that his was the only life taken. On that note, see my article later today on the fundamental fact that some cultures just cannot co-exist.
Well, I must eat some of my words about the newly-minted nineteen-year old MPP Sam Oosterhoff, and I will give credit where credit is due. Yesterday, the provincial government voted into law Bill C-28, which removed the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from government documents, making the relation of ‘parents’ (now up to four allowed) to their ‘children’ a contractual agreement, no longer founded on the mother-father-child bond, based on biology. Young Sam was the only MPP who expressed disagreement with the bill (he could not vote, being sworn in the day after the vote). Kudos to him. According to LifeSite news, every other MPP, and this goes even for the so-called ‘pro-life and family ones’, either voted in favour or were absent for the vote (final tally, 79 to 0). Oh, that you were hot or cold! Patrick Brown, the benighted leader of the Conservative Party with his nose to the wind, demanded as much: Vote in favour, or find something else to do that day, like count your pension. This does not speak well for the provincial Tories. Only Mr. Oosterhoff stood up to him. Youth of body, as Saint Thomas says, does not imply youth of soul, using as his example the many youthful martyrs in the Church, who withstood the most horrific torments for the Faith. Sam demonstrated far more maturity and courage than those of his ‘colleagues’ more than twice his age.
Today, the body of Fidel Castro is being laid to rest. I cannot speak for his soul, for that is between him and God. Whatever damage El Commandante has done will live for some time; like any of our sins, they ripple through the ages beyond the here and now. We can only hope that he was a deluded man, which may to some extent excuse his messianic zeal for the fundamentally evil doctrine of Communism. Here’s looking forward to the recovery of Cuba, once the Castros end their oppressive regime.
And speaking of socialism, the stepping stone to full blown communism, our own national radio conglomerate, the CBC, is demanding, I mean, requesting, pleading , for an extra 400 million, yes, nearly half-a-billion dollars from the government (which, dear reader, always means you and me) so that they can go completely ‘ad free’. There is a grave danger afoot when there is only one functioning information-based radio station in a country, especially when the medium is in bed with the State, receiving lavish funding with which no private radio station can possibly hope to compete. One of the principles of Communism is control of the media by the State, as in Pravda (‘Truth’), the ironically named Stalinist ‘newspaper’. I do listen at times to the CBC, and enjoy a very small number of its programs; I also follow Sun Tzu’s advice to ‘know thy enemy’ as the first principle of warfare. Its television shows, even though I don’t watch them, I hear are beyond atrocious, unfunny, forced, politically correct in the extreme (Little Mosque on the Prairie?).
A healthy dose of competition in radio, and elsewhere (not least education) would be most welcome in our statist, bland and brainwashed Canada. Artificial subsidies to the tune of nearly 1.5 billion dollars to radio, and many times that number to education and other aspects of the ‘economy’, go well beyond the realms of justice. Try listening to the radio in America; sure, you will get commercials, but you will also get a diversity of interesting and entertaining viewpoints, not just the State-monitored party line.
This day is also the feast of Saint Andrew, especially dear to my heart, as the patron of Scotland, as well as Russia, Ukraine and Greece, so he has quite the task to fulfill, for they all have deep and abiding problems, yes, even the land of my birth. But love, at least true love, symbolized by the Cross of Christ, and Saint Andrew’s own X-shaped cross on the Scottish flag, conquers all, and will triumph in the end.
So, Saint Andrew, ora pro nobis!
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→