Transitioning Toilets and Transforming the Mind

As I walked in the doors of the Social Science Centre at my one-time alma mater, the University of Western Ontario, I was struck by this sign. No, not the No Smoking one, which has been de rigeur for decades, even before I was there, nor the hand sanitizer, ubiquitous now for two years. No, the one in school colour, purple, warning the unsuspecting student wandering into a toilet proper to their sex that there may be a person of another sex present, claiming to be the first sex – or is that Simone’s second sex? There is apparently no sex anymore, unless you declare a sex, by default or design – and, hence, use whatever you deem ‘appropriate’, as whim or occasion dictate.

Ideas have consequences (I think that may become my motto, like Cato’s Carthagena delenda est, for forgive me, dear reader, if it gets oft-repeated). What this means in the present case is that a ingenue of the fairer sex entering a bathroom with the image of a woman on the door may be treated to the sight of a disrobed, hirsute member of the less-fair sex, with all that implies. And anything that is seen can never be unseen. I would presume Western’s caveat, and permission, applies to change rooms, even showers.

In my brief perambulation through campus on that brief return visit, I saw such a young woman, on a tour, with her mother. Should I have cried out a Jeremiad, warning them to flee for the hills, study anywhere, go anywhere, except a modern university, where the mind, and the soul, are almost certain to be malformed? And if they are not, it is in spite of that to which they are, ahem, exposed. I thought that perhaps one could go for practical reasons – say, to study engineering, math or medicine – but even such fields are becoming more untenable for those of sound conscience and good will, as the tendrils of wokeism wend their way, strangling free and honest debate, along with any discussion of the greatest that has been written and said, much of which is now verboten. Western’s motto is Veritas et Utilitas – Truth and Utility, but the institution has become ever less a source of truth, and ever less useful. Alma maters – nourishing mothers – universities are no longer.

I said nothing to the daughter and mother, remaining incognito, but prayed quietly, that God guide such young souls. If they are led astray, may they be brought back to the straight and narrow way.

I formally cut whatever tenuous ties I had with Western when they gave Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s foremost apostle of abortion, an honorary doctorate. (As an aside, in the photo above, the image to the bottom right, which is just a glob of leftover glue, looks oddly like an unborn child playfully leaping in the womb).

All things considered, it may well be a good idea to cut your ties while you’re still ahead, or never bind yourself in the first place, for the mind, and four years of your life, are terrible things to waste.

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→