Conservatives, Big and Small
One can get the measure of a man not from his guarded, careful behaviour, but rather from his occasional slip-up, his less careful moments, when the ‘true self’ comes forth. Such was the case in Sherbrooke, Quebec the other day, when the Prime Minister, on his largely unscripted tour, at least so the story goes, responded solely in French, to a question in English about receiving English services in officially bilingual Quebec. The blindness of such behaviour, to the needs of his questioner and to how this gaffe would be perceived, whether willed or not, gives a window into the mind of Trudeau, whose father was the father of the bureaucratic nightmare of making both French and English mandatory for any federal government services. (The recent French-language PC leadership debate shows that bilingualism has not taken root). Trudeau Jr. seems a man wandering within his own a priori ideas of what Canada is and should be, locked within a self-reinforcing bubble, with a very limited capacity to see reality as it really is. In this case, the obvious mannerly thing would have been to respond to a question in English, about English services, in English, as Trudeau belatedly, and in a limited way, admitted.
While we’re on politics, alas, Kevin O’Leary, the multimillionaire businessman, has thrown his hat into the Progressive Conservative leadership race. O’Leary was host of the embarrassing show Dragon’s Den, where ordinary people prostrate themselves before a panel of uber-rich people, begging for their investment in their inventions and products, in exchange for a large take of any prospective profits. Besides the arrogance that such rich people naturally develop , a big part of the reason it is so difficult for them to enter the kingdom of heaven, an entrance that requires the foundation of humility (I am not sure if O’Leary’s ‘act’ in the show is just that, an act, for there are exceptions), but more to the point, O’Leary is more progressive than conservative. He is not pro-life, and enthusiastically supports euthanasia murder-suicide and someone’s right to ‘marry a goat’ if that brings them, ahem, ‘happiness’. Of course, he is hoping to cash in, pardon the pun, on the Trump effect, that an ‘effective’ capitalist (read: a ‘winner’ and a guy who made it in the world) will triumph over a bunch of politicians. As the headline put it, the race is now his to lose. But Canada has already lost, as we lose any sense of tradition, morality and sanity in our societal and political cohesion. It is all about money and jobs and security for me, myself and I. But such a self-centred attitude is no basis for the future of our country, regardless of whether O’Leary’s ‘fiscal conservatism’ is marginally better than the economic, debt-driven recklessness of the Liberals.
While on the conservative theme, I do wish all the best to Jason Kenney out west, as he tries to ‘unite the right’, while the PC’s in Alberta contemplate a coup. This is all of a piece with the fact that conservatives themselves are not ‘united’ around any real philosophical and moral principles, a fruit, one may suppose, of decades of disastrous and deleterious education in our universities and in the broader culture. We are a nation of tolerant, moral relativists, what Chesterton presciently observed as barbarians in nice clothing. If barbarians we are, then barbarism is what we will get, whether dressed up in Liberal or PC dress.
On that note, give a listen to this brief CBC interview with Noreen Campbell, a nurse suffering from the last stages mouth cancer, just days before she had herself ‘euthanized’. It is emotional and eye-opening, showing the thought of the ‘other side’ in this debate, unhinged from moral principles. One can see the future in whole thanaphilia, love of death, and it is not pretty. May God have mercy on her soul.
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→