Preferential Treatment

On July 27, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, provided an update on the government’s response to the present COVID19 pandemic. In the presentation, he indicates that there will be different regulations for fully vaccinated staff and students when classes resume this fall. Earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford promised Ontarians that he would not make vaccinations mandatory. Although the Government of Ontario’s goal is to have the highest possible immunization rates, it will not create vaccine passports as proof of vaccination for businesses and other organizations. Ford has made it quite clear that he does not want a “split society” in Ontario.

Despite these reassurances, Moore said that the provincial government will implement a “different approach” for vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff. He said that this fall there will be a new model which will not require whole classes to isolate at home if there are positive COVID-19 cases, but that fully vaccinated will be able to return more promptly to school. In the question-and-answer period, Moore emphasized that students and staff who are fully vaccinated have a “terrific advantage” since they will be “able to stay in school and attend sports and participate fully in all the social activities of the school setting.” In contrast, he provided discouraging words for those who are not fully immunized: “If you are not immunized and you’ve been in contact with the high risk contact, you’ll be off for a minimum of 10 days and you will have to get two tests, one initially and then another around day seven. If that test day seven is positive, you’re off for another 10 days so you can see that there’s a potential for up to 20 days off from school because you weren’t immunized.”

Nationally, according to the latest data from July 24, close to 29 percent of children aged 12 to 17 remain unvaccinated. The Government of Ontario’s push to maximize vaccination rates among children contradicts the World Health Organization’s recommendation. Their webpage states that: “Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults, so unless they are part of a group at higher risk of severe COVID-19, it is less urgent to vaccinate them than older people, those with chronic health conditions and health workers. More evidence is needed on the use of the different COVID-19 vaccines in children to be able to make general recommendations on vaccinating children against COVID-19.” A number of scientists and medical doctors across Canada have raised concerns over the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, especially for children and adolescents who have a very low probability for hospitalization or death.

The Ford government plans on releasing a back-to-school-plan early this August.  However, the emergent delta variant, due to its high transmissibility and severity, could hinder the province’s gradual reopening. A CDC document revealed that vaccinated individuals are spreading the delta variant just as rapidly as the unvaccinated. Moreover, according to a disconcerting report from the CDC yesterday, there was a COVID outbreak among 74 percent out of 469 individuals who were fully vaccinated in a Massachusetts county.

On July 21, in another important development, the CDC urged laboratories to transition from Real-Time PCR COVID tests to a new FDA approved kit that can distinguish between Sars-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. Given this information it will be interesting to see if the provincial government will reevaluate their position regarding vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff.

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→

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→

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→

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→

In the Glorious Light of Easter, Alleluia!

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). The Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour[…]Continue reading→

An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders – anticipates – what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious re-creation of all things at the[…]Continue reading→

Europe’s Long Descent

(As we meditate on this day on Christ’s burial, and His descent into hell, it is fitting to ponder here with contributor Peter Marcus how the world seems to be heading there as well. The difference is that, although God cannot ‘redeem’ hell, nor those therein, He can and did redeem the world. There is[…]Continue reading→