Catholic New Times back issues from December 2005:
Editor's desk.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
Dec 04, 2005; ... The Witness page reflects the best of what many catholic high schools are doing in our new globalized world. Students who come back from these marvelous exposure trips often are set on a new way of understanding the world and the impact allows grace to intrude. The "dangerous memory of ...
Annulment process respectful.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... I was saddened to read Pat MacLeod's painful account of her marriage annulment ("The Scandal of Annulment," CNT, Nov. 6). My own experience (as a petitioner) was quite different. Marriage Tribunal staff treated me with the utmost respect and sensitivity, r was not expected to identify the ...
Withhold contributions reader says.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... In Tom Hassett's article "Rethinking the diocesan 'corporation'" (CNT, Nov. 20), he indicated-that the laity should withhold all contributions, until our problems are listened to and addressed. I, and many others, have, over the past two years, come to the conclusion ...
Ordinands and ordination necessary?(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... Thank you for CNT's helpful coverage of issues relating to the ordination of women. I found the centrefold in the Oct. 23 issue especially helpful. I appreciated Temier-Gommers observation that the recent women 'river' ordinands appear to have no ecclesial community where their new status ...
Women yes, WOW no.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... I would like to express my deepest admiration and respect for Marie Louise Temier-Gommers for her Courage and wisdom in writing her "exception to WOW" article (CNT, Oct. 23). Her thoughts are those that must be carefully considered by all of the Catholic faithful. Myself, I am fully in ...
Leave of absence.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... I cannot remember ever being so angry toward the Catholic Church. I think the shameful handling of Fr. Ed Cachia's case is the final straw for me in the series of disgraceful happenings in the Roman Catholic Church. I will always be a Catholic, but for at least for the year 2006 I will be ...
Critic's credentials.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... I was disappointed when I read CNT's Oct 23. edition. Having read some of Dr. Bertell's well-researched and documented books, I was curious about the credentials of Leo Lowe of Toronto. Because he was making statements contradicting Dr. Bertell's findings, I expected some idea ...
Divestment in Israel wrong way.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... The title of the article on the Sabeel conference was very misleading (CNT Oct. 23). To my mind, it should have read Immoral Divestment in Israel. I find it inadmissible that some major church organizations, including the WCC, are lining themselves up against Israel, under the guise of ...
Quote/unquote.
Dec 04, 2005; ... The prophet courageously challenges oppressive social structures of which the church may be an integral part. The prophet is the end result ...
Hands of Hope: reaching out to Guatemala.
Dec 04, 2005; ... Throughout the history of the Roman Catholic Church, justice and social involvement has been one of the marks of our faith. Our tradition celebrates and demands engagement in our world. In short, as Catholics we know it is not enough to pray for the Reign of God. We must also be tools for ...
Spiritual adulthood: the coming fruits of a forgotten council.(Editorial)
Dec 04, 2005 ... "A Temple church is an anachronism after the journeys of St. Paul."--Anthony Padovano That marvelous priest writer Donald Cozzens (page 15) in his summary remarks at Call to Action in Milwaukee said, "Two hundred years from now people will look back at us and say, 'why couldn't ...
Urban VI still lives.(FRONT BURNER)
Dec 04, 2005; ... During my recent visit to the Art Gallery of Hamilton, a flash of brilliant red caught my eye from one particular painting. Intrigued, I looked closer and discovered the painting was by the 19th century French artist, Jean-Paul Laurens. The dominant red-clad figure in the painting is that ...
Refugee woman seeks sanctuary in Ottawa Catholic Church.(CANADA)
Dec 04, 2005; ... My teenagers cannot imagine how slowly time would pass were they to spend four entire months in a church. Most Canadians rarely darken a church door for even an hour a week! Yet in her quest for justice, a woman asylum seeker has spent almost four months in an Ottawa church and finds ...
