"I Don't Want to be A Canadian Idiot"

Free Dominion posts an article on Maurice Strong - Canada's mascot.

" Before the United Nations can save the planet, it needs to clean up its own house. And as scandal after scandal has unfolded over the past decade, from Oil for Food to procurement fraud to peacekeeper rape, the size of that job has become stunningly clear.

But any understanding of the real efforts that job entails should begin with a look at the long and murky career of Maurice Strong, the man who may have had the most to do with what the U.N. has become today, and still sparks controversy even after he claims to have cut his ties to the world organization.

From Oil for Food to the latest scandals involving U.N. funding in North Korea, Maurice Strong appears as a shadowy and often critically important figure. "

Another O.C. 'contender'. (He doesn't already have one, does he? Maybe he can be knighted, or become President of the US?)

Canadian Catholic Culture

The 'Summer 2008' edition of "The Alexandrian" is out. Poetry, Short Fiction , Art - with the theme of 'Time and Eternity'. Also check out their blog!

WYD Update - JULY 16

JULY 16
"Hi All,

We have been in Sydney since Monday of this week. After a couple hours of delay with the airline we arrived safely. It's been an amazing experience so far. A bit too hectic for some in our group but we continue on the Pilgrimage.

We attended Mass on Tuesday with close to 200,000 people at Barangaroo. Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney. It was an amazing experience. After this we had to stand in line for about an hour and a half to get dinner.

The biggest surprise at this Opening Mass (Fr. Mike you won't believe this) was the fact that we met Fr. Mike's Youth Group at his new parish. We went in the assigned area and then this group came and sat beside us. One of our girls whispered to me that the group next to us is from Detroit. So I went over, introduced myself and asked what Parish and strange enough they were from Sacred Heart Parish in Grosse Ille. They aslo sat next to us earlier tonight at Mass. They have not met Fr. Mike as yet but are excited about having him as their Pastor.

Today, Wednesday, we attended at a Catechesis session with Bishop Joseph Pepe from the Diocese of Las Vegas. We heard some amazing talks and music led by The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and The Sisters of Life out of New York. St. Benedict's Parish, our venue for these Catechetical sessions is sponsored by the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus. They have been extremely warm and friendly and are doing some great work. We also attended a talk on Theology of the Body for Teens, presented by Jason and Chrystalina Evert. We then went to Mass with the Archdiocese of Detroit. This was celebrated by Bishop Quinn and Bishop Flores, both from Detroit. There were about 700 attendees at the from Detroit. Bishop Quinn was very happy to see us all.

Tomorrow (Thursday our time, Wednesday evening Cayman time) is the next big event. We have the Catechesis sessions in the morning. After lunch we will be heading to the Harbour to see the boat-a-cade with the Pope. We have one of the best seats in the house at Barangaroo. Pope Benedict will be addressing the everyone from Barangaroo. So we will see how that goes. If you would love to follow the arrival, check your EWTN schedule. For the arrival I think that will happen about 11pm Cayman time. We will also be attending a lifeteen concert tomorrow night.

On Friday (Thursday evening Cayamn time) we will have Catechesis again in the morning and then we head into town for a 3pm start of a live reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. You will be able to see this at about midnight on EWTN. Check their Schedule.

On Saturday, we have the Pilgrim Walk, where we will walk about 9km to Randwick Racecourse for the Vigil and sleeping outdoors under the stars. The Vigil starts at 7pm our time, 4am Cayman time.

The closing Mass will be at 10am our time on Sunday (Saturday, 7pm Cayman time).

I will keep you updated with more information as we go along.

Keep praying for us that we will treasure these experiences and grow stronger in faith."

(O'Neil)

WYD Cayman Update - JULY 10

I've decided to post the 'Update' letters I'm receiving from O'Neil Miller, the Director of Religious Education at St. Ignatius parish in the Cayman Islands. He is in Australia attending the WYD with the Cayman Islands pilgrims. (We are a 'missio' under the admin. of Detroit, thus our Bishop is John Quinn.)


JULY 10
"Hi All,

We have arrived safely to Melbourne since Tuesday (Monday your time) and have been settling in nicely. We are staying with families from the St. philip's Parish in Blackburn North and they have done an excellent job hosting us. We are breing hosted along with 70 French, 2 germans, 3 Canadians and an Italian.

The French led Mass yesterday and we led Mass this morning (Thursday). They all like our singing and Parishioners were happy to hear a Mass with so much singing as they have not had that in a long time. Fr. apul gave a great homily and all were impressed with the celebration.

We took part in the welcome Liurgy of the Word and Adoration followed by Benediction which was led by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Archbishop Denis Hart. This was held at the Cathedral of St. Patrick's. We were fortunate to receive tickets to attend, thanks to our host Parish who reserved them. The church could only seat 2000 and there are 22,000 internantional pilgrims in Melbourne, so we were really blessed to make it.

While walking to the Cathedral today we saw Fr. Stan, who was heading to a concert venue to do some soud checks where he is performing tonight. He was very happy to see us. We will not go to his concert as our hosts made other arrangements for us.

Tomorrow, the big event will be the commissioning Mass at the Telstra Dome. They are anticipating 80,000 people will attend. I just picked up our tickets for that event. Luckily we have two sets as i reserved a set online and our host parish had tickets reserved for us. We will give up one set though.

And in a few minutes we will be off to the Bush Dance that is being hosted by the Australians from 7-11pm.

The weather has not been too bad. Our first day we had a lot of rain. For the last two days as we went into the afternnon hours it has gotten even better.

It's great to be in touch! Please continue to pray for us! It's been great so far! No problems really except that Krystle has not gotten her suitcase yet. So please pray that all will continue to go well for us while we are away. Spread the word that we are doing fine and all is going great so far!"

(O'Neil Miller)

"Doonesbury 'Reports' on Iraqi Christians"

Christianity Today :

"The background--not in the comic strips, although alluded to--is that Iraq’s Christians, the largest non-Muslim religious group in Iraq , are represented disproportionately in the refugee population (although it should be mentioned that the Assyrian diaspora dates back to World War I). It's such a huge drain that some churches in Iraq have no members left. Christians can be identified by their names and ID cards, and they are often targeted for violence. The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) is calling it genocide."

Call CTV To Vote 'NO' !

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