Register Columnists »
A model for success
By Peter Stockland
Only in an age permeated with paradox could the victories of the gay rights movement present a model for religious believers in the public square. Yet whether one agrees or disagrees with what gay activists have achieved over the past 40 years, there is no doubt the strategic course they have followed has been wildly successful and worth emulating as a result.
Msgr. Thomas Raby, RIP
By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza
Thomas Joseph Raby — T.J. to his closest friends, always Mgsr. Raby to me — died a few weeks shy of his 95th birthday. Msgr. Raby was born on Oct. 1, and it pleased him that his birthday was the feast of the Little Flower. It is a measure of the length of his years that when Msgr. Raby was born in 1918, St. Therese did not yet have a feast day. She was not beatified until 1923, nor canonized until 1925. Indeed, Msgr. Raby was born during the First World War.
Quebec's charter excludes most outsiders
By Joanne McGarry
The Quebec government's intention to draft a Charter of Quebec Values was announced last year, but many details of how the charter will impact religious freedom were only leaked to the press in August. Reportedly, the legislation would ban most religious symbols from public institutions, and public employees would not be permitted to wear religious items such as hijabs, kippas, turbans and "ostentatious crucifixes."
World Youth Day and three million dissenters
It is both proper and gratifying to see the success of World Youth Day in Rio as a massive, marvelous "yes" to Christian faith.
A cathedral, California-style
GARDEN GROVE, CALIF. - On the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the parish of St. Callistus will have a procession, but not any ordinary procession. This being California, it will be a motorcade. And the congregation won't be coming back.
Quebec prayer ruling could have nationwide effect
The Quebec Court of Appeal recently overturned a provincial human rights commission ruling regarding the opening prayer at Saguenay City Council. The commission had ruled that the mayor, Jean Tremblay, must cease saying the opening prayer and also pay $30,000 in damages to the complainant. The court, however, said the tribunal got it wrong and that the opening prayer did not significantly affect the state's "religious neutrality" and should therefore be allowed.
Always a car crash waiting to happen in Ottawa
By Robert Brehl
Political scandals, whether on Parliament Hill, city hall or elsewhere, are like car accidents: you don't like to see them happen but it's difficult to look away.
Quick action the best route
Last week Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who resigned as archbishop of Edinburgh just before the recent conclave upon revelations of "lewd behaviour" and "drunken fumblings," spoke for the first time since press reports led him to absent himself from the conclave. The accusations were made by Scottish priests who reported O'Brien had made advances after excessive drinking in years past. The accusations did not involve minors.
Seeking the answers
Only those who have run marathons fully understand the event's power to shred body, soul and psyche. Runners of half-marathons don't half understand that power because the full 42.1 kilometres does not split arithmetically in two. It is commonly said the marathon truly begins at 30 kilometres.
At long last, Ralph Klein finally embraced Jesus
As someone who can smell the incense from the last pew of the church, it was no challenge for me to sniff the billows of the beer coming off Ralph Klein.
Let the communication begin
VATICAN CITY - As Pope Francis leads the Church through his first Holy Week, there is great interest in what he does, how he does it and what the new Pope has to say. The communications apparatus of the Holy See is essential to addressing that interest.