Anne, Joachim and Trudeau’s Tragic Legacy
A blessed feast of Saints Joachim and Anne on this July 26th, who may be deemed patrons of Canada, with the shrine of St. Anne, at Beaupre one of the primary pilgrimage sites in this country.
And Canada certainly needs prayers. For some insight into where Justin Trudeau comes from, I would recommend perusing this review of a book on Justin’s father, Pierre Elliot (along with the book itself). Pierre began the corruption now evident in our legal system, culminating in the promulgation in 1982 of the inaptly named ‘Charter of Rights and Freedoms’, which has provided, ironically but predictably enough, the legal basis for removing many of our ‘rights and freedoms’, beginning with the unborn, untold hundreds of thousands sentenced to death under that fateful section 7, which declares: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.
Ah, yes, the ‘principles of fundamental justice’, which now include aiding and abetting mothers in the death by dismemberment or dissolution of their own unborn children right through all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason whatsoever.
People of sane mind back then, including the indomitable pro-lifer Gwen Landolt (but sadly, not too many members of the Church, to put it mildly) tried to have the life of the unborn specifically and explicitly protected in the Charter, but Trudeau and his Liberals would have none of it. The sexual revolution had run its course, and abortion was now an accepted form of contraception, of women’s ‘freedom’ and ‘reproductive rights’; all part of their rightful and hard-won autonomy.
Yet we see the fruits: To this day, Canada has no law on abortion, leaving it up to a ‘woman and her doctor’, leaving the baby (and the father) out of the picture. Now we have euthanasia, based on the same erroneous philosophical principles, an unhinged autonomy, a radical right to privacy, even though these entail the right to have grave evil done to oneself and to others, physically but, more to the point, spiritually.
We can only hope that people realize what has been done, repent and seek healing and forgiveness. Saints Joachim and Anne provide powerful intercessors and examples. So perhaps a pilgrimage is in order. After all, miracles do happen.
Holy Parents of the Virgin Mary, orate pro nobis!
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→