- Bill C-384 (pdf)

There are people pro and people con.

Pro…
Most Quebec MDs in favour of legalized euthanasia: survey

In survey of its members released Tuesday, the Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists found that 84 per cent of responders are ready for a public debate on the issue and 74 per cent “would certainly favour or probably be favourable” to euthanasia within a legal framework.

Euthanasia is already being practised, doctor says (in Quebec)

-Dr. Death comes to town this fall

Con…

- Doctor decries euthanasia bill

“We must not abandon these vulnerable people through assisted suicide and euthanasia, but instead embark on a quest to find better ways to maintain their dignity and quality of life”

Quebec doctors urge colleagues to battle euthanasia

- Say “No” to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (pdf)

- Innocent would die

- DOSSIER EUTHANASIA — ASSISTED SUICIDE (Declarations and documents to help us in our reflection from the Catholic Church of Montreal)

- Canada’s Catholic Bishops Ask Parliament to Oppose Legalizing Assisted Suicide

- Letter asking Members of Parliament and all the people of Canada to reflect on the possible consequences of Bill C-384

“It is also legitimate for someone to refuse medical procedures that are found to be especially burdensome. But what is never acceptable is the direct and intentional killing of the depressed, handicapped, sick, elderly or dying,” Archbishop Weisgerber says.

And you ?

As Canadians, we have to think about this law and act to defeat it! We should protect the lives of others, the most vulnerable in our society.

Priests for Life of Canada is calling on “all parishes across Canada involved in this effort to defeat this legislation.” How ? Write a personal letter to your federal deputy or to the prime minister of Canada against this law! Post a personal letter as soon as possible !

As the church celebrates the Year for Priests, the pope also wanted to invite the world’s priests to consider ways they could use digital media in their ministry, said a statement from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The Vatican announced the theme Sept. 29.

If understood and used wisely, new media technology “can offer priests and all pastoral workers a wealth of information and content that was difficult to access before, and facilitate forms of collaboration and greater communion in ways that were unthinkable in the past,” the statement said.

While the church also must be aware of and address problems the new digital culture causes, it said, the church should recognize the enormous potential new instruments of communication have in ministry and evangelization.

Thanks to the new media, those involved in preaching and catechizing can now reach individuals and entire communities on every continent using words, sounds and images, it said.

“If used wisely, and with the help of experts in technology and communications, the new media can become a valid and effective tool for priests and all pastoral workers for evangelization and communion that are true and full of meaning,” it said.

In most countries, the Catholic Church celebrates World Communications Day on the Sunday before Pentecost; in 2010 the communications day will be celebrated May 16. A papal message for the occasion usually is released Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, the patron of journalists. (source)

“The new media can become a valid and effective tool for priests and all pastoral workers for evangelization”, It can help to promote vocations too.

- A vocation story : Father John Meyer
- Is God calling you ?
- Fr. Corapi’s Conversion Story – Condensed Version
- Franciscan Friars Vocations Video
- Fr Bob Bedard and the Companions of the Cross
- A call to the Priesthood?
- Priesthood catholic vocation
- Discerning the vocation (Vocation Confusion)
- Vocation: Why not Priest? (english)
- Vocation (brother, marraige, sister, priest, etc.) : Interview Part 1
- Think Jesuit ?

Proposing Jesus and the Catholic Church by the Internet ? Take a look on this great video : Catholics Come Home (from catholicscomehome.org’s website)

Pope Benedict appointed a new apostolic nuncio to France (Paris), Archbishop Luigi Ventura, currently the nuncio to Canada- (since june 22 2001)
(source : Zenit -news in french)

Pope Benedict XVI’s second volume on the life of Jesus is likely to be completed next spring, a Vatican spokes­man said.

The book is expected to cover Christ’s childhood, Passion, death and resurrection. The first volume, “Jesus of Naz­areth,” was published in 2007.

Father Federico Lombardi told Cath­o­lic News Service Sept. 13 that next spring was a “realistic” target date for completion. He added that readying the manuscript for publication and translating it into other languages may delay it.

The pope has been working on the volume over the last two years, mostly during summer vacations. When he broke his right wrist in July, he was said to have been particularly disappointed because it meant he couldn’t write.

The 448-page first volume covered the life of Christ from the time of his baptism in the Jordan River to the transfiguration before his disciples. In it, Pope Bene­dict said Christ must be understood as the Son of God on a divine mission, not as a mere moralist or social re­for­mer.

The book said that while Christ did not bring a blueprint for social progress, he did bring a new vision based on love. (source)

Pope Benedict to meet with contemporary artists in the Sistine Chapel(video on You Tube)

Pope Benedict plans to meet up to 500 artists from around the world in November.

Comments from Micha :

Dear Fr. Silvain Cloutier,

I want to thank you for the kind article and picture of His Holiness Pope Benedictus XVI and Mr. Wadie Abunassar and I am humbly honored that one of my favorite oil printed painting “The Savior” Jesus of Nazareth was presented and gifted to His Holiness and The Holy See Blessed my kind Art Work in Jerusalem on May 12, 2009 where I did not have the chance to humbly see him in person yet… I hope & pray.

In fact, and with my ultimate believes that Our Lord Jesus of Nazareth the Prince of Peace is truly “the Alpha & the Omega”. Through Him, With Him, In Him, the love and compassion to one another can be reached into the Hearts while the absence of Justice is spreading harshly in our Globe.

I am so pleased to hear the Spiritual Art Encouragements of His Holiness meeting 500 Contemporary artists at the Vatican in the Sistine Chapel.
With my best wishes of success to all in their work and activities, and that the Art will keep on chairing our spiritual Catholic Church mission and to continue implementing by vision the True Words of Love and Life of Our Savior Jesus of Nazareth and Our Beloved Mother of God The Virgin Mary to the entire humanity so we can be All as One.

May the Providence accompany us with the blessings of The Holy See and the prayers of every Goodwill person; with our finest utmost sincere regards to all, assuring you that we are, Gratefully yours in Christ,

Artist,
Micha/Micheline Edward Abounassar,
Edward (Father), Aida (Mother), Michael (Brother) Abounassar

http://www.michasgallery.org

michasgallery@yahoo.com
(818) 522-7123 California, U.S.A

- Fact-checking Angels & Demons (Decent Films)
- Religion and Science in Angels & Demons (Decent Films)
- Angels, Demons and Modern Fantasies About Catholicism (Word on Fire)

 As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.   

 And he’s not alone.  Others are feeling this:

Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”   

Carr also says that the process of adapting to new intellectual technologies is reflected in the changing metaphors we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. When the mechanical clock arrived, people began thinking of their brains as operating “like clockwork.” Today, in the age of software, we have come to think of them as operating “like computers.” But the changes, neuroscience tells us, go much deeper than metaphor. Thanks to our brain’s plasticity, the adaptation occurs also at a biological level. So if your brain can still concentrate at this stage of the summer, click on the link above and read it.  You’ll like it.