Dear Friend:
There are times when families must pull together. When there’s a crisis, we need to be there for family, to give them strength and support.
This week, our family in Israel is in crisis. They are being shot at with hundreds of missiles, and have to run to bomb shelters day and night. Soldiers, ages 18 and 19, are being sent into the battleground. Yes, their spirits remain high; but undoubtedly these days of war are traumatic. It is time for us, their brothers and sisters in Montreal, …

METAPHORS ARE THE WAY WE UNDERSTAND LIFE
By Father John Walsh

By definition a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Calling a person a “night owl” or an “early bird” is an example of a conventional metaphor. The journey metaphor is in the chorus to He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother: It’s a long, long road from which there is no return. While we’re on the way to there, Why not share? …

HOMILY JULY 6, 2014
My dear sisters and brothers, my friends,
The world is preoccupied with the advance ISIS and the establishment of a new Caliphate. A Caliphate is an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader known as a caliph, that is, a “successor” to Muhammad. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) is headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He transformed a few small terror cells into the most brutal and lethal terror group on earth. Mercy is not in this man’s vocabulary. Abu Bakr picked up the …

AN IGNORANT AND DANGEROUS VIEW OF JEWISH HISTORY
By Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz
Readers who follow the events in the Middle East are used to media mistakes. Reporting from Israel is often undermined by ignorance and bias, which leads to reporting errors like calling Tel Aviv the capital of Israel, or mistaking members of Islamic Jihad for journalists. Recently, The Economist reported about a “fanatical settlement”, Kochav Yair; in actuality, Kochav Yair is in central Israel, and it generally votes for center left parties. So it’s certainly not unusual when an op-ed …

MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT “CATHOLIC” DIVORCE
By Father John Walsh

The very mention of annulment in the Catholic tradition has many Catholics retort, you mean “Catholic divorce.” There are many who believe that you can buy an annulment if you have enough money, and the very thought of denying there was a marriage is ridiculous. The harshest judgement is: annulments don’t make any sense, I would never apply for an annulment under any circumstances.
Let’s back up. In the Catholic tradition marriage is a sacrament. This is not the case with all Christian traditions. The …