from the Universal Society of Hinduism
Hindus are urging the Canadian Government and Canadian Soccer Association to discipline Federation de soccer du Quebec for their turban ban, which they say smells of intolerance and is not acceptable in our 2013 world.
by Jim Wallis
Years ago, I tutored inner-city kids from my Washington, DC, community in Columbia Heights. I would often take them to my favorite monument — the Lincoln Memorial. I would stand with them and help them read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address written on the huge walls on either side of Lincoln’s impressive statuary.
by Dennis Gruending
Pope Francis has completed his first days in office. Much has been made of his frugal lifestyle, his apparent simplicity and his sense of humour. Those are admirable traits and it is also refreshing to hear a religious leader talking about solidarity with the poor rather than the prosperity gospel preached by so many.
On the other hand, virtually every knowledgeable commentator cautions that we should not expect changes to the hierarchy’s conservative doctrinal positions on matters such as birth control, the ordination of women or of married men. While Francis may prove to be a humble man and a pastoral leader, the substance of the message likely will not change as much as the manner of its delivery.
by Arthur Waskow
Will Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation make any difference? He and his predecessor have appointed a College of Cardinals so profoundly rooted in his vision of the world that it would really take a miracle for the next Pope to be more in the tradition of Jesus and John XXIII.
The Vatican claims that the Pope resigned because of his health. But this announcement came upon the heels of a stunning film, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, on the priestly abuse of children and the cover-up of these crimes. Broadcast by US HBO in mid-February, it documents the resistance of deaf young men in Milwaukee to the Church’s silence about their being abused.
The film makes clear the former Pope’s responsibility — back when he was still known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — for controlling and arranging the concealment of hundreds of cases of priests around the world who abused and raped children.
This Pope doesn’t just bear responsibility for much of the cover-up of criminal behavior by priests. As Pope, he also ordered attacks by the Vatican on the American nuns who have committed their lives to working with and for the poor — not only in direct service but in advocating public policy. The Vatican has condemned them for not putting their energy instead into criminalizing abortion and opposing contraception.
Pope Benedict XVI doesn’t deserve praise from any religious leader who sees women as worthy of full respect, fully capable of making moral decisions on their own. Nor does he deserve praise from any religious leader who believes the protection and sustenance of children is far more important than the protection of criminal priests.
Indeed, the protection of criminal, abusive priests is even worse than the original abuse.
Assessing and judging the past is always necessary in order to heal and move into the future. Perhaps the scandal of the priestly abuse of children — and the even worse scandal that bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes protected those criminal priests — will so stir the conscience of the College of Cardinals (or at least their prudential concern about the Church’s reputation) that an unexpected choice will emerge. For the sake of the world as well as of the Church, let’s hope so. And even pray so.
by Dennis Gruending
Pope Benedict XVI has left the scene. I want briefly to look at his performance as a communicator. A past anecdote may be instructive here, from the four years I worked in communications with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in the early 1990s.
by Jim Wallis
Children should bury their parents; parents should not have to bury their kids. Pastors should conduct funerals for the elderly, not for children killed by gun violence. When the proper order of things keeps getting turned around, something is wrong. The ongoing epidemic of shootings — whether in an elementary school or on city streets — shows something in our society has gone terribly amiss.
by Dennis Gruending
If Murray Thomson wasn’t a pacifist you might call him a happy warrior. The moving force behind many worthy peace endeavours, he will soon turn 90.
by Dennis Gruending
The Catholic aid agency Development and Peace (D and P) is in turmoil after the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) pressured the organization in September to scuttle an educational post card campaign just as D and P was about to distribute the material. The postcards, which were to be sent to the Prime Minister, asked that he have a parliamentary committee undertake a national consultation on the future of Canadian development assistance.
By Carolyn Pogue
I’ve been making dolls for more than 60 years, but I’ve never made them with such purpose as now. Nor have I made them with such fervent prayer, nor in the company of so many people. These dolls represent 70,000 Alberta children living in poverty. They are part of the ongoing push by the Child Wellbeing Initiative (CWBI) to raise awareness about this emergency situation. This is the passion of Alberta women in the United Church.
In 2010, the CWBI inspired people around the province to help with the poverty doll project. We began by making a rag doll for each of our 83 members of the legislative assembly.
It was interesting to be in the visitors’ gallery to see the surprise on the faces of the MLAs as they entered the house and found a doll sitting on their desks. Attached to each was a card with the question Jesus posed: “If a child asks for bread, who would give a child a stone?” The card also contained the five things we want for the 70,000 Alberta children who live in poverty: school breakfast and lunch programs, more affordable daycare and housing, higher minimum wage and a provincial poverty-elimination strategy.
On November 20, National Child Day, dozens of us will return to the legislature. We’re taking each MLA a pin, handmade by Sharon Prenevost of Lethbridge. Each bears a picture of the rag doll and reads “End Child Poverty.”
We’ll hear MLA David Swann address the house on the problems that poverty presents to children (such as a poor standard of health, the risk of failure and school dropout), and how society is in turn impoverished by this situation. We’ll speak at a press conference and display the paper dolls. Hopefully, an 11-year-old will read her award-winning poem about poverty.
Throughout Alberta and Northwest Conference, people are cutting paper dolls. We even have helpers in Yellowknife and Fort St. John, BC. Our goal is to cut a doll for each child in poverty. Usually when I mention this goal, someone says, “Wow, 70,000 dolls is a lot!” That’s the point. It’s a lot of kids. And that’s just Alberta. In Canada, one in 10 children lives in poverty. Even UNICEF has turned its attention to child poverty in Canada.
Some people like to tell how they “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.” They say that it’s the parents’ responsibility to raise their kids. Yes. But when ill health, addiction or family violence means that children suffer, do we stand by? Charity is not enough, and poverty is never the child’s fault.
Our government officials say they are working on the problem; I believe them. But they need to work harder. At my downtown Calgary church, homeless people are given a cot to sleep on in the gym once a month at the city-wide Inn from the Cold program. In July, of the 21 guests in our gym, eight were children.
We must make the well-being of children a priority. None of us would sit down at dinner this Sunday and expect children to watch the adults eat most of the food.
Nelson Mandela said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” I add an Amen and reach for my scissors.
by Dennis Gruending
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews decided recently to cancel the contracts of all 49 part-time chaplains in Canada’s federal prisons. Eighteen of those chaplains are non-Christians. Another 80 full-time chaplains remain; 79 of them are Christians. That leaves only one non-Christian chaplain, an imam, in the entire federal prison system. The public reaction, at least as expressed in the media, has been almost entirely opposed. Even the Conservative-friendly Calgary Herald was mildly negative.
Toews may (or not) care about negative public comment — he has had plenty of that in the past few years. But he has also won five federal elections in a socially and religiously conservative area of Manitoba and he knows well how to play to his political base. He also speaks in a code that they understand and he is doing that in the narrative of dissed prison chaplains.
