Food for the Mind

A few good reads we might suggest:

In the metaphysical maelstrom that oft characterizes this current Magisterium, a nugget of clarity, in the recent document from the Congregation for Education on the insanity of gender fluidity. Male and Female He Created Them explains in no uncertain terms that in the beginning we were created, as the title says, male and female, man and woman, and that for society to survive, to say nothing of flourish, we must live with the virtues proper respectively to man and woman, with all that masculinity and femininity imply, upon which Pope Saint John Paul II wrote so eloquently. To deny this basic truth and act upon it, as one physician has promised to do, committing his skills to ‘gender reassignment surgery’, is to undermine the most basic foundation of our society, the family, without which we simply will not survive. As the family goes, so goes society, as Pope John Paul pithily put it.

We may end up going the way of the Neanderthals, although, if current childless trends continue, much more quickly than the millennia it took for them to disappear.

And a musing by Theodore Dalrymple on the unhinging of the virtues from each other, which run rampant, and turn into insidious vices. Thus, compassion – which Justin Trudeau espouses – becomes a cloak for the tolerance of great evil. He begins his article with a quotation from G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy:

The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.

I would recommend a perusal of the articles of ‘Theodore Dalrymple’, the nom de plume of Anthony Daniel, a prison psychiatrist, who seems now to be retired. As Dr. Dalrymple/Daniel explains in his preface, he professes no religion, no afterlife, but yet writes on beauty, morality and overall sanity more clearly and more convincingly than most Catholics. Pray for him, for I think he needs but a nudge to see the fullness of truth, behind all that is true and good in this world.

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→

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→

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→

Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER  MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000   1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]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→