by Hilary White and Steve Jalsevac
WATERLOO, Ontario, May 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – St. Jerome’s College, the nominally Catholic college at the University of Waterloo in southern Ontario, is offering a conference the weekend of May 12th and 13th purporting to explore issues faced by Catholics in the public sphere. According to some of the leaders in Canadian Catholic journalism, the college has failed to offer more than the expected roster of the usual leftist and dissident suspects giving the customary answers to the same questions that have been debated by leftist Catholic academia since 1965.
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Questions to be answered by a panel of “International Renowned Experts” include: “Is the Roman Catholic faith a public or a private faith? Does debate and honest inquiry equate with dissent? What should Catholic laity do to become more media savvy?”
The speakers represent the usual playlist of the leftist Catholic and secular media – the UK’s Tablet; New York’s Commonweal; the Globe and Mail and CBC Radio. All of them are noted for the varying degrees of subtlety or outrage with which they oppose Catholic teaching on most topics, especially abortion, homosexuality, contraception and divorce.
Also included in the conference workshop line-up is the editor of the fading Catholic New Times a newspaper so far to the left, Canada’s Catholic bishops have finally started to distance themselves from it because of its flagrant opposition to the traditional family and marriage.
The editor of the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Catholic Register was seen appropriate to be included in the speakers’ list. The Register is often now seen as the “Not-So-Catholic Register” as it feels obliged to provide a forum for a variety of views. It includes solidly Catholic, pro-life, pro-family articles together with prominent regular columnists whose politically correct articlesÂgenerate doubt about Church disciplines and teachings. The editor’s primary mandate to emphasize “social justice” issues has resulted in the paper becoming a light version of the more openly dissident New Times.
St. Jerome’s has a well-established reputation among believing Catholics for broad and determined divergence from Catholic teaching on some of the most crucial social and moral issues, including abortion and the nature of marriage. The Catholic chaplaincy at St. Jerome’s is widely known for its unorthodox and “experimental” liturgies.
Paul Tuns, a Catholic and political author and editor of the pro-life newspaper the Interim, said the line-up, apart from being unrepresentative of believing Catholics in Canada, is just plain boring. He said, “In a university setting you should be able to challenge people. Where’s the debate in having a lineup of people who all think the same way?”
“Panel discussions are horrid when you have people who view the world identically. Just because they’ve got the CBC and the Catholic New Times doesn’t mean that they’re coming from a differing viewpoint.”
The most notable thing about the conference schedule are those groups and individuals absent from its line-up.
Southern Ontario, is noted for being a place where faithful and “renowned” Catholic journalists, politicians and public figures are especially thick on the ground. In addition to Paul Tuns, some of the notable Catholic public figures who might have livened up the proceedings could have included, David Warren the controversial columnist on international affairs at the Ottawa Citizen; Michael Coren television host and popular journalist and author; Phil Horgan attorney and president of the Catholic Civil Rights League; Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, Gwen Landoldt, attorney and executive director of Real Women of CanadaÂand LifeSiteNews editor John-Henry Westen.
Faithful Catholics and others who wish to enliven the conference themselves, can register until the end of the day today at:
Tel: 519-578-3660 ext 2373
Email: [email protected]
Conference Fees: General $60 Student $50
Visit the conference website:
https://www.sju.ca/CIPL.html