Mentally ill inmates left untreated, ombudsman says.(CANADA NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... OTTAWA -- Canadian prisons are "warehousing" the mentally ill instead of providing psychiatric services they need to become law-abiding citizens, according to a report tabled in Parliament in November. Federal Offenders Ombudsman Howard Sapers, who authored the report, told the ...
Nearly half of Canadians lack reading skills: report.(CANADA NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... Nearly half of Canadians over 16 fail to meet the basic standards for reading comprehension, according to a recent Statistics Canada report on literacy skills. The 2003 survey--released in November and reported by the CBC--tested 23,000 Canadians on their literacy skills. They ...
Conscientious objector wins review of refugee application.(CANADA NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... TORONTO -- An American war resister turned down for refugee status in Canada, will be able to plead his case to the Federal Court. In early November, the court honoured Jeremy Hinzman's request for a judicial review of his case and will hold an oral hearing Feb. 7. ...
Catholics support Amnesty International's 'Write for Rights'.(CANADA NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... Canadian Catholics are set to join Amnesty International's annual "Write for Rights" on Dec. 10. The write-a-thon, to be held on Human Rights Day, invites Catholics to express their values and give support to human rights. Because Catholics share a deep concern for the state of ...
Beyond the collapse: the eight noble truths of economics.(WORLD)
Dec 04, 2005; ... All over North America, economics students are revolting from a discipline that has less to do with human's well-being and more to do with lifeless mathematical models In April 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development released the United Nations, vision of ...
Who would Jesus torture?(WORLD)
Dec 04, 2005; ... Christians of strong religious faith and sound moral conscience often end up in disagreement. Human affairs are a messy business, unfortunately, and even at the best of times we only see through a glass, darkly. It is hard for that reason to call Christians to a universal ...
Medical research 'biased towards diseases of rich Westerners'.(WORLD)
Dec 04, 2005 ... Malaria kills more people each year than any other disease, but only 0.3 per cent of money alloted for medical research and development is spent on the sickness, a new report revealed. The study of malaria research funding, published in the Independent, found "stark ...
Consumers pay 'real price' for gold.(WORLD)
Dec 04, 2005 ... The lust for gold has reached record levels worldwide as India and China join developed nations in demanding more jewelry. But a growing alliance of conservationists and local communities is pushing governments, corporations and consumers to consider the mineral's environmental costs. ...
Bush seeks CIA exemption from ban on cruelty to terror suspects.(WORLD)
Dec 04, 2005 ... The White House wants the CIA to be exempted from a proposed ban on the abusive treatment of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. Last month, the Senate flouted a threatened presidential veto and passed legislation outlawing the "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or ...
We are church a 'kindom' of priests: in July's women's ordination conference, the respected Harvard theologian Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza gave her keynote address.
Dec 04, 2005; ... "Wisdom has built Her house, She has set up Her seven pillars ... She also has set Her table. She has sent out Her wo/men ministers to call from the highest places in the town ... (Proverbs 9:1-3.5-6) We are here this weekend because we have heard the call of Divine ...
'Bend down,' give up your pretensions': an advent reflection.
Dec 04, 2005; ... While gentle silence enveloped all things, and night its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven ... and touched heaven while standing on earth. (Wis. 18.. 14-16) About 50 years ago Bishop Fulton Sheen, the first religious T.V. star, wrote a ...
An accessible annulment? You'll never know until you try.(managing the marital bond)
Dec 04, 2005; ... One warm summer evening in 1970, I sat alone on the front steps of my I house and flung a silent and desperate prayer heavenward: "Why me, Lord, why me?" I scanned the dimly-lit windows of the neighbouring bungalows, where families were preparing to settle down for the night. I thought of ...
Jews and Christians 40 years later.(CHURCH)
Dec 04, 2005; ... Forty years ago, the Vatican Council--spending belatedly to the Holocaust--radically changed the church's teaching regarding the Jews. It recognized the ongoing validity of the divine covenant with them; honoured their religious patrimony as a source of divine grace; ceased to pray for ...
40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate celebrated.
