Yesterday, May 1st, on the memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom received official recognition from the government of Ontario to grant degrees, specifically the ‘Bachelor of Catholic Studies’. Providentially, the letter arrived three years to the very day that the application was first submitted, on the day dedicated to the […]
Bishop Javier Ecchevaria Rodgriguez, the Prelate of the personal prelature Opus Dei, died yesterday of complications arising from pneumonia. He had been chosen personally by Saint Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, to lead the worldwide lay apostolate, which fosters piety, spirituality in its members. Bishop Rodriguez oversaw Opus Dei from 1994 until his […]
Today is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (see my post above), so it as with some dismay that I read this lead article on this glorious morning, a male teacher at an elite private school in British Columbia, fired for uttering four words that may soon become illegal: “I am against abortion”. He was […]
A recent article, sponsored by none other than the Royal Bank of Canada, had a list of the top ten ‘most valuable’ university degrees ranked, as is the wont of a bank I suppose, by how much you could make upon graduation. Happiness, fulfilment, joy, the breadth and length of knowledge, all be damned, just […]
The great Thomist Josef Pieper penned a short book in the late seventies on how totalitarian regimes use words to gain control over the masses: Abuse of Language – Abuse of Power. Pieper’s treatise came to mind as I read that the Canadian government is no longer going to refer to ISIS as ISIS (that is, the ‘Islamic […]
One of the most studied patients in neuropsychological history, from 1957 until his death in 2008, was a patient known through his life only as ‘H.M.’ , but after whose death in 2008, we now know as Henry Molaison. H.M. did not mind the intense scrutiny he received from all sorts of researchers, for […]
Chesterton wrote a book in 1912, which he called ‘What’s Wrong with the World’. In 2016, there is still a lot wrong with the world, but I will discuss just what is wrong with the modern university. To paraphrase an old warning, caveat discipulus, let the (prospective) student beware, and that goes for parents also […]
There is much talk nowadays about conscience, freedom of conscience, good and bad conscience, yet with little awareness, from what I can tell, of what conscience actually is. So, a definition: Conscience is an act, specifically an act of the practical intellect, judging the moral quality of an act that we have done, are doing, […]
Today, the feast of Saint Matthias, paradoxically marks the sombre anniversary of the legalization of abortion in Canada, under Trudeau Sr., in 1969. Omnibus Bill C-150, officially the Criminal Law Amendment Act , also brought into law gun control, contraception, homosexuality, drunk driving (with the 0.08 level), gambling and cruelty to animals. I find it […]
Today is the memorial of one of the most heroic bishops in the history of the Church, the late, great Saint Athanasius (+373), a foundational Eastern Doctor, along with Basil, Gregory Nazianzen and Ambrose. He was the hero of Bd. John Henry Cardinal Newman, who wrote erudite and engaging essays on Athanasius and his battle […]