posted by John Borst

David Gibson, the author of The Rule of Benedict and The Coming Catholic Church and poster at the dot.Commonweal blog has been retained by Beliefnet to write their aptly named “Benedictions” blog during Pope Benedict XVI’s forthcoming visit to America .

David describes it this way at dotCommonweal

Not that you need another website to check out, but I have begun covering Benedict’s visit for Beliefnet at the aptly named blog, “Benedictions”. It is, of course, the only papal visit blog you’ll ever need…We also have a Pope Page dedicated to all manner of bits and bytes and things papal, as well as a survey that you all are invited to take–or critique here, as the case may be.

I would suggest it may be a good source of both facts and perhaps some fun stuff such as this little post

Pope on “Deck”?

Don’t let all the talk (much of it mine) of a Gregorian chant-loving, Latin Mass-celebrating, professor-pope turning the April 15-20 visit into a five-day Vespers service. It’s impossible to quell the Jamboree atmosphere surrounding any pope’s visit to America, and the Archdiocese of New York isn’t going to try. Hence, the official Papal Skateboard Art Design Contest. In fact, as you can see from this example from 13-year-old Gabrielisa of St. Jude’s parish, these designs, well, rock. The big question is whether B16 (as we must call him in such a post) will try out some of the entries, or at least get to see what he’s missing. And maybe bless them.

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By Pierre Jubinville CSSp

Paraguay

After being ordained in Canada in 1988, I received my appointment to the Spiritan international team working in Paraguay. I joined fifteen other missionaries and began my work in the ‘campo’, the countryside, about 200 km north of the capital Asuncion. During my four years there, I visited the communities of native indigenous people, building rela­tionships, learning the Guarani languages as well as the life and culture of these sub­sistence farmers.

So much to learn

I had to learn about the events that gov­erned their lives, while trying to forget the concerns, priorities and outlook which I had as a typical Canadian. I had to learn about climate, the seasons for preparing the land, for sowing, for weeding, for fight­ing insects, for reaping, for selling produce. I had to understand the market factors which kept prices low and the people poor.

And I had to understand how these peas­ants could be so happy and religious in such difficult circumstances. I began to ap­preciate the security and support which an extended family can provide and how each village was a social entity serving its indi­vidual members.

Another assignment

And then in the year 2000, I was given a totally different assignment in a totally different environment. I was put in charge of the formation program for young Paraguayan men interested in training to become Spiritan missionaries. The student residence was in the heart of bustling met­ropolitan Asuncion, quite near the central market. What a difference from the quiet rural province I was accustomed to!

Night and day big trucks from the inte­rior passed along our street. I often met old friends from the up-country accompany­ing their produce to the market. The mar­ket was a teeming city of its own. This Mercado Central de Abasto was where all produce, local and international, was brought for distribution to local retailers. Here was a mix of urban and rural, legal and illegal, rich and poor, virtue and crime, Guarani and Spanish. I decided that this would be my new mission.

Callescuela

Close to our Spiritan residence I found a unique foundation. Callescuela was a street school, as its name implied, where a Sacred Heart sister and a group of volun­teers used the street as a school to serve the local street-kids. Our seminarians began to serve as volunteers and we opened our backyard for football and our house for programs for the street boys and girls.

The program grew and grew and soon our community and its facilities were fully integrated into the Callescuela. Volunteer cooks and food servers took over our kitchen, boys were playing organized foot­ball on the street and in our yard, and girls were dancing in our living room. Arts and crafts were being taught in every room in the house. Soon street celebrations were or­ganized. What joyful occasions they were, especially the annual fiesta for San Juan!

Meeting the needs of street kids

The volunteer group was now a real community and we began to meet for two hours each week to pray and reflect and plan. By 2003 the Callescuela had expand­ed in size and diversity. Our bathroom was expanded to provide shower facilities for the children, space was found to provide hair cutting and styling. Embroidery, draw­ing, painting, model building were taught in available nooks and crannies on the street. Space was made for volleyball and basketball.

We at Callescuela were becoming more and more important in the lives of the preadolescents and teenagers we served. We got to know them as individuals and what it was like to be a street-kid.

Many of the volunteers, realizing the terrible conditions in which these young people lived, wished to bring in doctors, so­cial workers, government educational and career services into our program. But rather than bring in professionals and specialists, the volunteer group, now called ‘Gotas de Amor,’ decided to continue to provide food, community, recreation and fun. We realized that we were not social workers or special educators. We were volunteers with a few hours to spare each week.

The best we could do was build a signif­icant relationship of trust with each boy and girl. They came to us not to see a doc­tor for their illness, not to earn academic credits to enter university. They came to play, to have fun, to be safe, to celebrate. I stress with our volunteers that the street kids we serve are children; they are persons and not problems to be solved.

