Labour Day

The memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, this year also happens to be Labour Day, which can be traced back, in Canada, to 1872, and a parade in Toronto for ‘typographical workers’, which sounds sort of odd to our ears accustomed to smartphones and MS-Word, but refers rather to workers setting the heavy, metal ‘type’ on newspapers, before our digital age. They were seeking a ’54 hour work week’, from the gruelling hours to which they were subjected, to put things into perspective.

Labour Day was made an official holiday, the first Monday of September, in 1894, under Prime Minister John Thompson, the first Roman Catholic to hold that post, who, as Justice Minister, approved the hanging of Louis Riel as a rebel against the State.  It is providential that Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on the rights of workers, Rerum Novarum, just being promulgated three years before.

It is by the labour of working men that States grow rich, wrote the Holy Father, and how right he was. We don’t have all that many ‘working men’ anymore, as Mark Steyn points out, with all too many (and often not their fault) with little to do; this plague of unemployment, leaving so much potential unfulfilled, will only grow worse under automation.  Who needs a check-out clerk, or a lawyer for that matter, when a computer will do?

Peruse my article on the theology of work, if you are so inclined, summarizing the thought of John Paul II in Laborem Exercens, published 90 years after Rerum. As the Holy Father declares, the primary purpose of work is not so much to produce ‘things’, but to perfect the worker himself. We need to work to fulfill and exercise our talents, whatever they may be (and everyone has some), and so become fitting subjects of the kingdom of heaven.

Anon, food for thought as we take a little break from work on this last holiday of the summer.

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→

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]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→

Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass

Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’…  ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]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→

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→

First Holy Communion: Sermon from May 16, 1943

 Here is a sermon from the good old days by +Rev. Msgr. Vincent Nicholas Foy (August 14, 1915 – March 13, 2017), from 1943. Readers may recall that Pope Saint Pius X, by the decree Quam Singulari in 1910, lowered the customary age of reception of Holy Communion – after the rigours of the plague[…]Continue reading→

Weronika Krawczyk and Injustice in Poland

Catholic Action in Poland has issued a formal statement appealing to the President of the Republic of Poland to pardon Weronika Krawczyk—convicted for warning other women against an abortion-performing gynaecologist. Catholic Action (AK) emphasizes that no apology is owed to a doctor who has performed numerous abortions and proposed others; furthermore, the organization considers the[…]Continue reading→

Three Easter Musical Gems: Bach, Palestrina and Byrd

A very blessed and glorious Easter! Christus surrexit vere, alleluia! As we begin this Easter Octave with the great Solemnity of Easter, music to lift the soul would be one of Bach’s Easter cantatas, composed during his time at Leipzig in the early 1700’s, for the six Sundays of this festive season, leading up to[…]Continue reading→