“Catholic,” as I am sure you know, means “universal.” That is, it is supposed to embrace everyone, everywhere – in every circumstance. Universal.

My Pope – I feel safe, for the first time in my life, using a possessive in that way – apparently agrees:

ROME — In a broad proclamation on family life, Pope Francis on Friday called for the Roman Catholic Church to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and he seemingly signaled a pastoral path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion.

The 256-page document — known as an apostolic exhortation and titled “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love” — calls for priests to welcome single parents, gay people and unmarried straight couples who are living together.

“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough to simply apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives,” he wrote.

I don’t think the document is as positive as the Times report suggests it is, in respect of LGBT people – but give this Pope some more time, he will get there.  After all: he has moved the Church further in the three years of his papcy than it had moved in the 300 years that preceded his arrival.

As a divorced Catholic, I’m happy to see a Pope who finally gets it.  In effect, he is encouraging some creative priest-shopping: find one who will listen to you, and who will act.  (Can such priests be found? Well, yes: I was married by a gay priest who assisted young women with unwanted pregnancies.  And he later died of AIDS. So, yes.)

The Church, as noted, is supposed to be universal.  Pope Francis is making that word finally mean something to those of us who have been waiting.  Thank God, as they say.

 

 

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On CJSW-FM! Listen in, Calgary!

(After the show, the band will have swag and records to pass around.)

  

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Been waiting around for other people, this week.  So Fugazi’s godlike anthem has naturally preoccupied me.

Fun video.  This is my world.

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I’m a sucker for stuff like this.

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As you wing your way to Edmonton, have a safe trip.

And if you are looking for something to read, here is a snippet from next week’s Hill Times column.

“…Tom Mulcair made some mistakes, sure. He embraced the losing electoral strategy of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow: he moved to the ideological Right. On deficits, on defence, on virtually any issue, the New Democrat leader didn’t sound like a traditional New Democrat. In his mad dash to get to the centre, he left behind his bewildered NDP voters, who accordingly wandered over to the more-progressive Trudeau Liberals.

But, guess what, NDP caucus, and NDP candidates and NDP core? You enthusiastically applauded all that, every step of the way. You didn’t say a word – not a single word – objecting to any of it when you could have. You, like Mulcair, had witnessed Rachel Notley’s rush to the centre, and her resulting historic victory. And you figured you could do the same thing federally. You figured wrong.

So, did Tom Mulcair snatch defeat from the proverbial jaws of victory? For sure. But so did you, Team Orange. So did you. Your fingerprints are all over the crime scene, too.”

Yours,

Warren

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Three years ago, Rehtaeh Parsons ended her life.  Her story is now ubiquitous, but the things we needed to learn about, the things we needed to change? Well, those things aren’t ubiquitous at all.

Three years ago, I wrote about Rehtaeh Parsons – a lot, to the point where what I wrote on this web site was apparently referred to the RCMP.  What happened to her – she was gang-raped, and the proceedings were later disseminated on the Internet – was beyond words, to me.  It was evil, it was sick, it was the worst of the worst.

People like to hope that some good sometimes comes out bad, but I don’t really think that happened in Rehtaeh Parsons’ case.  Sure, the NDP government’s pathetic response to the case accelerated their removal from power.  Sure, a Nova Scotia cyberbullying law was passed.  Sure, people became more aware of the issue.

But a judge later summarily tossed out the cyberbullying law, and the women-hating trolls got back to work on their basement computers.  The Nova Scotia NDP are gone, but no government has done much since then – for instance, check out this federal web page about cyberbullying, which references provincial laws, and then hyperlinks to a page that is “not found.”

Out of all that rank mismanagement and villainy, however, emerged one hero: Rehtaeh Parsons’ Dad, Glen Canning.

I got to know Glen, a bit, as a consequence of my limited involvement in what happened after his daughter’s death.  I got to know that he is driven, he is courageous, and he is a force of nature.  He is a great man.  I can personally attest to all of that, too: without getting into a lot of detail, I can say that he helped me out on issue involving one of my own kids.

Anyway, read what he has written, so passionately, here.  And then, when you are done, ask yourself: what have I done to ensure that what happened to Rehtaeh Parsons never happens again?

 

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Accurate 21 times out of 19. You’re welcome. 

  

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I’ve written before about the Ontario Landowner types, many times.  Including in one of my books.

Read here about reason #1,472 why the Ontario PCs made a big, big mistake letting those guys into their tent.  The Landowners are unfit for any office,  and particularly in the provincial legislature.

 

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Increasingly, it is getting less clear.

The proud residents of Wisconsin probably always thought they were important enough to affect the future of the planet. But, with the greatest of respect, the rest of us didn’t. Last night, however, Wisconsin altered things, quite a bit.

To wit, from my much-beloved NYT:

My impressions:

• Neither the Democrat nor Republican membership are representative of the American public.  As of last night, partisans within both parties are clearly more comfortable with candidates who many other Americans simply cannot picture in the Oval Office (viz., Trump, Cruz, Sanders).
• Trump’s self-inflicted wounds on the abortion issue – that is, that he’d “punish” women who get them – are more grave than previously thought.  He touched the third rail of American politics, last week, and thereby greatly increased the chances of a contested Republican Party convention in Cleveland.  That may not end well for him.
• The people are rebelling.  As we saw in Canada in 2015, engaged voters are in a dyspeptic mood, and they are gravitating towards candidates who (like Justin Trudeau) are seen as unconventional, untested and unsullied by traditional partisan politics.  Americans, in 2016, are doing likewise.

2016 down there, like 2015 up here, is the year of the outsider.  God help you if you are seen as an incumbent.

So what do you think, O Reader?

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