Poverty exploits them

Their world is the market where they can do odd jobs for the merchants selling fruit, vegetables, bingo cards, lottery tick­ets. They collect the discarded, over-ripe and spoiled products using it for food and selling some to people poorer than them­selves. They gather waste plastic, card­board, metal and other junk for sale. Many are vital to the family economy especially if their mother is single, as most are, and has younger children to support, as most do.

Paraguay has adopted the international accords that condemn child labour. But this is not the problem of our street children. It is poverty which exploits them. Poverty de­nies them an opportunity to lead a normal life of school and leisure. It limits greatly their opportunity to grow, to develop their talents, to enjoy the love of caring parents.

Into the market area

In 2006 a significant change began to happen on the street and i 11 the Callescuela facilities. Now that between seventy and eighty youngsters were availing of the programs, older drug­ addicted youths began to appear and take over. The atmosphere on the street had changed.

So we decided to move Callescuela into the market area. The municipality provided a building and grounds. We moved our whole operation to the new facility and discovered that the market was ‘home’ to nearly two hundred children.

Our community had grown instanta­neously. Our volunteer group grew pro­portionately. Now about one hundred and fifty meals are being served. Now we meet the mothers of our children. They are all extremely poor. Space however is very limited as are funds.

Facilities are very primitive. But some classes in basic education have been start­ed. Our young Spiritans are vital to this ini­tiative. Their initiation program is built around their service in Callescula.

We, the Gotas de Amor, have hopes and dreams. We see our kids play volleyball with a ball made from onion-nets rolled up and covered with a plastic shopping bag. But we are certain our ministry is valid, that we are educators in the Spiritan educa­tional tradition. We feel in total harmony with the world-wide chain of Spiritan schools ranging from bush-schools in Africa to Duquesne University in the U.S.A. And we are proud to be part of such a glorious heritage.

The above article is from Spiritan, February 2008 pages 6, 7.

Spiritan is published four times a year by the Spiritans, The congregation of the Holy Ghost, 121 Vicorial Park Ave., Toronto, ON M4E 3S2; Tel: 416 698 2003; Fax 416 698 1884 E-mail missions@spiritans.com

A one year subscription is $10.00

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by John Borst

In 2007 the Liberal Party of Ontario announced a gradual reduction in the Business Education Tax (BET) businesses in Ontario will pay. The government promised the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) that the $540-million cut would be phased in over seven years.

Today I noticed the following tidbit of news come across a RSS feed from the local radio station.

CFIB Calling For Quick Phase-In For Education Tax
Posted by Tim Davidson (Mix FM Kenora) on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 am 6:14:42 AM
Northern Ontario businesses are lobbying for cuts to the education tax sooner rather then (sic) later.
Canadian Federation of Independent Business President, Satinder Chera says the Province has promised a $540-million cut but notes the 7-year phase-in is too long. He notes they are hoping to hear change in today’s provincial budget.

Some investigation of the CRIB’s website revealed the following:

During the fall 2007 election the Li8beral Party made this promise to the CFIB:

1. …We’ve moved the small busi­ness tax threshold to $400,000, put in place a real plan to eliminate the capital tax and… introduced our plan to cut the Business Education Tax… [Our property assessment reforms] will improve the… stability of the system. But as I’m sure we both agree, there is more to do. And, we will continue to work with the CFIB to ensure we’re taking the next steps needed to keep this vital sector vibrant.

In their 2008 Ontario Pre-budget submission CFIB made this recommendation:

Accelerate Business Education Property Tax relief across-the-board, with special emphasis on Northern Ontario (where tax rates generally are most skewed and the relief is especially critical).

Finally on March 25, 2008 in response to the 2008 Budget, CFIB put out this press statement:

A “measure of hope” for small business, but more remains to be done
March 25 | 2008

The Ontario provincial budget partly responds to small business priorities, but more needs to be done. It’s a balanced budget with no tax hikes and no wild spending. The big wins for independent businesses are the acceleration of the business education property tax cut in Northern Ontario, capital tax rebates for manufacturers and resource firms and firm commitments on regulatory reform.

But, it is important to remember the costly new Family Day holiday and 2008’s minimum wage increase. Much remains to be done to keep Ontario competitive – particularly on corporate income taxation. Ontario’s next-door neighbour – Manitoba – has already committed to reducing its small business corporate rate to zero in the near future.

Extract from the Ontario 2008 Budget

Cutting Business Education Tax (BET) Rates

In the 2007 Budget, the government announced a $540 million cut to high BET rates over seven years —lowering high BET rates to a target maximum rate of 1.60 per cent. Business Education Tax reductions are key elements in the government’s overall strategy to enhance Ontario’s investment climate.

