What Canadian Catholics Need to Know About Assisted Suicide

Last updated on: April 26, 2016 at 7:07 pm By K. Albert Little

On February 6, 2015, in a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled to overturn a ban on so-called physician-assisted suicide. The courts, ruling that the right-to-die was a human right protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, gave the government one year to come up with legislation to protect this right for all Canadians. Based on the Supreme Court’s ruling, a bipartisan task force was struck and came up with a number of recommendations for right-to-die legislation.... Read more

Why Catholics Sit, Stand, and Kneel During Mass

Last updated on: April 6, 2016 at 3:50 pm By K. Albert Little

My wonderfully witty sister once remarked that I became a Catholic because I love to sit, stand, and kneel. Over and over again. In a way, she’s right: I love going through the motions in a Catholic Mass. But I love going through these motions because each and every motion, no matter how small or slight, is deeply infused with meaning. Like physical poetry. As an Evangelical Protestant, coming into the Catholic Church, I was excited and enthusiastic to learn about every aspect... Read more

How To Not Become a Catholic: A Convert’s Guide

Last updated on: April 5, 2016 at 7:12 pm By K. Albert Little

As a Protestant convert to Catholicism whose journey culminated a year ago at Easter I have some experience, oddly enough, in how to become a Catholic. For me, there are certain lines I can trace–a certain narrative—through nearly a decade’s long journey. In my own journey, I can check off certain boxes and say, definitively, yes, that made me become a Catholic. So, naturally, I wanted to help others to avoid a similar fate. For me, it’s too late, but there’s hope for... Read more

Why I’m Becoming a Catholic At Easter

Last updated on: March 22, 2016 at 6:51 pm By K. Albert Little

After a radical conversion to Christ at the age of fifteen I lived as a genuinely devout Protestant, earnestly seeking after Christ in my life as best I could. Sometimes, of course, doing a miserable job. This Easter, after a long journey, I’ll become a Catholic. My journey began when a Protestant pastor—himself on a journey towards a more ancient faith—asked me the question, “What’s more important the Bible or tradition?” My answer was typically Protestant, “The Bible, of course.” “But who put... Read more

Catholics Got It Wrong (Except for the Bible)

Last updated on: March 18, 2016 at 12:02 pm By K. Albert Little

Dale Ahlquist is the brother-in-law of the late, great Larry Norman—arguably one of God’s greatest gifts to Christian music. Ahlquist is also the president of the American Chesterton Society and a convert to the Catholic Church from Evangelical Protestantism. As Ahlquist tells in his own conversion story, it was Norman, an Evangelical, who first encouraged him to read G.K. Chesterton and it was Chesterton, once an Anglican, who convinced Ahlquist to become a Catholic. As Chesterton himself tells it, one of the... Read more

On Lent and Letting Go of Grudges

Last updated on: March 14, 2016 at 9:38 am By K. Albert Little

I’ve held a grudge for a long time, I’m not proud to say. I’m not exactly the grudging holding kind of person. You know who I mean, the kind of person who goes around dragging a thousand pound weight tied around their neck. The kind of person that you meet and you can tell they’re nursing a grudge. I’m not one of those people, but maybe I am. Maybe we are all, in our own private ways. And maybe Lent—a traditional time of... Read more

Let’s Not Kill Each Other: Canada’s Euthanasia Crisis

Last updated on: March 7, 2016 at 11:22 am By K. Albert Little

While America entertains itself with the likes of Donald Trump and the Presidential Primaries its neighbour to the north Canada, my home and native land, inches itself towards what’s bound to be a monumental decisions with repercussions on both sides of the border. Euthanasia. State-sponsored suicide. And by “inches” I mean “barrels towards it at a breakneck speed.” A bit of background. In Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees individuals protected rights, as interpreted by the Courts, with which... Read more

What A Tired Priest Taught Me About Humility

Last updated on: February 20, 2016 at 10:45 am By K. Albert Little

It’s an open secret for long-time readers of my blog that I experienced my fair share of setbacks and disappointing experiences on my journey towards the Catholic Church. This experience, in itself, has been fairly remarkable. When I hit a low, when I encounter a significant challenge to my journey, or experience a particularly seasonally-depressing day, God uses this to do something great. It’s happen time and time again and, I guess, I shouldn’t be terribly surprised. This is... Read more

Giving Up Complaint, Taking Up Mercy

Last updated on: February 10, 2016 at 7:39 am By K. Albert Little

I’m generally a shameful, petty person. I know, I know, it’s shocking. How can someone who adopts the moniker The Cordial Catholic be, in reality, a little bit of a prick. But it’s true. And, really, Bad Catholic was already taken so what was I to do? But, honestly, I am not that great and so for several years now for Lent I’ve given up my otherwise favourite pastime: complaining. I don’t know who it was that first suggested it or where I read... Read more

No, You Can’t Have the Eucharist (And That’s OK)

Last updated on: February 9, 2016 at 11:48 pm By K. Albert Little

A stir was created, a few weeks ago, when a group of Lutheran clergy visiting the Vatican as part of the Week of Christian Unity received the Eucharist during a sort of ecumenical Mass. The stir, while nothing more than a ripple in the global secular media created something much more like a tidal wave for Vatican watchers on all sides of the Christian Church. Lutherans, Anglo-Catholics, and keen-eyed Evangelicals skeptically eyed an end to the Catholic Church’s so-called Closed Communion. Traditional Catholics,... Read more