Today is the feast of Saint Philip Neri (+1595), the second Apostle of Rome, and the founder of the Oratory, whose houses are now found throughout the world (Bd. John Henry Newman brought the Oratory to England). As you may know from my brief biography, I lived and studied at the Toronto Oratory, and owe […]
Last week, I was walking through Ottawa, and what greeted me on the vast lawn in front of the Parliament buildings was a sight to behold: Hundreds of raised posteriors in various tight-fitting spandex doing yoga exercises, to the voice of an unseen young woman on a remote microphone. I was quite literally flabbergasted, and […]
Most readers will have seen the bizarre behaviour of the Prime Minister yesterday evening. As witnesses and the video record attest, Mr. Trudeau, in an apparent fit of pique at what he perceived to be a deliberate delay on the part of some Conservative members returning to their seats, strode angrily towards MP Gord Brown […]
*Today would have been the 96th birthday of Pope Saint John Paul II, who died just shy of his 85 birthday. Very few Popes have reached this venerable age; Pope Leo XIII, the oldest reigning pontiff known to history, reached his 93rd year. I know not how old John Paul/Karol is in heaven. Not having […]
Today commemorates Saint Brendan, the sixth century Irish monk, the ‘Navigator’, whose main claim to fame is a supposed seven year trans-Atlantic voyage in a boat made of animal-hides upon which he and sixteen others embarked, with the discovery of North America many centuries before the time Cabot. Many considered his journey pious legend, a […]
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 […]
Marc Bauerlein has an insightful essay on false innocence in the recent issue of First Things, describing those who feign an innocence that, perhaps at some level they think they have, but, deeper down, in their heart of hearts, in that still, small voice of conscience I alluded to in my last post, they know […]
Today is the commemoration of Our Lady of Fatima, a title given to the Virgin Mary after she appeared ‘brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light’ to three shepherd children in the summer of 1917 (no painting ever did Our Lady justice) just outside the village of Fatima, in central Portugal, about 76 miles […]
Quebec is back in the news, this time with a report of its death-spiral of a birth rate. It seems Quebec women by and large do not want to have children, or at least not more than 1.6, on average, per woman. This is well, well, below the requisite 2.1 just to maintain a stable […]
This Thursday is the 17th annual March for Life, commemorating Trudeau Sr.’s to demonstrate our commitment to life in a visible, public way. People debate about the value of such demonstrations, especially as they are comically, one might say conspiratorially, under-represented in the media. CBC, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star: What March? Oh, […]