Parents’ Day?

Tomorrow, besides being the much more important solemnity of Corpus Christi (at least here in Canada, more on which in a bit) is also Father’s Day, and a recent discussion I heard on the CBC debated whether such a commemoration, along with the complementary and longer-standing Mother’s Day, is inherently discriminatory.  After all, what of family’s with no explicit mother, or two ‘fathers’, or two ‘mothers’, or a menage-a-trois, quatre, cinq, or whatever other happy grouping one’s imagination and current technology and marital laws, or lack thereof, may conjure.

Fathers’ Day has been celebrated since the Middle Ages on the solemnity of Saint Joseph (March 19th) or so I have read, but has now been moved in light of secular values to the third Sunday of June, making it a sort of Hallmark-holiday, unconnected in the modern agnostic mind with the great and silent witness of the guardian and earthly father of God’s Son, the nutritor Domini.

The current androgyny, underlying so many of our current problems, presumes that it matters not what ‘gender’ one is, or even if one even admits to having one. Yet the denial of a the deep and abiding differences between men and women, the male and female sex, masculine and feminine, is really at its base a denial of the very nature of God, in Whose image Man is made.  God is not a static entity, a uniform ‘will’ decreeing from on high, as various forms of Islam would have it. Rather, as we were reminded last Sunday, God is a Trinity, a community of Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Man’s nature as male and female, and more perfectly as father and mother, flowing forth their own creative potential, reflects this.

As Archie Bunker used to sing, who sadly mocked patriarchy, it is time to get back to the time when ‘men were men, and women were women’, in all their genius, beauty and perfection. I just came from a wedding of two former students,  in the usus antiqiuor, the rich prayers of which liturgy signify clearly to this truth.  I wish them well as they go forth as husband and wife, and hopefully as soon-to-be father and mother, showing forth the glory of God, in His own Three Persons.

Regardless of the modern zeitgeist, we can still wish our fathers well, and offer them our deep gratitude for giving us life, raising us, for their example, witness and all they have done, up until ripe old age, to make us the men and women that we are.  So a blessed Father’s Day to all you fathers, biological or spiritual, and may you see the fruits of your paternity in a happy Jerusalem.

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 Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop

As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]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→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]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→

Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace

Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→

Payette’s Payout

I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→