Papal Mass shows Church remains deaf to residential school survivors Glen Argan Will the Catholic Church ever get it right? After listening to Pope Francis’ homily in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on July 26, I now think the lack of understanding of the damage Church institutions did through the residential school system is so profound that we are almost beyond hope.
Read moreBy Glen Argan Grouchy old Qoholeth, the author of Ecclesiastes, was never a fun guy. So it should not have surprised me when I stumbled on this bit of his “wisdom”: “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” (Eccl 7.4) Well, may you have a
Read moreBy Glen Argan U.S. President Joe Biden is the most publicly religious American president since at least Jimmy Carter. Biden is knowledgeable of Catholic social teaching. He is comfortable talking about his faith, attends Mass weekly and prays his rosary regularly. Yet, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is not comfortable with Biden. The reason? He is an
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By Glen Argan My father, William Argan, was born in Regina, Sask., Feb. 7, 1921, 100 years ago today. The oldest surviving son of Ukrainian immigrants from a part of Bukovina which is now in Romania, dad’s birth name was Wasely Arganiszczuk. The names of the family and its members were changed following the Second World War. The passport photo
Read moreIn the Gospel for Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, Jesus two sets of two brothers to follow him. Both leave everything behind immediately and become Jesus’ disciples. But there are differences between the two sets of brothers. Find out what those differences are and how those differences affect their ways of following Jesus in my commentary on my newsletter Epiphany.
Read moreGlen Argan I have launched a new newsletter, Epiphany, on the writers’ publishing platform. There, I will provide commentary on current social issues from a Catholic perspective, reflections on the Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday and other topics that tweak my interest. I plan to write two or three times a week, much more than I have been writing
Read moreBy Glen Argan Pope Francis spoke for the common good on Christmas Day when he called for the world’s nations to ensure that those who are poor receive their fair share of the vaccine for the coronavirus. “We cannot allow the various forms of nationalism closed in on themselves to prevent us from living as the truly human family that
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By Glen Argan In a famous fifth-century sermon, St. Leo the Great preached that Christmas is a time for rejoicing. “Sadness should have no place in the birthday of life.” Christmas was still a new liturgical feast at that time, unencumbered by the heavy weight of consumerism which has distorted its meaning today. No frantic gift buying, no long waits
Read moreBy Glen Argan The Chinese government has unjustly imprisoned Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. They are innocent pawns in a high-stakes game China is playing with Canada to secure the release of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies. The United States wants Wanzhou extradited to face fraud charges. Kovrig and Spavor deserve freedom, not to spend the
Read more(Published in The Catholic Register, June 21, 2020 By Glen Argan It’s astonishing that, amidst massive protests across the United States against police racism, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki had to sort through various definitions of systemic racism to determine whether it was endemic to Canada’s national police force. At first, she claimed the RCMP was free of systemic racism before
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On the Threshold 