This initiative will also reduce the wide variation in BET rates across the province. The variation in rates distorts efficient business location decisions — placing many regions of Ontario at a disadvantage.

This Budget announces an accelerated plan for BET reductions in northern Ontario. The accelerated BET reductions will ensure that northern businesses will benefit from the full BET reduction by 2010, four years earlier than originally announced.

Northern businesses are defined as those that lie within any of the following districts: Algoma, Cochrane, Kenora, Manitoulin, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Timiskaming.

The accelerated BET reduction plan recognizes the unique challenges faced by northern businesses and responds to recent recommendations made by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and others. In future years, consideration will be given to accelerating BET reductions in other parts of the province should the fiscal plan allow.

Accelerating BET reductions in northern Ontario will benefit more than 30,000 businesses of all sizes in 85 municipalities. Northern businesses will benefit from total BET savings of more than $70 million over the next three years. The BET reductions will improve the competitive position of northern Ontario businesses, create new jobs and strengthen the provincial economy overall.

Northern Ontario Business Education Tax Annual Ceiling Rates Table 3 in %

Note: BET annual ceiling rates may need to be recalculated in 2009 and future years to adjust for the impact of reassessment-related changes. The target maximum BET rate may also need to be adjusted to account for these changes.

2008 Budget Impact Summary Table 5 ($ Millions)

Northern Ontario Table 4 Business Education Tax Cuts ($ Millions)

Note:

Numbers may not add due to rounding.

Reducing Business Education Taxes3 (2) (6) (18) (28)

While Business Education Taxes are not a direct revenue source for the Province, provincial transfers to school boards will be increased to ensure that BET cuts do not affect planned increases in overall education funding.

And with that tiny footnote I had my answer as to what effect this tax cut would have on education funding in this province. But then I found near the end of the document this definition

Business Education Tax (BET): taxes for education purposes levied on the basis of assessed values of properties in the commercial, industrial and pipeline property classes.

Commentary:

The above announcement claims “30,000 businesses of all sizes in 85 municipalities.” will be affected. As most know the Ontario’s forest industry is struggling in both the pulp and paper and softwood lumber components so any tax cut is positive. Stumpage fees (the fee paid to the government to cut down a tree) have been reduced as one component. But this also means that the large paper and lumber companies in northern Ontario get an accelerated cut in the proportion of their property tax which goes to education. Since the government is in effect picking up the lost revenue through the general income and sales tax levies education does not under this government get hurt in 2008.

I do, however, disagree with the inclusion of the pipeline companies in this reduction. These companies are not suffering, after-all we are paying more for natural gas and oil and although few appreciate it the pipeline companies already get major and unfair concessions when it comes to paying education property taxes.

If you study the shape of school boards in Northern Ontario they look like a slide of Swiss cheese. They have holes running through them. Few Boards Public or Separate are continuous in their geography. Instead a small area will be part of say the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board and then there will be a large space and then another area will appear. Places like Ignace, Dryden, Vermillion Bay and Kenora will be shown as part of the board but the spaces in between will not be. There is a reason for this. The pipeline runs through all these communities and in the space in between. They pay an education tax for the pipeline within the Board designated areas. They pay no education property tax for the pipeline which runs between the Board areas. Northern Boards have made applications repeatedly over many governments to there boundaries defined in the same manner as Southern Ontario boards. With the exception of Rainy River DSB with not luck.

There really is no reason for the Liberal government to provide a “pipeline property class break”. You will note they do not appear to have extended the break to the equally important “mining sector”.

Private sector business wants to pay no education property tax. Yet who benefits more from educated workers than “independent businesses”. Yes Canadian business must remain competitive but a fight to the bottom is in the long run short-sighted on everyones part.

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Editor’s Note: The server which hosts the Tomorrow’s Trust website received a software upgrade yesterday which last evening caused a malfunction on sites with pictures. We apologize for this unexpected inconvenience.

posted by John Borst

TORONTO, March 26

“The $315 million increase in education funding for 2008-09 is a clear recognition of education as a continuing provincial priority,” said Bernard Murray, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA).

A number of initiatives included in the March 25 budget announcement will have positive impact on student achievement, health and safety. Additional funding for safe schools initiatives, student nutrition programs, at-risk students, parenting programs, school libraries and environmental education will help to support positive outcomes in our schools.

OCSTA is pleased to acknowledge the province’s additional investments in support of boards’ capital programs. Extension of the Good Places to Learn initiative, recommended by the Association, as well as new funding to support Growth and Prohibitive to Repair schools will assist boards in meeting their outstanding capital needs.