Dec 04, 2005; ... On Oct. 28, 1965, the Pope Paul VI, "the servant of the servants of God," along with the "fathers of the sacred council for everlasting memory," proclaimed In Our Times, the breakthrough statement "on the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions" (widely known as Nostra Aetate ...
New book links clergy sexual abuse to mandatory celibacy.(CHURCH NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... FREEPORT, Maine -- A revolutionary new book entitled, The Bingo Report, links sexual abuse to mandatory celibacy in the Roman Catholic priesthood. According to the new, controversial study conducted by the Center for the Study of Religious Issues (CSRI) and published by the U.S ....
Cardinals at odds over remarried divorcees.(Brief Article)
Dec 04, 2005 ... The growing issue of Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics is underscoring a sharp disagreement between two cardinals at the Vatican. Just three days after Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, stated that he "could not ...
Church moderator accuses Israel of 'theft'.(CHURCH NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... The moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly accused the Jewish state of "theft," by constructing its highly controversial separation barrier inside the Palestinian territories. Rev. David Lacy said his recent visit to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, which is ...
Awards for Wijngaards.(CHURCH NOTES)
Dec 04, 2005 ... John Wijngaards, Dutch-born British citizen active in the women priests movement, received the Marga Klompe Prize in the Netherlands in November. Named after the church social reformer and Cabinet Minister Dr. Marga Klompe (1912-1986), the award recognized Wijngaards for his ...
Donald Cozzens and the faith that dares to speak.(FAITH & SPIRITUALITY)
Dec 04, 2005; ... In his seminal book, The Changing Face of Priesthood (2000), Cleveland priest Donald Cozzens gently dissected the privileged caste he belongs to, the Roman Catholic priesthood. This charitable evaluation appeared just before the tsunami of sex abuse charges was pried out of the Boston ...
God and popcorn.
Dec 04, 2005; ... NOV. 1 was the church's feast of All Saints. After prayers in the morning and the Catholic rituals that bring peace and meaning to my life, I headed off to my favourite electronics store in another quest for communion. For it was this day that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was ...
Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir.(a book by Joan Chittister)(Reprint)
Dec 04, 2005; ... Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir by Joan Chittister, Sheed and Ward, 2004. Joan Chittister is celebrating her Jubilee year, 50 years as a Benedictine nun, known for her own questions, and for her courage in answering the questions posed by an ever-increasing public. ...
Contemporary Anti-Semitism: Canada and the World.(Book Review)
Dec 04, 2005; ... Contemporary Anti-Semitism: Canada and the World, edited by Derek Penslar, Michael Marrus and Janice Stein, University of Toronto Press, 2005, 122pp. This is a collection of essays based on a conference on anti-Semitism, that, includes a presentation by Brian Mulroney. But like ...
A note to the pink-skinned.
Dec 04, 2005; ... Racism is something that a lot of us pink-skinned-people have a hard time getting. For some reason, whenever the topic comes up my brain tends to melt down. seize up and 'blank out.' I fidget, shuffle my feet. wallow in discomfort, look for ways to change the subject or point the finger at ...
Justice, a fashion accessory?(white vs. poor)
Dec 04, 2005; ... I asked my homeroom class to sign petition-postcards to their Member of Parliament as part of the End Poverty campaign. I asked them to research the name of their MP. but they couldn't be bothered. I made some comment about democracy and making government accountable, and one of my ...
Time to stand up.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 18, 2005; ... It's time people and clergy alike stood up to the outrageous abuse of power displayed by Bishop Nicola de Angelis. One of the best ways is to give to the Father Cachia fund ...
Likes NDP.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 18, 2005; ... James Travers, the Toronto Star columnist commenting on Judge Gomery's report, asked: what's new? Every Prime Minister since Confederation has been involved in some scandal, even Mackenzie King. I remember horses on the payroll in Petawawa, and the pipeline fiasco. ...
