Faith without Flinching, without Compromise

A blessed and joyous Easter Saturday to all our readers, as we continue this journey through the Octave of octaves, eight days of Easter Sundays. So rejoice in the Lord, gaudeamus in Domino, in what way you might.

The passing of Father Alphonse de Valk is a bittersweet moment, tinged with the hope and joy of the resurrection, but the loss of a great hero and, as I wrote yesterday, the passing of an era. He touched a lot of hearts, minds and souls, as this moving tribute by Lianne Lawrence in LifeSite attests. Such should not surprise us, for all those who are faithful to the vocation upon which God calls them, as was the priest, Basilian, educator and pro-life warrior Father de Valk, ‘bear much fruit’. The Almighty just asks for our two coins, our simple fiat, and He does the rest, producing thirty, sixty and hundred-fold. We can only hope that his priest may soon do a lot more good ‘on the other side’ of the veil, than even he could do here.

If there is one thing Father taught us, it’s that we should not get comfortable with our culture, one which is spiraling into a vicious circle of sin and death, of which too many of us seem scarcely even aware. Did we and the authorities over us think we could murder the unborn, the elderly, dismantle the family, corrupt and scandalize children, laugh at and scorn the Faith, and things just go on as ‘normal’, whatever normal might mean to minds unhinged from the Truth? This current crisis is a kick in the pants, to wake us up from our somnolent spiritual slumber.

As Pius XII warned in 1946, the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century was the loss of the sense of sin, some tinge of which seems even to have affected the very heart of our own Church – as this crisis is revealing.

Father de Valk could see this, right from the passage of Trudeau Sr.’s heinous 1969 law, and how the various sins in our own culture were interconnected, not least sins against the dignity of human sexuality and sins against the dignity of life – a stand for which he was often vilified. As Ms. Lawrence puts in her article, what have homosexuality and contraception to do with abortion, and what connection did Father see in that?

But Father de Valk was in his own way prophetic, for Pope Saint John Paul II himself taught in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that the two primary root causes of abortion are the ‘contraceptive mentality‘ (par. 13) and the ‘trivialization of sexuality‘ (par. 97), and we should recall that Trudeau’s omnibus and ominous law, against which we witness each May in the March for Life, legalized in one fell swoop divorce, contraception, homosexuality, and, yes, abortion. Hmm.

We must keep up the good fight of the Faith, for Life and for Family – for they go together, or perish miserably and pathetically – boldly, courageously, without flinching, even unto suffering and, yes, death. Such was Christ; so were the Apostles and early Christians; so must we be.

But all with joy and hope, dear reader, for we are promised by the Author of Life that those who stand fast, who hold the truth and teach others to do likewise, like Father de Valk, their reward will be great in heaven.

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

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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

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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

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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→