A Saint for Canada

Blessed Dina Belanger died on this day in 1929, suffering from tuberculosis, brought on by the scarlet fever she contracted while tending a sick boy.  Dina was from a devout Quebec family, and her first calling was as a concert pianist, giving public performances in New York from 1918 to 1921, yet she also had privately consecrated herself to God from childhood.  Her upbringing was devout, but also normal:  She was attached to the Angelus prayer (and, as the Church well knows, it is to such apparently ‘little’ disciplines that a soul is disciplined and formed), but also to her ‘doll’, which she played with during sermons, which she found boring.  Hmm.  Dina also threw temper tantrums, but during one such episode, her father rose from the table and joined in; seeing her Dad act so ridiculously mortified her, and the tantrums were no more.  (I wonder if this would work today, when children are now so accustomed to their adults acting like children?)

Dina entered religious life in August of 1921, and the perfection she strove in music she brought to the convent, living her rule in exemplary fashion, as she was able in her constant illness; burdened with suffering, which she born with patience and heroism, she was also gifted with visions and ecstasies, before, like Saint Therese before her, succumbing to her lung disease eight years later.  Also like the ‘Little Flower’, her superiors asked her to write her own biography, comprising a beautiful and insightful spiritual testament.  She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993, after a miraculous cure of a man with hydrocephalous, and Bd. Dina is now a heavenly intercessor and patron for the Church in Canada, which may yet become what it once was, and should be again.

Blessed Dina, ora 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→

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→

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→

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→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]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→

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→

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→