Canadian Politics

Universities around the world are taking steps alongside major technology companies to explore ways to bolster ethics education in the artificial intelligence field in line with an initiative supported by the Vatican.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and five other activists returned to court Oct. 26 to face charges of failing to register a legal fund meant to help those involved in anti-government protests.

If a change is as good as a holiday, then I have been on vacation lately, big time. After deciding to retire as president of a university, I found myself called back to the role in a different city and context. Not as big a change as when I left Australia to return to Canada, but still different.

Since the beginning of Creation, contemplation has been revealed as essential. We read in Genesis the resounding refrain that God, in creating the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in them, “saw that it was good.” In blessing the seventh day on which He rested from the act of creating, God contemplated all that He had fashioned through His Word (Gen. 2:1-3). 

Habits of being

The article in your Oct. 16 issue referencing Fr. Dan Donovan’s art collection, which covers much of the available wall space at the University of St. Michael’s College, contains a line that surprised me: “The priest learned long ago that categorizing art and artists along denominational lines can distort and block any real understanding.”

The adage holds that when supping with the Devil, it’s best to use a long spoon. Current Vatican politics and diplomacy seems to have spun it into Oliver Twist’s: “Please, sir, I want some more.”

B&E Theatre is presenting John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable, one of my favourite plays, at the Church of the Holy Trinity behind Toronto’s Eaton Centre. A clever idea to immerse the play in a Church, but not a Catholic Church.

In his early days with Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), CEO Fariborz Birjandian said very few immigrants arriving in Canada “had any clue where Calgary was, or Edmonton and Saskatchewan.” Toronto was the desired destination. 

The future of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s Sisters, is more of the same — more hope, more love, more care and compassion launched into the gaping wound of destitution, despair and neglect visible in every city in the world. 

There’s a storm coming, warns FCJ Refugee Centre executive director Loly Rico.