Go for it, Ed.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 18, 2005; ... When I was a priest, a fellow priest once said to me, "I am convinced that the priestly power resides in the male flesh." Today, he is a bishop in the Maritimes, functionally canonically with the same attitude. I requested and received permission to return to the lay ...
Humanae Mortis.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 18, 2005; ... When the papal document, Humanae Vitae, came out in 1968 it was a response to the birth control pill, which turned out to be 10 times stronger than medically necessary. So Humane Vitae may have saved lives. But we now live in a time when HIV and AIDS are decimating entire ...
Nero fiddles.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 18, 2005; ... In the Nov. 6 issue of CNT, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two articles: "Bishops vote on propositions" and "Retreats down the rabbit hole." The first one reported the outcomes of the recent Synod of Bishops in Rome. The second one was a report on the gathering of retreat ...
'Cradle-Catholics' resent cultural impositions.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Dec 18, 2005; ... Quite recently my beloved brother died. As a family fully involved in the church we were keen to assist in the planning of the funeral liturgy and in the choosing of readings appropriate to my brother. Our priest, a recent arrival in Canada, informed me that it was not to the family to ...
Unquote/.
Dec 18, 2005; ... 'A country which has dangled the sword of nuclear holocaust over the world for half a ...
Editors desk.
Dec 18, 2005; ... We were overwhelmed and disturbed by the shocking news that our friend and columnist James Loney had been abducted in Baghdad. It brought home to us the unpredictable chaos that comes when the mad dogs of war are let loose. What is the sense in this: that a genuine friend of the ...
If there is no God.
Dec 18, 2005; ... <Pre> If there is no God If there is no God,Not everything is permittedto man;He is still his ...
Patty Crowley: founder of the Christian Family Movement dies.(WITNESS)(Obituary)
Dec 18, 2005 ... Patty Crowley died on Nov. 23 at her home in Chicago, at the age of 92. With her husband, Pat, she was one of the founders of the Christian Family Movement in the United States. The Crowleys travelled extensively in the 1950s and 1960s, spreading the ideas and activities of CFM. They were ...
Rev. John Webb: reflecting Christ and his love to all whom he encountered.(Talbot House service of addicted and homeless men)
Dec 18, 2005; ... In the small community of Frenchvale, in rural Cape Breton, in 1959, Fr. John Webb established a home for men who were suffering from addictions, or men, who for whatever reasons, found themselves homeless. Ordained in 1946, Fr. Webb began early in his priestly ministry to reach out to the ...
Election 2006: overcoming cynicism.(EDITORIAL)
Dec 18, 2005 ... The day after the federal election was called, the Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) released the following statement: "One of our most important rights is active participation in the democratic election of a government charged with the ...
School Board trustees choose business interests over student demands.(Toronto Catholic District School Board)(Editorial)
Dec 18, 2005; ... On Nov. 10, 2005, the trustees of the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) implemented a no-sweatshop policy allowing businesses who are "sweatshop-free" to supply uniforms to Catholic schools across the board. However, what should have been a cause for celebration among student ...
Catholic groups offer accepted in residential school settlement.
Dec 18, 2005 ... OTTAWA (CCN) -- An offer by 41 Catholic religious orders and dioceses is included in the historic Nov. 23 agreement-in-principle to settle Indian residential schools abuse claims. "This is a total, complete, comprehensive settlement of everything involved with residential ...
Too close for comfort. Maude Barlow speaks out.(CANADA)
Dec 18, 2005; ... Maude Barlow has delivered again -- to a packed audience of 350 people inside Market Hall, in Peterborough, Ont. On Nov. 14, she gave a stunning lecture on her latest book, Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future within Fortress North America. Barlow, national chairperson of the ...
Canada's pollution record still one of the worst.(CANADA NOTES)
Dec 18, 2005 ... The pollution behind climate change has increased substantially in Canada and in the rest of the world, warns the UN. Canada has one of the worst records among industrialized countries, according to the UN's first official emissions report in a decade (Their findings were ...
