The United States Supreme Court has struck down the almost 50-year-old ruling legalizing abortion in overturning the infamous Roe versus Wade decision today. In a highly complex judgement hinging on states’ rights and the legal incoherence of the original judgement, the Supreme Court Justices have again opened up one of the most explosive issues in the United States
Read MoreIn 1982, in the Kelowna General Hospital, I had my first clinical pastoral education training. This was a specialization is psychology and psychiatry. The first day I was thrown into a circle of “suicide survivors”. It was quite a trial by fire. The good thing was that one was only supposed to listen and not talk. The stories were varied and all quite difficult to hear. Since then, I have lost count years ago of how many people I have known who have attempted suicide, whose families have been shattered by suicide or are now contemplating suicide as a seemingly rational end to their life.
Read MoreEach year the Church presents us with a cycle of readings to proclaim the Good News. If we are honest, however, its not an easy thing to preach from these same readings year after year. That is especially the case for those of you who may be in the same parish or even preaching to the same internet or television congregation. We are not all like Thomas Merton who in the last chapter of his famous autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, recounted the joy of going through the Church year and looked forward to repeating it, not just here on earth, but in the world to come.
The same must be said when one is preaching on prolife issues. Sometimes people will say, “Oh, not abortion again.” Or, “All that talk about mercy killing or euthanasia is overblown. Can’t Father find something else to talk about?” But there are a lot of good reasons why we have that cycle. And I would like to lay out seven.
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