The Ratzinger Report Revisited

The Italian journalist and Catholic convert Vittorio Messori in 1985 published his two hundred page interview with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict...

A Letter to a Catholic School Teacher

(What follows is adapted from a letter of a parish priest, Father Scott Murray, to a Catholic school teacher, in the publicly-funded, separate system,...

The Layered Meaning of the Prodigal Son

In 1861, John William Burgon, the (Anglican) dean of Chichester cathedral, preached a sermon in Christ Church cathedral, Oxford, that...

Losing Canada

When the cross atop Mount Royal was first erected in 1924, the Montreal Gazette described it as “a memorial to the survival of the Canadian people, whose...

The Who, What, and Why of “Walk the Opeongo Line”

To set out on a journey like this – 67 kilometres – just over forty miles, or a marathon and a half - of walking, camping, praying, etc....

Ordination and Marriage in Hitchcock’s ‘I Confess’

(This analysis of Alfred Hitchock's film noir classic 'I Confess' offers some key insights, but, as a caveat, also gives away elements of the...

Re-Framing Pius XII

Disinformation, noun: false information spread deliberately and often covertly (by planting rumours) to deceive in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. The English...

The Dilemmas of Atheism

“When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The following random reflections on atheism address what many...

The Cult of Sentimentalism

“A sentimentalist is one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.” Oscar Wilde Stuffed animals, flickering candles, cello-wrapped flowers, unfocussed...

Pirates of Penzance!

Come and see Seat of Wisdom's performance of Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan's 1880 rollicking musical operetta, filled with music, singing, dancing, harmonies galore,...