Outdated benchmarks remaining in the funding formula will continue to present school boards with financial challenges, as will the negative impact of declining enrolment. OCSTA is pleased that the government has responded positively to our recommendations for a provincial task force on declining enrolment, to re-examine its impact and recommend any long-term solutions. We urge the government to proceed as quickly as possible with a comprehensive review of the funding formula.

While the 2008-09 budget announcement is encouraging, a significant portion of board expenditures will arise from the outcome of current discussions on collective agreements with teachers and support staff. We look forward to further funding announcements regarding this issue.

OCSTA will continue to analyze the impact of the 2008-09 budget release. We look forward to working in cooperation with the Minister of Education to ensure that boards have the necessary resources to meet the needs for student success.

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posted by John Borst

Oh my, oh my but some teachers can get their shirt in a knot over the most petty of issues.

Michael Feeheley Da Costa, a teacher, at Brebeuf College’ School in Toronto, Ontario wrote the following to the Catholic Register (March 23, 2008):

They’re copycats

The York Catholic District Catho­lic School Board is right to want to name a high school after Jean Vanier. Once again, however, they show their laziness and complete lack of creativ­ity in choosing a name already in use in the city of Toronto.

There are thousands of saints who have no schools named for them in Ontario, including hundreds recently canonized by Pope John Paul II. Why not chose a unique name as a way of promoting a new saint or role model to young people?

I thought that the controversy over copying the names of Toronto schools was made clear in the significant op­position in 2005 to poaching the St. Jean de Brebeuf name, but I fear the York board won’t rest until it also has its own St. Michael’s, De La Salle and Loretto as well.

My goodness what arrogance and elitism on the part of Mr. Da Costa! The names he mentions are all Toronto schools with pre-full funding pedigrees. This gives them no special privilege or protection by another corporate entity. Da Costa seems to need reminding that every school board is a corporate entity on its own. Each can choose to name their schools as they wish. York Catholic DSB has no obligation to Toronto CDSB to avoid a name just because it is a neighbouring school board. In fact, neither De La Salle nor St. Michael’s are even schools within the Toronto Catholic system. They are elite private institutions.

I’m not sure why Da Costa left out St. Joseph’s Catholic girls schools both the former Wellesley Street and current Morrow Park because both have similar sagas to those he named but by way of an example of corporate board over-lap naming of schools, according the Ministry of Education listing of school names, there are 59 St. Joseph’s in English Catholic Boards, plus another 18 in French Catholic and even a few in English Public Boards.

I can remember back in the early 70’s getting upset about another teacher giving a student what I believed was an unjustified detention. The wise principal suggested to me that I should consider the seriousness of the issue and focus in on the really important ones. He was of course correct and it was advice that came in handy many times. I’d suggest it is advice Mr. Da Costa needs to ponder.

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posted by John Borst

Dorothy Day’s daughter and only child, Tamar Hennessey, died yesterday after suffering a stroke.

There will be a Mass for Tamar at St. Mary’s Church in Springfield Vermont on Saturday, March 29th at 11:00 AM. Calling hours will be on Friday evening from 6 to 8 PM at the Davis Memorial Chapel in Springfield.

————————————————————–

National Catholic Reporter, March 7, 2003

An extraordinary, difficult childhood

By Margot Patterson

http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives/030703/030703k.htm

Though more Catholic Workers today may be seeking to combine the ideals of the movement with parenting, the effort goes back generations. Dorothy Day’s daughter, Tamar, was the first of many children raised in the Catholic Worker movement.

“I loved the Catholic Worker. It was so exciting. I wouldn’t have missed a moment of it,” Tamar Hennessey told NCR in a phone interview from Vermont. Nonetheless, like her mother, Tamar Hennessey said it’s difficult to combine being a Catholic Worker with parenting. Hennessy said there may be some people who can do both, but usually people find they have to choose between them.

“I think you’ll hear a lot of contradictory stories. A lot of other children did have a difficult time being in the Worker,” Hennessy said. “I think Dorothy was very aware of the fact that you can’t do both well, and she was right.”

For herself, Henessey remembers growing up in the Catholic Worker as stimulating but physically grueling, especially with her mother often on the road.

“I was only 8 years old when it started. She was traveling a lot, and I was left to be taken care of by various people, and I got very ill.

It was hard for both of us. She had her work, and yet at the same time she had me. She was very devoted. She was torn,” said Hennessy. “I did end up in boarding school for four years, which worked out well.”

Hennessy offered a sympathetic, nuanced account of Dorothy Day the mother.

“She loved her family so much, and in so many, many ways she kept me going. She missed understanding the material side of it. She expected a lot of going without. At the same time, she supported me a lot, and I can’t say enough good about that,” Tamar Hennessy said.

