WHERE IS « MY » HOME?
I am writing this note as I am self-quarantined in “my” home. I am learning that it is not “my” home at all. I am living with the billions of people on this earth who are wondering when the spread of convid-19 will end. In my home are the many who are stricken with the virus and the too many who have died. I I am not alone because my family and friends are calling or emailing or texting me to …

YOUNG WOMEN AND YOUNG MEN SPEAK OUT- AS NEVER BEFORE IN THE CHURCH
We cannot wait for our leaders to take action. “When leadership at the top is absent, civil society .. must strongly pressure Governments to broaden their concept of ‘national interest.’” This is our responsibility as much as our leaders. … The way to drive the political will to intervene here at home is to find inventive ways to describe the impact that the conflict abroad will have on our lives here, making the risk-taking more palatable and easier …

Our Orthodox Family Was Attacked On A Train. A Brave Muslim Woman Intervened.
AnonymousNovember 25, 2019
The author of this piece was filmed while he and his children were attacked on a train in London. The Forward normally identifies all of our op-ed writers, but the father expressed a fear of retaliation for speaking out, and has asked to remain anonymous. We have honored his request.
To many of you, the disturbing viral video of an anti-Semite ranting at a Jewish family on the underground is just that, a video. To our family, …

LOOKING DEEPLY AND THINKING DEEPLY
Father John Walsh

Transformation begins with the decision to courageously look deep within one’s “self.” In today’s culture meaning is derived outside of the inner reality of each person. Modernity focuses humanity on that which exists outside the individual, who, in turn, finds it hard to internalize within her or him that which comes from the outside. Time and energy are expended on the objects that entertain but are not meant to bring growth and understanding to who we humans are and who we can become. In …

RELIGIONS IN A SECULAR SOCIETY
Father John Walsh

Today’s world is a secular world. We are living in a secular age. Humans are now in charge. The gods have been abandoned. There is no supernatural world over and against the natural world. There is no God over and against the world in which we live our daily lives. Cultures are godless and society is soulless. In a secular setting religious traditions are unreasonable and simply no longer offer reasonable answers to the world’s most pressing questions. The Enlightenment of the seventeenth and …

THE MESSAGES OF HIJRAH — HERE AND NOW
Imam Dr. Zijad Delic

The season of Hajj signifies a time of forgiveness, mercy, sacrifice, commitment and renewed opportunities for unity among all Muslims. The new Muslim Hijri year of 1441 starts on Friday, August 30th. The new Hijri year brings together Canadian Muslims with the international Muslim family (Ummah) to recall the Prophet’s Hijrah (migration) from Makkah to Madinah (Medina). The Hijrah has an historical perspective, but Muslims have always been encouraged to contemplate Hijrah on a far deeper level. Hijrah is based …

HOW TO START A HARD CONVERSATION
Rabbi Michael Whitman

The Jewish calendar is not just a way for Jews to mark time. It is also a textbook, a source of universal lessons about every aspect of life relevant to each of us. We are currently experiencing one of the most important lessons our calendar teaches. We are approaching the Jewish High Holidays (Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement), with its heavy subjects of judgement, apologies, and forgiveness. Each of us has moments in our lives …

WORDS TELL US ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE
Father John Walsh

Words matter a lot. Words of praise can buoy a person up for days, if not weeks or months. Everyone needs to be thanked for a job well done. We all need to be recognized. Our identity is often dependent on the manner in which we are recognized. Grade school nicknames are carried by some people throughout their lives. “Oh him, he’s a clown!” “Her, she’s … you know. “ Words can shatter a person for life. In our North American …

CHANGING THE HORIZON DURING ELECTION TIME
Father John Walsh

 
There is an election buzz in the air. The dates are approaching and the buzz is getting louder. Much is sound and fury signifying very little! The significance of the American elections is that they are geopolitical. More than many want to recognize, they will affect the whole world. They have affected us as Canadians in the past, and, perhaps, will affect us much more in the near and long-term future. In the almost immortal words of Pierre Elliott Trudeau on March 25, …

Quebecs Moral Quagmire
What Bill 21 Means for Religious Pluralism in Canada
By Michael W. Higgins
July 9, 2019

It wasn’t supposed to happen, but happen it did. Having thrown off the shackles of clericalism and everything else Catholic, the once-pious province—a Quebec steeped in the life of a church seen as sole protector of French identity, culture, and religion in the New World—has embraced a new form of dogmatism and intolerance: the radical secularism of laïcité.
On June 16, a week after Pentecost, the National Assembly in Quebec City passed Bill 21, a draconian …