Gaming the Law

Raymond J. de Souza

February 14, 2019

Former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s miscue, Father Raymond de Souza notes, was to insist on  the rule of law in a game where the rules are rigged.

After all the herculean effort of SNC-Lavalin – illegal donations, sinecures for retired federal officials, untold hours spend in lobbying, the sheer stubborn determination of having favours-for-friends rammed through in the omnibus budget bill – could it be possible that the federal justice departm...

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Courting Contempt

Ruth Dick

February 13, 2019

The spreading toxin of treating political differences with dehumanizing contempt, Convivium contributor Ruth Dick warns, sounds a tocsin for the future of democratic life.

But my fellow travelers somehow seem to think it’s a political stopping point: that we can anchor ourselves in contempt, no matter how much doing so undoes the possibility of doing more ...

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Liturgies of the Moment

Douglas McKelvey with Hannah Marazzi

February 12, 2019

Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi learns from author Douglas McKelvey how we can make every moment holy by seeing even milk, honey and coffee as worthy objects of liturgy.

I hope that Every Moment Holy can be a gentle invitation to turn to prayers and liturgies that create a rhythm to your days, weeks, and years DM: Well, the one that is probably nearest to me at the moment is the one that constitutes the foreword of the book, “A Liturgy for the Writing of Liturgies”,...

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Cloudy Ways

Peter Stockland

February 11, 2019

Allegations of political interference in the prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin cast a shadow over the Trudeau cabinet’s ability to function in solidarity and confidence, argues Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland.

A mere 40 months ago, fresh from winning a massive majority government, at the swearing in of his first cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau declared that the very structure of his government mirrored the progress of the earth around the sun Revelations, or unproven accusations if you prefer, that the Pr...

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Mere Journalism

Peter Stockland

February 8, 2019

The role of history is to remind us that the truth can only emerge from what has come before us. Where we were still matters, writes Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland, if only so we can more truly understand where we are.

It’s a reason that starts with asking “why” that particular bit of false history was passed along as easily as such claims tend to pass from the lips of Donald Trump? Why, the question has to be asked, was it repeated without being challenged when it was so obviously historical impossible? Here’s th...

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No Cheers For Pope’s Abu Dhabi Do

Raymond J. de Souza

February 7, 2019

Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza finds precious little to praise in the recent papal visit to the “socially appalling” United Arab Emirates.

The entire UAE project – petroleum-fuelled excess built upon the exploitation of foreign workers who have few civil rights – is morally dubious, at least according to how Pope Francis generally speaks Given that the Arabian peninsula is one of the worst places on the planet to be a Christian, the UA...

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Last Kiss

Hannah Marazzi with Joshua Harris

February 7, 2019

Convivium has been following the journey of writer and documentary-maker Joshua Harris as he unpacks the effects of his generation-changing book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Hannah Marazzi caught up with him as he moves on to the next chapter in his life and work.

I do get letters from people who are watching the documentary and are saying, “This helped me realize how my thinking and my views of sexuality were shaped in ways I didn’t even realize by this era, by this book JH: People shared that aspects of the book had made them fearful and given them standard...

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God in the Chaos

Samantha Dignam

February 6, 2019

Overcoming her doubts about the mission, though not the message, of the Church, the University of Ottawa’s Samantha Dignam discovers at the Urbana18 conference how acknowledging the faults of Christians is key to carrying the Gospel to the world.

The Urbana team creatively brought to life an experience of Revelation 18:4, where God calls His people to come out of Babylon, the archetype of a greedy, self-serving, cut throat and ladder-climbing world One evening at Urbana, a group of Canadian students gathered to share testimonies of what God ...

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God in the Chaos

Samantha Dignam

February 6, 2019

Overcoming her doubts about the mission, though not the message, of the Church, the University of Ottawa’s Samantha Dignam discovers at the Urbana18 conference how acknowledging the faults of Christians is key to carrying the Gospel to the world.

The Urbana team creatively brought to life an experience of Revelation 18:4, where God calls His people to come out of Babylon, the archetype of a greedy, self-serving, cut throat and ladder-climbing world One evening at Urbana, a group of Canadian students gathered to share testimonies of what God ...

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Doing Right By Asia Bibi

Don Hutchinson

February 6, 2019

While the Trudeau government has given Canadian Christians little reason to cheer, writes Convivium contributor Don Hutchinson, it deserves praise for its effort to save the persecuted Pakistani woman condemned to death for blasphemy against Islam.

We remember all and are thankful for help given to even one; thankful to God and thankful to politicians who risked and gave their lives, governments who intervened, non-governmental organizations who advocated and called for prayer, Bibi’s lawyer, the judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, and Canadia...

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Golden Hour Hope

February 6, 2019

The miles of road stretch out before me as far as the eye can see with the thin ribbon of road cutting a tiny way through the golden fields.

But in this golden light and expanse of space, perhaps it is golden like the hope I find welling up within me. ...

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Confluence

February 6, 2019

Is it here that the sacred comes to dwell, in the ribbon, in the confluence? In the water and the leaves, the rushing and the stillness?

Shrubbery obscured in the errant flow of rushing water, trees growing straight out of the clear green pools, rootedness and freedom bound together ...

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The Face of God

February 6, 2019

Can I from this vantage point of “high flight” so too “slip the surly bonds of earth?” Can I also reach, way up and “touch the face of God?”

Can I from this vantage point of “high flight” so too “slip the surly bonds of earth?” Can I also reach, way up and “touch the face of God?” ...

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Appeal for Numbers

Andrea Mrozek

February 5, 2019

Andrea Mrozek, program director for Cardus Family, touched off a media flurry last week when she spearheaded an appeal signed by 30 prominent academics asking Statistics Canada to resume collecting data on marriage across Canada. She sat down with Convivium’s Peter Stockland to explain why marriage numbers matter.

C: Is part of your argument that they've extended their reach to make other kinds of information available, and basically that crowded the marriage data out? Or it's simply that they don't value the collection of marriage data? C: Is there argument, though, that because the data is out there in othe...

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Weightless

February 5, 2019

Power and majesty, movement and weightlessness, substance and space. The Sacred within me here in the water even now.

...

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