News round-up

Note: Registration or subscription to the host news sites may be required to read some of the stories linked here.

Stories about the Army of Mary:

Army of Mary cast out
Calling it a "very grave situation," the Vatican has excommunicated members of a controversial Quebec Catholic movement, the Army of Mary, for their heretical beliefs that derive from the writings of Marie-Paule Giguere, an 86-year-old mystic who claims to be a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.
National Post, September 13

We must obey God before you, defiant Quebec group tells Rome
Army of Mary vows to continue worship after rare excommunication
Ottawa Citizen, September 14

Earlier: Army of Mary banned by archbishop

Stories about the residential-schools pay-out:

Residential school cash out this week; money fulfils dreams, causes headaches
Wood is one of an estimated 80,000 people who will be eligible to apply for compensation starting Wednesday. The cheques are part of a $2.9-billion package from Ottawa to former students who suffered abuse, cultural losses and even death at the church-run institutions, which operated from the 1870s through the 1970s.
Canadian Press, September 15

Native compensation package a mixed blessing
Nearly $2-billion in native residential schools compensation will be a mixed blessing, say frontline workers who fear major spikes in alcohol and drug use, family violence and exploitation.
Canadian Press, September 17

Residential school survivors can now seek cash
Applications are in the mail for survivors of aboriginal residential schools to apply for cash under a previously announced $2-billion compensation package. "Some people may have already received them," Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said Winnipeg at a news conference with aboriginal leaders, including Assembly of First Nations national Chief Phil Fontaine.
Canadian Press, September 19

Racist overtones surround residential school payments: National Chief
Survivors of abuse at Indian residential schools are still facing racism even as they start to apply for compensation promised by the government, Canada's top aboriginal leader said Wednesday. Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said he has sensed a "tune of racism" in some of the speculation about how survivors will spend their settlements.
Canadian Press, September 19

Stories about Catholic schools and HPV shots:

Catholic schools debating moral issue of HPV shot
Catholic school boards across the province are facing growing complaints that the HPV vaccination program promotes promiscuity. Last night, the Halton Catholic District School Board narrowly rejected a motion to ban the program from its schools this year and the Toronto Catholic District School Board is to vote tonight.
Toronto Star, September 19

Catholic schools debate vaccine
To administer it is to 'presume girls going to have sex'
National Post, September 19

HPV vaccine not a threat, Catholic board deems
The debate about the controversial HPV vaccine that has been playing out across the country came to a head Tuesday night after trustees for the Halton Catholic District School Board decided that the Catholic faith was not being "threatened" by allowing the program into their schools.
Globe and Mail, September 19

Stories about the polygamist cult at Bountiful:

Warren Jeffs trial jury chosen
It took only 15 minutes to choose eight jurors and four alternates in the trial of Warren Jeffs, the leader of the largest polygamous group in North America. Jeffs is charged with two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl.
Vancouver Sun, September 13

Leader of polygamist sect goes on trial over teen cousins' marriage
Warren Jeffs might not have laid a hand on the 14-year-old girl he's accused of coercing into marrying her cousin, but he's still responsible for her rape, prosecutors maintained Thursday as opening arguments neared.
Associated Press, September 13

Knowing too much about jurors not always the best
Utah is so keen for Warren Jeffs to have a fair trial that extraordinary measures have been taken
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, September 13

Jeffs trial hears of girl's forced marriage
Give yourself over, mind, body and soul to your husband. That's what prosecutors say Warren Jeffs, the 51-year-old leader of the largest polygamist group in North America, advised a 14-year-old girl who had earlier got down on her knees and begged not to have to go through with an arranged marriage to her 19-year-old first cousin.
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, September 14

Young bride felt 'numb, dirty, used'
Girl, 14, who says she was forced to marry, gives dramatic testimony at trial of polygamist sect's leader
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, September 15

'I just wanted to die'
Teen bride tells court her church leader forced her to marry her cousin
National Post, September 18

Prosecutors wrap case of polygamist
Jeffs' legal advisor warned of criminal consequences
National Post, September 19

Forced wedding not rape, defence says
Jurors in the Warren Jeffs trial got an unprecedented peek Tuesday into the private lives of members of the reclusive Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, September 19

Earlier: Stories about the polygamous cult at Bountiful

Stories about priests accused of sexual misconduct:

Vic West Anglican parish devastated by priest's departure
Rev. Antonio Osorio, the charismatic rector at St. Saviour's Anglican Church, has resigned from his position after admitting to sexual misconduct. A short statement issued by the Anglican Diocese of B.C., said Osorio was suspended from his duties on Sept. 5 pending an investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct. On Wednesday, Osorio admitted to the allegation and offered his resignation, the statement said. It was accepted.
Victoria Times-Colonist, September 15

B.C. priest admits to sexual misconduct
'He broke a moral law'; Anglican diocese probing canon law for possible breach
National Post, September 18

OPP charge retired priest in 1950s sex assault
A retired Cornwall-area priest is facing criminal charges after being accused of sexually assaulting a young boy more than five decades ago. Father Lucien Lussier, 84, was charged by the OPP on Tuesday with three counts of indecent assault on a male after a man came forward to police last month alleging he had been sexually assaulted by the priest in the 1950s.
Ottawa Citizen, September 15

Continue article >>

Stories about Islam, veiled voters, and the West:

