The Global Gift
As is obvious to everyone reading this newsletter, the priestly vocation crisis in Canada has been dire for the last two generations. Priestly vocations have plummeted, and every diocese and religious order has seen the hollowing out of our ranks. Steeply raising the retirement age of our active priests and merging parishes are only some of the drastic moves taken to keep the pastoral care of Canadian Catholics going.
Luckily, we have benefitted enormously from the influx of priests from many other countries. The source countries have changed but the Canadian Catholic Church has seen the face of the priesthood literally and irrevocably change in the last 50 years.
As we priests are pro-life leaders this means that a change in pro-life thinking must also take place.
Recently, I gave presentations to Oblate priests many of whom came from Poland and serve in our far north. One mentioned that he was a “foreign“ priest. “Father,” I replied, ”You have been here for 40 years. That is longer than most Canadians have been alive. You’re Canadian now, surely!” He answered, “No, I am still seen as foreign and you have to walk carefully in a different culture.”
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TRUTH HAS COME INTO THE WORLD
Looking back at the stable in Bethlehem can seem so far away. It becomes almost fairy tale like. The association of children and our memories lends a sheen of the unreal to the scene. But the reality of what happened there is very much what affects us today. The Child born in that stable became the Man who years later testified that he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Unlike every other sage or philosopher, Jesus did not point the way to truth. He claimed He was the Truth.
This is still the central problem of our time and, indeed, of all humanity’s time. In our battle it must be paramount.
In August 1993, St. John Paul II wrote an amazing encyclical- The Splendour of Truth - on the eternal nature of truth and morality. He reiterated that the search for truth is rooted in the human condition as a yearning for absolute truth. That same urge that propelled the pagan Wisemen inspires us even today. The splendour of truth shines forth from deep within the human spirit as clearly as the Star of Bethlehem.
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Tensions and Action
Did you see in your newsfeed, or even if you are still one of those people who still read newspapers, something which caught just about everybody’s attention? A Canadian man, Kenneth Law, has made a business of selling a suicide compound by mail to hundreds of people worldwide. It’s a legal substance, but not one that many would know was lethal if taken in the “right way” and in the right amounts. Tragically many young people (as well as older) have died because of this man.
Mr. Law’s mailings took place from our country. He has been charged with aiding and abetting suicide. You may be surprised at this since thousands of people are being killed by assisted suicide in our country each year, but this law is still in the books. Obviously, this exception to the law is big enough to drive a Mack truck through it.
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