Hennessy acknowledged that Dorothy Day could be exacting. “She wanted everybody to be like saints. I mean, who can measure up to that?” asked Hennessy.

Married when she was still a teenager, Tamar Teresa Day Hennessy went on to have nine children and for many years led a hardscrabble existence living in the country. She was attracted to the Catholic Worker vision of rural families living on the land and tried to live that out with her own family, she said.

“I tried to hold on to those values. I tried to live simply. I tried to follow the Catholic faith. It did not turn out well. Right now I seem to have lapsed,” she said of her own religious faith.

Hennessy said people sometimes try to invent a rift between her and her mother that doesn’t exist. “I admired her overwhelmingly,” Hennessy said of Dorothy Day.

Other grown-up children of Catholic Workers have their own stories.

Some have ended up staying in the movement; others have gone on to lead more so-called “normal” lives. Many say that the ideals they grew up with have stayed with them for a lifetime.

“The bad points were I grew up in the McCarthy era in San Francisco.

We really had to keep a very low profile,” said Regina Burke, 64, a medical technician in California who remembers that when she and her sisters entered high school her parents gave them a copy of the Bible, Berlin Diary by foreign correspondent William Shirer, and the social encyclicals of the Catholic church.

“This is not the normal thing people get when they reach high school,”

Burke said. “I think being raised in a family that had ideals that were not exactly popular, it brought us together more as a family. We didn’t have the problems of rebellion that a lot of families had. Even though you didn’t hear a lot about it in the ’50s, the big movie of our time was ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’ We didn’t have that problem in our family because it was us against the world,” said Burke.

Burke’s parents did not run a Catholic Worker house of hospitality, but Burke said both her mother and father were much influenced by Dorothy Day and by Edith Stein, a German Jewish philosopher who became a Catholic nun and died at Auschwitz and was declared a saint. Burke’s father was active in setting up printing apprenticeship programs for convicts in prisons so they would have a skill they could draw on when they left prison; her mother was a teacher who was active in the Girl Scouts. Both were unafraid to embrace unpopular causes.

“It was an interesting way to grow up. During the ’60s we were all out in the streets for equal rights. We had some problems with people we invited to our home and then there would be problems with the neighbors. My parents weren’t very polite when the neighbors passed the petitions against the kind of people we had as guests in our home,” said Burke, remembering one friend of her parents who was of Japanese descent and others who were interracial couples.

“My mother knew Dorothy Day,” Burke said. “She was a great heroine, and that was held up to us. That and the fact that if you don’t go out and make the change, don’t expect anyone else to. You must be the change you want to see,” Burke said, paraphrasing Gandhi. A one-time lawyer who left the practice of law because she said the most honest people she met were criminals, Burke said her parents’ ideals have influenced her for a lifetime. Burke has been active in community organizing; one of her sisters is a Catholic nun who represents her religious community in the group of nongovernmental organizations that support United Nations public information efforts.

“The older we get, the more we recognize the fact that our parents were extraordinary. The most radical feminist we met was our father,” Burke said.

Confronting different values

Joachim Zwick said he was 10 or 12 when his parents started the Casa Juan Diego Catholic Worker in Houston in 1980. “Absolutely it was difficult,” said Zwick, remembering his childhood. “If you didn’t have the right clothes, you weren’t cool.”

Now, as an adult, Zwick said, he doesn’t have any problems with the way he was raised at all. Friendship with the immigrants and undocumented workers whom the Houston Catholic Worker assists changed his worldview for the better, he said, mentioning how jarring it is for him today to hear “wetback” jokes that are common in Houston.

Like Burke, Zwick said the most unsettling aspect of growing up in a Catholic Worker family was coming into contact with people whose values were at odds with those of his family. “The worst of it was junior high when I just didn’t understand how to respond to peer pressure and society and the cruelty of children concerning different values,” he said.

For a time, Zwick’s older sister lived and worked at the Houston Catholic Worker full time. A musician and computer consultant, Zwick said he lives simply but has not chosen to follow in his parents’ footsteps.

“I don’t know that I could do what they do given my interests and desires,” he said. “I don’t see myself at this point in my life dedicating my life to the poor. That’s where I am now. I’m not as religious as my parents are, certainly in a specific Catholic sense.

They have a much stronger faith than I do, and there’s a direct connection with that and what they do.”

Tom Christopher Cornell and Deirdre Cornell are Catholic Workers following in the footsteps of their parents, Tom and Monica Cornell.

“I never wanted to reject it outright. I’ve rebelled in the sense of wanting to do it differently,” said Tom Christopher Cornell, who with his parents is part of the community at the Peter Maurin Farm in Marlboro, N.Y.

