Women are still not worthy of ordination in the Catholic Church

, Nov. 19 In her praise of the Catholic Church’s recognition of a few women, letter writer Anne MacCarthy completely skirts the reality that women are still not considered worthy of ordination. She could have included Catherine of Siena, a medieval mystic and pious laywoman, who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter writing and advocacy, before dying of anorexia nervosa.

But even that bold saint knew her place. Retired journalist Janice Kennedy nailed it. That women are the inferior is an unswerving belief, solidly entrenched after two millennia, in the Catholic Church.



As a boy, thoroughly immersed in Catholicism, I never questioned why my chums and I could serve as altar boys but girls of our age could not. There is a glimmer of hope now. Since 1994, girls can serve at Mass.

But why not the priesthood? When considering the confessional, many women would prefer mumbling about very personal experiences to someone of their own gender. To the Catholic Church, tradition is as sacred as slivers from the True Cross. To be ordained, and to do God’s work, it is essential that one has the proper genitals.

Catholic women should realize that, like Martha in the New Testament, your continued service to the Church will be seen as an act of service and devotion. It’s always been that way. , Nov.

18 The Ontario government, which prides itself on strong fiscal management, does a poor job of providing cost estimates for new infrastructure. It won’t make public the price of ripping out Toronto’s safe streets nor the cost of paving the Greenbelt to build Highway 413. Why all the secrecy? If Ontario has nothing to hide, it should come clean and tell us what taxpayers will shell out for these destructive projects.

When we buy a loaf of bread for a few dollars we’re told the price before we get to the cash register. Don’t we deserve the same information before we spend millions or billions? , Nov. 16 One of the problems with Canada is the demographic trend of the huge influx of population growth concentrated in the GTHA.

With a yearly increase of 75,000 and almost 1/5th of the population of Canada, isn’t it about time that we start encouraging young people to move elsewhere? Most Canadian cities could use an increase in population to stimulate their economies and maybe we could slow down the paving of our farmlands and forests. Nov. 18 The Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, headed by Justice Jules Deschênes, dismissed claims about how “thousands” of “Nazi war criminals” were hiding in Canada as “grossly exaggerated.

” He ordered the Commission’s subject files be kept confidential to protect the privacy of hundreds of innocent Canadians and their descendants. Releasing the names of persons not found guilty of wrongdoing during the Second World War serves no public good. Bernie Farber, a former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, seems to be forgetting how Irwin Cotler, who represented the CJC before the Deschênes Commission, publicly welcomed its findings.

That’s a fact. I know because I was there. So why is Farber regurgitating this canard yet again? , Nov.

18 Transport minister Prabmeet Sarkharia can’t believe the exorbitant cost to rip out the bike lanes. To him it makes no sense. But neither does a 13-going-on-14-year wait for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT with no end in sight seem reasonable.

Yet here we are. Why not give Toronto taxpayers, the losers in this transit debacle — coincidently entirely under the control of the provincial government — an opening date and an apology for the multiyear delay and we’ll provide them with a cost-benefit analysis on the bike path removal. Sound like a fair trade-off? In the squabble about Toronto’s bike lanes, Premier Doug Ford’s wish to remove them, and the cost of doing so, the minister of transportation noted that the province would be footing the bill.

“The province” doesn’t pay for anything. Whatever costs Ford is racking up, whether it’s sending cheques to his rich friends, cutting up contracts (The Beer Store), or ripping out bike lanes, it is taxpayers who are paying for his whims. Those tax dollars could fund better health care, education, affordable housing and a better quality of life for the people of Ontario.

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