The anxiety and fear that many are experiencing in these days of pandemic and urban rioting have emerged from a sense that things are falling apart. New data released by Mental Health America reveal that […]
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Monday marks the last day on the job for Niagara Catholic District School Board for Director of Education John Crocco. His retirement comes just a week before students return to the school bench under unprecedented circumstances. A former teacher and principal at several schools in the region, Crocco was appointed Director of Education in 2008 and has held the role […]
For centuries people of faith have had to confront the reality of evil. The question is often asked, if we have a loving God, why is there evil in the world? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? These questions assume even greater significance as the world continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the […]
CNA Staff, Aug 31, 2020 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- The U.S. bishops’ conference will conduct its November general assembly virtually, the bishops announced Friday, in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The bishops’ conference had cancelled entirely its June meeting in light of the pandemic.
“In a vote of 219 to 5 (1 abstaining), the bishops decided to meet in a virtual format rather than the usual in person meeting. The agenda will be finalized by the Administrative Committee of the USCCB, set to meet in mid-September,” the conference said in an Aug. 28 press release.
The bishops’ conference consulted with the Holy See before putting the idea of a virtual meeting to a vote. The ballot told bishops that the administrative committee of the conference had decided to cancel the upcoming in-person meeting, and asked bishops whether they approved holding a virtual meeting in its place. The bishops were also asked how long they would like the meeting to last, bishops overwhelmingly chose an abbreviated session taking place over two days.
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Pope Francis on August 31, 2020, released a video to accompany his prayer intention for September 2020, that we learn to respect the planet’s resources
The full text of the prayer intention is below:
We are squeezing out the planet’s goods. Squeezing them out, as if the earth were an orange.
September 1, 2020, is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and this is an important opportunity to celebrate the richness of the Christian faith as an expression to protect our common home.
As followers of Christ, we share a common role as stewards of God’s creation, our well-being is linked to the well-being of our mother earth. It is also a moment of renewing our hearts and minds, and in rebuilding our relationship with Mother Earth, we are restoring our relationship with God.
In these months in which our globalized world has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we became aware of our shared human nature and how interconnected the political, economic, social, spiritual, and cultural dimensions are. We realized how unjust systems created the environment for the spread of diseases, how fragile our lives are, and how vulnerable we were before the virus. The pandemic also became an opportunity for us to joins hands to defend lives and ensure that we do not fall victim of the virus. It is also an opportunity for a new form of solidarity to emerge.
I have an article published in Catholic World Report on the vocation of singlehood – if we may term it so – in response to Mary Cuff’s article in Crisis earlier in August, whose provocative title is ‘There is no vocation to the single life’. Hmm. That all depends on what one means. Are some human beings meant to be single, and find what ‘vocation’ there be in the midst of what might be regarded as an unstable, restless and potential state? The good side of singlehood is a greater inclusivity, an openness to chaste friendships, more capacity to focus on apostolic work, more time and space for prayer, and so on. But only if used well! Anon, read over my words, if you are amenable, and let us know what you think.
Are we supposed to rally behind Erin O’Toole, and carry the nearly-defunct ‘Conservative’ Party to victory in the next election? Mr. O’Toole is a covert liberal, ‘conserving’ almost nothing, a red leprechaun painted in blue, sort of like a chubby socialist Swedish smurf, except he’s of Irish extraction, so he should be more ‘Catholic’ than he is, espousing at least a modicum of the Church’s pro-life stance. I, for one, don’t think I can vote for him as our next Prime Minister. But, then, there’s always the anti-Trudeau vote. Spoiling one’s ballot, perchance?
We are at an odd, critical moment in history, with most of our ‘choices’ being local, private ones, such as whom we are going to hang out, where we go to Mass, what we think, say and do in our homes and amongst our friends, kith and kin. Not a bad way to live, for now, as many of the ‘bigger’ choices – our politicians, our bishops, the protocols we must face each day, in the public square, in our churches – well out of our control. But we fight what battles we might, and should, and let God take care of the rest. What was that from the second psalm?