Middle-class ‘normal’ life

But perhaps just as typical is the experience of the Dowdy family at the Peter Maurin Farm. Ralph Dowdy, whose sons were 5 and 7 when he and his wife moved to the Peter Maurin Farm, said neither of his sons, now ages 22 and 24, has any desire to stay with the Catholic Worker.

“They don’t want voluntary poverty. They want to live a middle-class ‘normal’ American life,” Dowdy said.

“I fought with them about this,” said Dowdy. “Not to buy such expensive cars or clothes. You can have good transportation and not spend $18,000 on a car.”

Dowdy remembers his anxiety about the safety of his sons when the family first moved to the Peter Maurin Farm. “I was really paranoid about it, to be honest,” he said. For their part, Dowdy said he knows his sons faced some sensitive moments negotiating the differences between how their family lived and how their friends’ families lived.

“I know when my kids’ friends came over and realized we live in a renovated barn, [my kids] were a little embarrassed. But it didn’t seem to affect their relationship with those kids too much,” Dowdy said. “They participated in school.”

Is there advice Catholic Worker parents would give to others seeking to combine family with the movement Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded?

Ralph Dowdy said a couple should examine how solid the relationship is between them. “It’s always harder on the woman. The woman is expected to cook, to take care of the kids, to take care of the hospitality, and so often the man is off ’saving the world’,” Dowdy said.

Start off small, advised Monica Cornell. “Be familiar with Dorothy and Peter’s legacy.”

Tamar Hennessy said no advice is necessary. “That’s the wonderful thing about the Catholic Worker. Everybody does it in their own way.

They don’t need advice. They work it out.”

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posted by John Borst

The Blog Ice Tango Station, which comments mainly on American politics has this nifty “badge” for others to place on their blog.

I discovered it at the bottom of an article titled Church Protestors Face Felony Charges .

Ice Tango Station also has an interesting by-line for its site:

The 2000s are insane. George Orwell’s dystopia has come to life. As the apocalyptic struggle between good and evil rages on, I will ride it out here, in Antarctica, at my own personal fortress of solitude–Ice Station Tango.

Without meaning to sound critical, Canada may not be far enough away but perhaps Antarctica may be a tad too far. Could I suggest Greenland’s ice-cap perhaps?

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posted by John Borst

The following articles are:

Available on-line without a subscription

The Great Divide

THE CRISIS OF U.S. MILITARY POLICY
Andrew J. Bacevich
Time to ditch the Bush Doctrine

Regardless of who wins the presidency in November 2008, rethinking the premises of U.S. military policy will be an urgent priority.

Stop It

The Editors
President George W. Bush’s troubling theological arguments for the “war on terror”

Earlier this month President George W. Bush addressed the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. His speech offered a troubling, though familiar defense of the “war on terror, and a particularly striking description of the ruthless “nature” of the enemy we are fighting, “people who know no bounds of humanity.”

Easter in Baghdad

Peter Dula
Is worship the church’s alternative to war?

During Holy Week of 2004 I was in Baghdad, where I worked as coordinator of the Iraq program for the Mennonite Central Committee.

The following articles are:

Available with subscription only

LETTERS

Confession, monasticism, welfare, prisons

NOTEBOOK

The Proof
Matthew Boudway

ARTICLE

A Faithful Striving
Robert Ellsberg

The diaries of Dorothy Day

COLUMNISTS

The ’New’ Feminism?
Cathleen Kaveny

SCREEN

‘4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS’
Richard Alleva

BOOKS

Bridge of Sighs

By Richard Russo
Reviewed by Daniel M. Murtaugh

Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?

The Transformation of Modern Europe
By James J. Sheehan

Reviewed by Barry Hillenbrand

Religion Booknotes

Four additional reviews by Lawrence S. Cunningham

THE LAST WORD

Note from the Good Thief
Peter Steinfels

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compiled by John Borst

Schools across the Toronto Catholic District School Board have registered to participate in the Global Earth Hour event on Friday, March 28th from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

“We are encouraging all schools to take part in this effort to promote awareness of the need for conserving our natural resources, and to demonstrate how we continue to be stewards of the earth,” says Director of Education Kevin Kobus.

For one hour, schools are being asked to turn off lights where it is safe to do so. Arrangements have also been made to turn off all non-essential lighting on March 29th between 8 and 9 p.m.

The Earth Hour site is at www.EarthHour.org

School have been provided with a variety of resources in preparation for the Earth Hour event, including information posters, a resource document and fact sheet, and appropriate prayers.

“We extend a special thanks to TCDSB’s Environment Committee for gathering all the material and for their enthusiasm in bringing awareness to these opportunities for learning and for the benefit of our planet,” says Board Chair Catherine LeBlanc-Miller. “This will be a wonderful learning experience for our students and provide them with yet another way to fulfill one of the objectives of our mission and vision–to demonstrate global perspective and community responsibility.”

