I mentioned recently that my best friend came to visit, and that we put on a live-action role-playing game for my kids and some of their friends. It’s a medium we’ve worked in before, but this year’s was probably the most ambitious LARP that we’ve actually managed to pull off. The plot was a little on the silly side – the main villain was The Meta, a mad artist who is trying to create the ultimate medium, a medium that... Read more
Over the past week I’ve seen a lot of discussion about grief – most of it centered on the grief that many people are feeling about the election of Donald Trump. Most of what I’ve seen takes two basic forms: a) “I just. can’t. even. with people saying (x) anymore! If you’re not willing to say/do (y) just shut up already!” b) “I just. can’t. even. with these special snowflakes that melt at the first sign of adversity. What’s wrong... Read more
I’ve never been one of those people who gets worked up about the deaths of their favourite rock stars. You know the drill: you put on a playlist of their songs, you get yourself a bottle of wine, you sit there crying and singing your heart out until the wee hours. But yesterday, at the age of 82, Leonard Cohen died. I don’t know quite how to articulate how I feel about that. I mean, on the one hand Leonard... Read more
Obviously the answer is ‘yes’. Most of the people that I know and love in America are freaking out. Today, the tenor has shifted a little: there are more folks who are talking about staying strong, continuing to fight, living with dignity in a world gone mad. That’s good. The other thing that I see are people who are mad. Really, really, mad, and who think that freely expressing their anger is the best way to stand up for their... Read more
A lot of my American friends are grieving the election of Donald Trump. I don’t want to disrupt that grief – I have tremendous sympathy for it. So if you’re not ready to hear about what I think needs to change if things are going to get better, don’t read on. Instead read my previous post, let it soothe your soul, and then move on. I’ll leave a little space to make that easier…. Okay, so I want to talk... Read more
As you may have noticed, I haven’t blogged much in the past month. To a large extent, this has been because the focus of almost everyone’s attention is the upcoming election. It’s not my election, it’s not my country, and as much as I’m able, I try not to meddle in other people’s political affairs. There is, however, a second reason why I haven’t been blogging: my best friend has been visiting for the past two and a half weeks.... Read more
Following the recent revelations about Trump, the Republican Party is scrambling for a new presidential candidate. Rumours started to spread this morning that they were considering a fine loaf of artisanal sunflower-seed bread. Reactions have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. “At last, a presidential candidate that we can believe in!” “You can tell this loaf of bread is going to make a great leader.” “It’s polite. It’s organic. It’s actually pro-life.” “What a loaf!” Amazingly, so far investigators have been unable to... Read more
Yesterday, I talked about the problem with what the Church calls “gender ideology,” that is, the belief that human sexual identity is largely or entirely reducible to socially constructed ideas about gender. I also promised that I would talk about why the Church’s teaching on sex and gender should not result in the stigmatization, marginalization or condemnation of gender minorities. I’m going to tackle this by way of analogy. The Church’s teaching about sexuality, the dignity of the human person... Read more
There have been a couple of recent statements from Pope Francis about gender ideology. He calls it a form of “ideological colonization,” a “demonic” plan to destroy the family, and has even likened it to nuclear weapons. At the same time, he welcomed a trans man to the Vatican, and he privately praised the work of a nun who cares for trans women, saying that “‘In Jesus’ time, the lepers were rejected like that. They [the trans women] are the... Read more
It’s many years ago now that I faced my first election as a Catholic. I was a young convert, and I was deeply convinced by the arguments that I had heard in favour of single issue voting. Abortion, after all, involved the deaths of millions of the most innocent people in society. How could any other issue matter in comparison to that? At the time, almost all Canadian parties were pro-choice. So voting pro-life meant voting for the Conservatives. We... Read more
Catholic Authenticity
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