Dominion Day, Trudeau’s Socks and Canadian Martyrs
A blessed and joyous Dominion-Canada Day to all, as we mark the 150th anniversary of the signing on of those first few provinces into what is now known as ‘Canada’. It seems I must correct myself on this momentous occasion of my adopted country’s sesquicentennial birthday: In my reflections on our vaunted Prime Minister marching in the recent ‘Gay Pride’ parade, I remarked that he was wearing rainbow socks. They looked like such to my untrained eye, seeing rainbows everywhere. But no. As Mark Steyn has pointed out, the socks were actually Islamic, commemorating the post-Ramadan celebration of Eid, or more specifically Eid al-Fitr, the ‘festival of the breaking of the fast’.
As Steyn alludes, this is the fatuity of multiculturalism at its most absurd: Justin Trudeau, who in some dim way still professes to be Catholic, at a parade celebrating the joys of sodomy and sexual deviance, wearing Islamic socks, all three ‘cultures’ in their own way not only mutually exclusive, but deeply antagonistic: Islam, Catholicism, homosexualism. How would one draw a Venn diagram of their overlapping contradictions?
Trudeau’s socks are a symbol of a decaying and quite literally dis-integrating Canada on her historical birthday: Whatever was holding Canada together as a country, or more properly a dominion, holds no longer. Timbits, hockey, maple leafs, and vague allusions to CFL, curling and lacrosse can only go so far. ‘I am Canadian‘ cried the actor, whose name I never knew, blandly handsome in a Ryan Reynolds-Canuck sort of way, in that Molson commercial a few years back, Yadda yadda, rah, rah, right on, eh, but what does being ‘Canadian’ mean? What do we as a nation believe, hold true and dear? What do we want to hand on to our children, all those traditions that make a nation great, allowing it to survive through history against what enemies there be? We stand on guard for thee, but for what are standing guard? All those pretty little things in pony tails flocking into our military and police forces, while legions of sadly vasectomized men play around in compensatory oversized pick-ups a-huntin’ and a -fishin’, wondering how someone like Trudeau was ever chosen to lead them. What will we do when we must face a real threat?
As Steyn asks in a previous post, just how ‘Canadian’ is a golf-club and knife swinging full-hijabbed, female would-be jihadist in the aisles of a Canadian Tire store, who considers herself no longer ‘Canadian’, but a member of the ISIS caliphate? How many ‘citizens’, even ‘landed immigrants’ share her sympathies? And why is our Prime Minister wearing the socks of a religion that seeks, in its inherent founding principles, to make him and the rest of us ‘submit’ to its harsh, gloomy, fatalistic teachings? Wine and music, to mention just two of the great joys of life (well, I will add dark ale), gone and goner under Sharia law, to say nothing of all the spiritual joys and sustenance of our Catholic faith, not least the Holy Eucharist.
I sometimes wonder what Mr. Trudeau thinks about when he dresses himself, to say nothing of the other moments of his day.
Without a raison d’etre, there is no etre, no being, no present and definitely no future. Trudeau as the fin de siecle Prime Minister has a sort of pathetic chiastic quality to it. His Dad started all this mess, and it may be left to his wayward son to finish it.
Of course, I do hope for some sort of divine intervention, a grace from on high to set things right and I am praying every day for this fair land, thanking the good God for its beauty, the freedoms and opportunities we still enjoy, the water and fresh air, and even all the noble and good people I have had the honour of meeting and even befriending.
On Monday, I plan a personal pilgrimage to Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland which, besides Quebec and the whole history of Saint Francois de Laval, Champlain, the early faithful settlers and others hallowing la belle provence, it is that quiet, pleasant and bucolic area around Midland that may be considered the spiritual centre of Canada (certainly not the bloated bureaucracy in Ottawa). Far from the centre of political power, on the rugged shores of Georgian Bay in the 1640’s, five Jesuit priests were martyred for the faith, shedding their blood for all that is good and true, for their beloved converts and for all future Canadians. There is still that truly Catholic Canada that exists behind the confusion, nonsense, even evil, that so many of our modern politicians, professors and other elites are foisting upon future generations. As Christ foretold, this can only be seen and heard by those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
So on that note of optimism, bonne anniversaire, Canada. Ad multos annos in bonum et veritatem.
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→