RESOURCES FROM TCDSB EARTH HOUR CHALLENGE AND PARTICIPATION MARCH 28 & 29, 2008

Facts and Suggestions for school participation can include the following:

1. On March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

2. Have an Earth Hour assembly or lights-out event in classrooms. If the weather is mild, teachers can also use the great outdoors as a living classroom and lead their students on a nature hike or lesson on the environment. This will encourage students to participate in Earth Hour at home with their families the next day. More importantly, students will be empowered to take positive actions that will make a difference in our planet’s future.

3. Post Earth Hour Signage in the school lobby inviting parents and school guests to join your school’s Earth Hour celebrations on March 28 to promote your school’s participation in Earth Hour to neighbourhood groups and nearby schools.

4. The TCDSB communications department will alert local media of the Board’s Earth Hour plans.

5. Advise parents/guardians about Earth Hour and that your school will be holding a symbolic Earth Hour event on March 28. Use your website, outdoor sign or voice mail / email messages to encourage families to participate in Earth Hour on March 29 and to sign-up at www.earthhour.org. You can also include suggestions on other ways to help reduce waste at school. For example, packing “litterless lunches” in reusable containers and beverages in reusable bottles, and avoiding using items such as aluminium foil, saran wrap, and juice boxes.

6. Welcome your school-designated Earth Hour with a “countdown” to generate student awareness and excitement around the event.

7. Transform your cafeteria or gymnasium into a movie theatre! Start a learning activity on the environment with an environmentally themed movie. Consider movies like An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour, Winged Migration, Arctic Tale or The Great Polar Bear Adventure.

8. Post Earth Hour information on the school website and in the school newsletter.

Downloadable web banners and logos are available in English at www.wwf.ca/EarthHour

. Create your own school poster or use the Board poster.

9. Take pictures of your Earth Hour celebrations and create a photo wall display. Ask students to add to it by bringing in pictures showing how their family spent Earth Hour and hold a photo contest for the most creative ideas.

10. Create your own Earth Hour ideas and share them with the TCDSB Environment Committee!

11. Use the Earth Hour event to start an environmental team/club which can lead towards becoming a future certified EcoSchool.

Operational suggestions for your school and board office buildings

Talk to your staff and any community groups that use your building about how to make Earth Hour safe and successful.

• Exterior of building – ensure that external lights and parking lot lights are turned off where possible, keeping safety / security lighting in mind.

• Hallway lights – reduce to minimal lighting to ensure student and staff safety, in accordance with the school’s occupational safety policy.

• Classroom lights – turn off if this does not adversely disrupt the normal classroom teaching.

• Staff Areas – ensure non-essential lights are turned off including staff lounge, principal’s office and reception area.

• Gymnasiums / Cafeterias / Library – turn lights to a minimum in these areas and post signs or a poster to let visitors to the school know about your Earth Hour commitments.

After the Earth Hour Event – Resources

Keep the Earth Hour momentum going and bring the power of the environment into your classroom with these handy tools:

Schools for a Living Planet is a WWF-Canada program that offers educators free access to over 30 curriculum-linked, printable, in-class activities for grades 3 to 8. Each grade’s unit has a unique environmental theme with materials carefully designed to meet curriculum expectations in English, Social Studies and Science. And it’s easy to use – download what you want, when you want, the choice is yours. For more information or to register, visit wwf.ca/schools. French materials are available through Schools for Wildlife at wwf.ca/trousses.

Ready, Set, Green! is a collection of tips, techniques, and resources used by Ontario educators.

Prepared by the Ministry of Education, the guide includes many innovative projects and programs that have been developed by schools and boards across the province. Download a copy from www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/policy/environment.html.

The Ontario Education Resource Bank also contains thousands of teacher-shared resources, including lesson plans, activities, maps, and interactive multimedia objects, including environment related activities. Materials range from kindergarten to grade 12 and are searchable by grade, course/subject, strand, overall expectations, and keyword. Visit www.elearningontario.com.

E-zone is a website created by the Ministry of Environment to give elementary students and teachers access to dynamic, practical, and inspiring information on environmental issues.

Encouraging children to learn, share and act, E-zone teaches them about climate change, smog, recycling, conservation and other environmental topics. It also offers teacher resources, like themed posters, activity sheets, and colouring pages. Visit www.ontario.ca/e-zone

“EARTH HOUR” PRAYERS – FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2008

Here are two prayer options for use in your Opening Exercises on Friday

March 28th or as an introduction to your observation of “Earth Hour” at

10:00 a.m. Please feel free to adapt accordingly.

