Everyday For Life Canada: 2009

To Our Visitors: Merry Christmas

We ought to ask ourselves, at Christmas, who is that Baby whose birthday we'll soon celebrate? The answer we give to this question, we'll determine the direction that our lives will take. Is He only one baby among many? Is He a light that once shone but is now spent? If our response is to just say yes, then Christmas can easily become a mere echo which reminds us of a beautiful historical event that happened a long tome ago, but an event that has little to do with us, let alone redeem our lives. Christmas can be a feast full of lights, but often, too often in the end it can remain irredeemably cloudy.

Only our faith can remind us what Christmas is about, and it tells us that Baby Jesus is not just another newborn: He's the Word made flesh; God who reveals Himself to us.

Nov

What can we do to build a culture of life and family in Canada?

Pray

At the very heart of building a culture for life and family is the need for each of us to be a witness to our faith. Next, we ahould strive to pray and do it constantly for all those whose right to freedom of conscience is under attack. Let’s pray especially for those with sincerely held beliefs about the taking of innocent human life. Ask your friends and your entire parish to pray too. Join a prayer group.

Nov

A Parental Lesson You Never Got in School

A priority for most parents is to try to raise children so they’re healthy, smart and well adjusted. Parents want their kids to master the three R’s. Think of the Lemony Snicket’s stories with the title, A Series of Unfortunate Events with the three Baudelaire children, Violet is 14, Klaus 12 and Sunny just an infant. As orphans, they demand the reader’s empathy because they’ve lost their parents who were killed when their luxurious home burned to the ground.

Nov

A Shepherd’s Faith: A Call to All Parents

This past October and November my wife and I travelled to the small Italian town of Casalvieri where I was born. The town is located in the province of Lazio, 130 kilometres south of Rome and about 20 kilometres from Cassino where the famous Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino is found. The Abbey of Monte Cassino, established by St.

Nov

The Social Doctrine of The Church

Soon after the release of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Caritas in vertitate (Charity in Truth) I printed it out, read it and found it to be an intriguing and informative read. In addition to Pope Benedict's contribution, what I found particularly intriguing were the references to other encyclicals from various Popes, dating far back as the late 18th century with Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum.

Oct

An Open Letter to the Canadian Bishops

Most Reverend Pierre Morissette

Bishop of St. Jerome

President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

Dear Bishop P. Morissette:

To begin with we congratulate you as the newly elected President of the Bishops of Canada. It’s reassuring to know that at the last Plenary Assembly, held in Cornwall 19-23 October, the Bishops of Canada approved a number of positive proposals.

Sep

Choose Life: Part I

Toronto’s first 40 Days for Life has come and gone. I feel the need to make some final observations about my experiences. When I examine the issue, I see that those who support abortion do so with words like “democratic freedom”, “choice” and “rights”. Sadly, these pleasant sounding words are used to rationalize and promote the killing of innocent babies. They have become part of a belief system cultivating the culture of death.

Sep

Choose Life: Part II

It was the Angel Gabriel that said to the virgin, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call him Jesus." At that moment, imagine all of humanity wishing and praying that Mary would accept life and God's will. Had we been there we should all have been chanting, "Say yes, Mary. Say yes, Mary. Say yes, Mary." And Mary says yes, to our immense relief and great joy with: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

Aug

Are We Too Busy To Be Christians?

If the title to this blog posting provokes you to think about what I may mean by it, then the title has done its job. I hope that the rest of this entry completes the job and helps everyone to examine their lives and those that they care about.

I can not speak about all of Canada, but I hope that all of Canada changes for the better and this can begin within our own families, circle of friends, our places of work and with those who we meet and come into contact with.

Aug

Fathers Urged to Fight for the Traditional Family

At the most recent meeting (August 10-12, 2009) of the World Congress of Families in Amsterdam Patrick Fagan, family scholar at the Family Research Council said that there are two competing cultures of sexual morality and that they shape society and government policy.