Mayrand, House committee clash over veils
The head of Elections Canada says it is not his role to juggle the constitutional rights of voters by deciding whether they can vote while wearing a veil.
Globe and Mail, September 13

Election chief stands firm veil rules
Canada's chief electoral officer says he will not bow to the will of a House of Commons committee, only to the will of Parliament as a whole on the issue of forcing veiled women to bare their faces at polling stations.
Canadian Press, September 13

Canadians vigilant as Ramadan dawns
Taliban expected to use Muslim holy month to intensify bombings, suicide attacks
Toronto Star, September 14

Elections chief stands up to House panel on veils
Canada's chief electoral officer should use his discretionary powers to force Muslim women who wear a niqab or burqa to remove their veils to vote in the federal by-elections on Monday, Pierre F. Cote, one of Canada's most experienced chief electoral officers, told MPs yesterday. But Marc Mayrand, the current chief electoral officer, continued yesterday to stick to his position that the law allows for veiled voters, despite unanimity among federal political parties that he should bar them.
Montreal Gazette, September 14
Earlier: Vancouver Sun

Wearing the niqab is not a partisan act
Canadian Muslims should not be used as political pawns, says the Saudi ambassador to Canada
Globe and Mail, September 18

Earlier: Stories about Islam, veiled voters, and the West

Stories about religion in Quebec:

Gatineau school pulls down crucifixes
Until this year nobody complained about the crucifixes on the classroom walls at Ecole primaire Mont-Bleu in Gatineau even though Quebec schools have been French or English instead of Roman Catholic or public since 1998. But a recent complaint from a parent prompted the Commission scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais to remove the crucifixes this week.
Ottawa Citizen, September 15

Quebec shouldn't tolerate religious fundamentalism: commission told
Regis Simard told the commission that Quebec shouldn't give in to religious fundamentalism after getting out from under the yoke of Roman Catholic religious fundamentalism. Simard also said he doesn't believe that young Muslim girls wearing a veil are doing so by freedom of choice and called it a "political" choice. Bouchard responded by saying he considered the remarks offensive and cut off Simard's presentation.
Canadian Press, September 18

Earlier: Stories about religious minorities in Quebec

Other stories from the past week:

Why it matters
In recent columns I returned to an old bete noire of mine: Darwinism. It is one of three I wrestled with as a young man, before I became a Christian, and long before I became a Catholic. I was an atheist as an adolescent; or perhaps an agnostic, for I prided myself on an "open mind," and often tried to understand what I was rejecting. But Christianity then struck me (more than thirty years ago) as a spent force, as something that had animated men in the past and no longer animated them.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, August 26

Truth to power
We have often heard the slogan, "Speaking truth to power." It is a phrase now slipping out of fashion, yet still used more often than good taste would prescribe, by people who have taken very few risks in their lives, and take no risk in speaking publicly. . . . In light of all the recent revelations about her interior life -- the decades of secret struggle with faith and spiritual desiccation, behind daily heroic acts of charity and joy -- Mother Teresa's achievement in this world becomes clearer. She was a person who did actually speak truth to power, out of a soul commanded by courage and intelligence. With or without the "warm fuzzy feelings" that go with religious inspiration in the popular mind, she persisted in doing what she believed right and necessary, according to the Catholic teaching she had embraced, quite indifferently to personal convenience.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, September 9

Don't hold briefing on Jewish New Year, Shiner tells mayor
A Toronto city councillor campaigning for a seat in the Ontario Legislature wants the mayor to cancel a city news conference scheduled for today because it falls on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Councillor David Shiner wrote a letter to Mayor David Miller yesterday asking him to reschedule his news conference about property taxes.
Globe and Mail, September 13

Charity appeals to Hells Angels
The club was evicted from St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in March and has been working for months to find a new location. They hoped to operate out of the Harewood Firehall, but in a surprise motion on Monday night, council members voted to quash the rezoning application before it was debated in an open house or public hearing. On Wednesday night Bruce and McDowell marched up to the Nanaimo Hells Angels clubhouse, buzzed the front door, and pleaded their case.
Nanaimo Daily News, September 14

From college to the convent
In an age where young women have more options than at any other time, the most radical career path may be the one that is the most traditional
National Post, September 15

Exploring the nuances of the 'god is dead' dogma
Esteemed Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor delves into secularism, transcendence and commitment to 'a' God
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, September 15

The new bankers' hours include Sundays
Any notion that bank machines and the Internet will replace the teller and local bank branch were put further to rest Monday with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's announcement that it is going to test Sunday branch hours in select locations.
Globe and Mail, September 17

Harper set to meet Dalai Lama despite China
Mr. Harper is expected to go further than former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, who met with the Dalai Lama in a non-political setting for five minutes in 2004. The coming meeting in a federal building is in keeping with the hard line on Tibet taken by the Conservatives since coming to office last year. It is also an important event for Mr. Harper, who kept a scarf he received from the Dalai Lama as the leader of the opposition in 2004.
Globe and Mail, September 18

Human-animal embryo research finds support
A new poll suggests that almost half of Canadians believe Canada should allow scientists to create human-animal embryos for medical research if it could benefit human health. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll found that 47 per cent of Canadians would favour human-animal embryo research if it could help find cures for conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. . . . The poll found that Canadians who are practising members of a religion are more likely to oppose hybrid embryos, as are rural residents, older respondents and the less affluent.
Canadian Press, September 18

September 20/2007