July 2005

I had the honour of presiding a wedding today for (now) Mr. and Mrs. Tom and Lucy Gall. Tom is an old friend of my brother (who was in the wedding party), and I was honoured when he asked me to preside his wedding ceremony. It was a real treat.

One of the duties of a blogger is to introduce new blogs to the blogosphere, if they are in part responsible for the creation of the new blog in some way. My friend Marie-Josée of Lightspeedchick was the first to introduce me to the blogosphere, followed by Gerard Bugge of A Catholic Blog for Lovers (now, sadly deceased).

In one of my comment boxes below, a reader named “valientmauz” offered the following post:

This response may seem strange to you, but here goes.

I am a gay woman. I am a former Catholic. I do not agree with the Church’s position on many issues, sexual identity being at the top of the list, followed closely by the ordination of women.

That said, I am BOTHERED by my community’s response to Catholics.

On July 13, Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec City, acting on behalf of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered a statement entitled Saving Marriage as a Fundamental Institution Recognized by the State, which was presented to the Canadian Senate prior to its vote on bill C-38. Part of his presentation has become exceptionally controversial, however, in that the Cardinal did mention that there might be circumstances in which a Church-State conflict would emerge due to this law.

I received an email a while back with the following question:

I’ve been told that to be a Roman Catholic it is necessary to believe that when receiving the Eucharist we’re actually eating the FLESH and drinking the BLOOD of Christ, literally. I can understand this in a symbol sense but I really can’t see how we can believe that we are actually consuming parts of Jesus’ human body?? Please set me straight if I’m misinterpreting something and also I’d be interested to hear how you see this.

As a writer who comments on current ideas, I often find myself in a quandry when I encounter an idea that is just plain crazy. Do I comment on it, and risk giving it more attention? Or do I hold off, hoping that the idea will drown in a wave of apathy, so I can focus on other things? After all, I can’t comment on *everything*.

As my students were writing their mid-terms this evening, I found my muse kicking into poetic mode. I don’t write poetry all that often, but for whatever reason these words came to me — and with a really odd meter, too (7-6-5). I now share them with you.

Climbing out from the water
I can’t help but notice
How heavy I feel.

Looking over my shoulder
I think “How relaxing
it was to just float.”

I glance up at the lifeguard
Who ordered us out from
this source of pleasure.

Given the recent spotlight on justice issues for Africa, I’d like to share with you the following email I received:

We would like to ask for your help with a new project of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, a non-profit organization led by Catholic priests and sisters.

As I’ve blogged before, I’m the diocesan liaison to the healing ministry of the Charismatic Renewal here in Montreal. I’ve been working with a steering committee to try and shepherd this ministry, and as a group we have come to the conclusion that we need to have a training plan for new members (and heck, even for those who have been around a while). So, this evening we had the pleasure of welcoming two representatives of the Order of St. Luke the Physician, to speak to us about their organization.

Some time ago, a reader asked me to comment on impending release of Karla Homolka from prison. I did not do so immediately, simply because my own thoughts on the subject were not particularly organized. To be honest, they still aren’t. But given that Ms. Homolka was released from prison yesterday, and gave an interview to Radio-Canada, I feel now is the time to make at least some sort of comment.