News round-up

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Stories about Jean Vanier:

Vanier: 'Close to a saint'
The founder of L'Arche has spent nearly a lifetime championing the severely disabled
National Post, November 3

Spiritual pedigree linked to Therese
Jean Vanier was blessed with a strong spiritual pedigree that links to one of the most popular saints of the Catholic universe, Saint Therese de Lisieux.
National Post, November 3

Heeding the call
Not long into Jean Vanier's collection of letters, which serves as the closest thing to a memoir we are likely to get of his remarkable life, it is clear we are in the company of a driven man, someone perhaps mad with an enormous Christ complex, dragging his readers along on an exhausting journey through poverty, misery and disease -- and also to places of small joy and hope.
Charles Lewis, National Post, November 3

Earlier: Three channels; three different worlds

Stories about the Dalai Lama:

Non-wisdom from the Dalai Lama
I'm sure the Dalai Lama is a wise, insightful and altogether wonderful human being. He must be. Everyone says so. Besides, he looks wise, insightful and altogether wonderful. The smiling helps. So does the robe. And when he grins, flips his shoes off and sits cross-legged in a chair on a stage in front of thousands, it's impossible not to look at the wrinkly little man and think this is ancient wisdom made flesh. His audiences are always breathless before he speaks. They lean forward, silent, enraptured, poised to catch each polished word as it spills from the man's sainted lips. And this is where I have some trouble understanding the phenomenon that is the Dalai Lama.
Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen, October 31

Dalai Lama has praise and criticism for Canada
The Dalai Lama wrapped up his controversial Western tour yesterday in Toronto, giving a late-afternoon public lecture before returning to Dharamsala, India, the seat of his Tibetan government-in-exile. Before a surprisingly large Halloween crowd at the Rogers Centre, with scalpers outside hollering, "Get your Dally tickets!" the 72-year-old spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhists discoursed on the benefits of compassion, which he said improves everything from digestion to geopolitics.
National Post, November 1

Affection, compassion vital for inner and world peace, Dalai Lama says
World peace depends on the inner peace of individuals, which in turn comes from compassion and affection for others, the Dalai Lama told thousands of people in a public address Wednesday. His voice echoing through the cavernous Rogers Centre, formerly known as the SkyDome, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said a lack of compassion and affection breeds a destructive distrust that leads to discord.
Canadian Press, November 1

Chinese government says foreign leaders are being deceived by Dalai Lama
China said Thursday it was perplexed why foreign leaders continue to meet the Dalai Lama despite its protests, but said one reason was because they were being deceived by the Buddhist monk.
Associated Press, November 1

China's nemesis
Having never met the Dalai Lama, I am not sure why he appears to be giggling so often. Perhaps he is just overflowing with joy. Perhaps he has a great sense of humour and is waiting for an opportunity to share a joke. Perhaps he finds it incongruous that a simple monk travels the world like a leading diplomat or captain of industry. Or perhaps he is laughing at how foolish his travels make the People's Republic of China look.
Fr. Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, November 1

Harper deserves every bit of praise for meeting the Dalai Lama
The Prime Minister received praise and criticism this week for meeting the Dalai Lama. In a way, I find the praise more disturbing. Stephen Harper deserves every bit of praise for doing the right thing, but it's a sad commentary that such a minimal endorsement of the United Nation's founding principles should be praised instead of being taken for granted.
George Jonas, CanWest News Service, November 1

Restless spirits
As the Dalai Lama nears political retirement, he faces one of his toughest challenges: his own people
Globe and Mail, November 3

Earlier: Dalai Lama brings message of reconciliation to Ottawa

Other stories from the past week:

Author in race to replace Potter
"His Dark Materials" is expected to earn even more attention -- not all of it positive -- when studio New Line Cinema releases the first instalment, The Golden Compass, on Dec. 7. If the movie does well at the box office, parts two and three will follow. Online buzz about the film is strong. So is criticism from Christian groups who say the trilogy is anti-Catholic and dangerous for kids.
Toronto Star, November 1
Earlier: Clever 'Dark Materials' anti-Christian