Vets rip feds over Agent Orange.(CANADA NOTES)(Brief Article)
Dec 18, 2005 ... OTTAWA -- Sick veterans and civilians from Gagetown, N.B., are demanding that the Canadian government compensate victims exposed to Agent Orange. Appearing before the Commons defence committee last month, a line of witnesses recounted heartbreaking, personal stories and blamed ...
Canada's labour tries to curb gun violence.(CANADA NOTES)(Brief article)
Dec 18, 2005 ... TORONTO -- One of Canada's leading labour councils is calling on governments to bolster inner city youth, following Toronto's spate of gun-related violence. The Toronto and York Region Labour Council maintained that the city's violence was rooted in poverty, unemployment, poor ...
HIV cases increase 20 per cent in Canada.(CANADA NOTES)
Dec 18, 2005 ... Almost 58,000 people in Canada are now diagnosed with HIV, with women and gay men accounting for nearly three quarters of new cases, the UN says. Contributing to the 20 per cent rise in cases over the past five years, homosexuals made up 45 per cent of new HIV cases in Canada ...
'Eve's Quest', a board game that rocks.(CANADA NOTES)(Product/service evaluation)
Dec 18, 2005 ... Many family gatherings have been made memorable--maybe even endurable--by the introduction of a couple of hours of board games. Shelves creak with old favorites: RISK, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and even Snakes and Ladders. This year, "Eve's Quest," developed by. two ...
Condi Rice's disdain for Civil Rights movement.(WORLD)
Dec 18, 2005; ... Eugene Robinson, a black reporter for the Washington Post, inter viewed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during her recent flight from Washington to Alabama. Robinson's revealing observations about Rice and her family coincide, at least to a point, with what I have said ...
Why the destruction in France?(WORLD)
Dec 18, 2005; ... What has been happening in France these days is what sociologists term collective behaviour. That phrase links such diverse phenomena as religious hysteria, social movements, fads and fashions, rumour, and crowd and mob behavior. Crowd and mob behavior can be anything from the ...
Two earthquakes in Israel.(CHURCH)
Dec 18, 2005; ... A Political earth quake is itself a rare event. When two major political earthquakes follow each other in quick succession, it is almost unheard of. One such earthquake was the election of Amir Peretz as leader of the Labor Party in Israel. The other is Ariel Sharon's leaving the Likud and ...
Books received.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Dec 18, 2005 ... Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession by John Peter-Pham, New York, Oxford University press, 368 pp 2004 Unfortunately the timing of this book was less than serendipitous. Nevertheless Pham gives us a Vatican insider's look at papal succession-and papal ...
From the foreword of Cosmic Fire.
Dec 18, 2005; ... Seldom has the power of story so penetrated our consciousness and become the centrepiece of our life journey as in Cosmic Fire/Local Sparks. The work of Carmel Higgins is an archetypal journey of a soul that returns us to our origins and reminds us of the challenges that await us in the ...
Empire with imperialism.(The Globalizing Dynamics of Neo-Liberal Capitalism )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Dec 18, 2005 ... The Globalizing Dynamics of Neo-Liberal Capitalism By James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer, with Luciano Vasapollo and Mauro Casadio. Fernwood Publishing/ZED Books 225 pp., $24.95 Petras and Veltmeyer provide compelling arguments to back their assertion that the global market does ...
Even more books received.(Book Review)
Dec 18, 2005 ... Power Down: Options and actions for a post-carbon world by Richard Heinberg, Gabriola Island, New Society publishers, 2004 207 pp. Author Richard Heinberg clearly confronts the question of resource depletion and population pressure as oil runs out and The Us continues to bury its head in ...
Jesus and the Quest for Secular Justice.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Dec 18, 2005 ... Jesus and the Quest for Secular Justice. By Pierre L'Abbe 0-9735487-2-X $16.95, 94p. Jesus and the Quest for Secular Justice surveys major contemporary writings on the historical Jesus and traces the history of these works through the 19th century up to the school of writers ...