Prayer One

Today, as always, we call upon that which is most holy to us, the presence and power of God the Creator.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Loving Creator God, we thank you for the gift of creation and for the beauty of the

Earth that you have given us.

Help us to care for and respect our Earth, our home in the universe. Help us to see ourselves as part of Creation, not separate from it and that when we damage

Creation, we damage others, ourselves and our relationship with You.

As we celebrate Earth Hour we ask for your guidance in our attempts to care for your gift of creation. Encourage us to minimize our ecological footprints, keep our air pure, our earth bountiful, our waters clean and life-giving, and to remember that your gift was meant for all who live on this planet. Help us to live simply that others may simply live.

Make known to us Your plan for each of us in protecting and nurturing our planet, so that it remains sustainable and life giving to all Creation that shares our Earth now and in the future.

May this simple action of turning out the lights for one hour increase our awareness of our role as stewards of creation.

Plant in each of us an appreciation and love for your sacred Creation.

Breathe into us a gratitude for the earth today and every day.

We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.

Prayer Two (this has been designed for two voices)

Today, as always, we call upon the presence and power of God the Creator.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear God, We thank you for this day; for our friends, for our families, for our homes, for our school and for each of us, your Church here on earth.

May the simple action of turning out the lights for one hour help remind us of how important it is for us to care for all of your creation.

Today, as we celebrate Earth Hour

We join with you, each other and all of creation

(voice 2)

To bring new life to the land

To restore the waters

To refresh the air

We join with you, each other and all of creation

(voice 2)

To renew the forests

To care for plants

To protect all creatures

We join with you, each other and all of creation

(voice 2)

To celebrate the seas

To rejoice in the sunlight

To sing the song of the stars

We join with you, each other and all of creation

(voice 2)

To recreate the human community

To promote justice and peace

To treat one another with respect

We join with you, each other and all of creation

(voice 2)

For the healing of the earth and

the renewal of all life. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

(adapted from UN Environmental Sabbath Program)

RESOURCE FROM THE CANADIAN CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS

“Because we love our children, what environment, what society do we wish to bequeath to them?”

Our Relationship with the Environment: The Need for Conversion

Commission for Social Affairs, CCCB

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by Noel Cooper

George Boran’s “Mission to Youth Today” offers perceptive opinions about the increasing indifference of contemporary generations to the church. Here are some of my opinions on the topic:

(1) Boran wrote:

A new phenomenon has taken place on a world level: the change from an agrarian and rural economy to an industrial and urban one.

This sentence doesn’t accurately describe the key difference between the mentality of believers in the “first world” in 1960 and that of the 21st century. People of my age did indeed grow up in “medieval times;” we were faithful and compliant; the church successfully emphasized hierarchical structure and sacred powers.

We were not rural and agrarian, but industrialized, urbanized and prosperous in 1960.

The change wasn’t primarily economic but intellectual. The seeds of “modernity” were sown 200 years earlier in the age of individualism (e.g. American and French revolutions) and the enlightenment. They began to bear fruit in the 1960’s among “ordinary citizens.” The church did evolve significantly in that decade, but church leaders’ more recent efforts to return to pre-modern institutions (partially out of concern for believers in pre-modern societies) have resulted in escalating indifference among the generations known in the West as the “boomers,” their children, and now their grandchildren.

(2) Boran wrote:

Important values (of “modern culture”) are democracy, dialogue, the pursuit of happiness, transparency, individual rights, secularization, freedom, sexuality, the equality of women.

Among (“post-modern” culture’s) main tenets are the following: a return to the sacred, the priority of the subjective, the difficulty of interior silence, the importance of relationships, the centrality of emotions, a crisis of values, and difficulties with permanent commitment.

Except for “secularization” itself, these secular principles (even including “crisis of values” and difficulties with permanent commitment) are compatible with the vision of Jesus, and should be embraced by all who wish that younger generations could find their way to faith. The process will require astute and prayerful reconsideration. Hope for renewal is seriously compromised by the fact that a majority of people who dedicate their lives to the church these days are people who are comfortable in a pre-modern institution.

(3) Boran wrote:

Faith is especially an encounter with a person, the person of Jesus Christ. And the acceptance of Jesus means the acceptance of his teaching, of his life­style, his world vision and his formula for human happiness.

These sentences are the key to the solution. Tragically, the decisive reason for the failure of the older generation to pass on the faith is that so few people (including priests, teachers and theology professors) give evidence of a flourishing relationship with Jesus and inspirational understanding of his vision.

No doubt it will be difficult to crack the walls of indifference that have developed around contemporary generations, but contagious discipleship is the only hope. Post-modern true believers, where are you?

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