Charitable donations up in 2006 despite fewer donors: Statistics Canada
Canadian taxfilers reported $8.5 billion in charitable donations in 2006, 8.3 per cent more than in 2005. Statistics Canada reports the number of donors decreased 1.4 per cent in 2006 to 5.8 million. . . . Among census metropolitan areas, donors in Abbotsford, British Columbia had by far the highest median donation at $620. Toronto donors were next with a median of $360, slightly ahead of Vancouver with $340. It was the fourth year in a row that Abbotsford and Toronto reported the highest median donations.
Canadian Press, November 1

Continue article >>

Church's judgment day
U.S. sect ordered to pay father $11M for picketing Marine's funeral
National Post, November 2

Coming to terms with an abusive cult upbringing
Filmmaker Noah Thomson was raised in the elusive Children of God cult, a Christianity-based communal living society also known as the Family. Founded in the United States in the 1960s, the Family practised and promoted free love - very free love - as a way toward spiritual enlightenment. It made for a pretty effective recruiting tool as well. In the past two decades, however, several former members of the cult have come forth and alleged that the cult's sex-fuelled gospel was often a front for the systemic physical and sexual abuse of the children. Since those allegations first emerged, much of the Family has relocated throughout the world, largely, its detractors claim, to avoid the U.S. justice system.
Globe and Mail, November 2

Losing faith in Quebec
Since the founding of Quebec, its schools have given a central place to Christian instruction. Even today, parents in public schools choose whether they want their children to take a course in Catholic, Protestant or non-religious moral education. But that is about to change. Beginning next September, Jesus and Moses will have to make room for Muhammad, Buddha and Glooscap as the provincial Education Department replaces its denominational courses with a one-size-fits-all class in Ethics and Religious Culture. Covering Christianity, Judaism, aboriginal spirituality, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, the new course will be mandatory even in private religious schools, most of which receive partial government funding.
National Post, November 3

Pain of Holocaust felt by many groups
Cultural and religious organizations share grief during Holocaust Education Week
Toronto Star, November 3

Post-secondary accreditation called arbitrary
The system for accrediting new post-secondary schools in Ontario is being undermined by the provincial government, which is arbitrarily rejecting applicants it does not like, a former top public servant says. Don Baker, the former director of the Post Secondary Education Quality Assessment Board, said the Liberal government has used "subterfuge" to thwart the efforts of schools seeking the requisite approval and has not given any clear reasons for the rejections. Four applicants -- all private religious schools -- were turned down by Chris Bentley, then minister of training, colleges and universities, even though each passed a lengthy and costly review process.
National Post, November 6

Church windows in Meaford, Ont., contain unique memorials to Second World War
A shard of glass containing a poppy, found in a foxhole during the Second World War, now makes its home in a window at the local Anglican church, thanks to a chaplain who brought the shard on a several-thousand kilometre trek from northern France.
Canadian Press, November 6

Being good without believing in God
Can we be good without God? That's an old question believers like to ask because, I suspect, the answer is very pleasing to them.
Dan Gardner, CanWest News Service, November 6

New Life Matters
In the past three years, at least five pregnant women, along with their babies, have been killed in Canada in violent attacks. The most recent occurred last month in Toronto. Pregnant women are at increased risk of domestic violence. The sense of abhorrence this elicits, especially when the violence is lethal, is magnified because of the loss of the fetus. Yet, at present, it is not a separate crime when a fetus is killed or injured. This should change.
Margaret Somerville, National Post, November 6

Polygamist leader tried to kill himself in jail: documents
Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs attempted to hang himself last January in his cell in Utah's Purgatory Correctional Facility, only days after having confessed to his brother that he was immoral and was no longer the prophet of the largest polygamist group in North America. Still, Jeffs was deemed competent to stand trial and last month was convicted of two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl.
Vancouver Sun, November 7
Earlier: Stories about the polygamous cult at Bountiful

Jewish mission outlines concerns
Representatives of Quebec's Jewish community met with Premier Jean Charest and opposition leaders yesterday to express concerns about the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation. "I'm not the only one who has compared this to a massive open-line program," said Victor Goldbloom, a one-time Quebec Cabinet minister who now is president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region.
CanWest News Service, November 7

Priest at Quebec toddler's funeral urges people to slow down
Doves were released at the end of a funeral on Wednesday for a three-year-old girl killed in a teen driving accident. About 500 family and friends were at the funeral of Bianca Leduc at the St-Michel Roman Catholic Church in Vaudreuil-Dorion, just west of Montreal.
Canadian Press, November 7

November 8/2007