Readers Speak Out: March 20, 2022

Dyed in green wool

I am a proud, dyed-in-the-wool Patrician — school, college, church, parish and then Canada — so St. Patrick’s feast day is personal. It falls right in the middle of Lent so may reflect his charism of joy rising out of resilience.

The Irish missionary founders (the Brothers of Saint Patrick) chose the shamrock as the school badge with the motto, “per aspera ad astra” — through hardships to the stars. School was all about the exuberance of childhood alongside vigorous sport and academics. Bruises and scar tissue were par for the course, physically and mentally, so that when we graduated we would, in the footsteps of the saint, be tough enough to confront the actual snakes and demons around us and participate joyfully in the glory of Easter.

Sláinte!

Michael Dias

Markham, Ont.

Persecuted citizens

For how much longer is the Roman Catholic Church in Canada going to support the civil authorities and their persecution of our citizens? We have Catholic doctors. We have Catholic hospitals. We have a very educated clergy. We have a school system. We are, I dare say, the premiere institution in this country. And we say nothing.

Canada’s medical professionals, many of whom are Catholic, have abandoned every principle of medical ethics — led by the hierarchy of my Church that, in the beginning, advocated for the government and its plan of unnecessary massive vaccination of Canadians.

Liam Venner

Whitby, Ont.

Lich is Leia

Tamara Lich is, for Star Wars aficionados, the Princess Leia of the Canadian people’s truckers “rebellion” against the globalist mandates of the administration in Ottawa. Lich spoke through tears of her disbelief at how the convoy grew as it moved across Canada, the support on the highways and overpasses, the world-wide impact of the movement, the peacefulness and love of all the participants. She stressed her tears were not those of sadness or self-pity at her upcoming arrest. They were tears of joy. Possibly, it’s that profound joy of the Trinity at work though you, with you and in you.

At her second bail hearing after 12 days in prison on mischief charges, she was led into the courtroom in shackles. Like Jesus Christ, she had hit a nerve with the elites lording over the people.

She stressed we must stay peaceful and not hold grudges against our police. Her final prayer before arrest: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

John Killackey

Mississauga, Ont.

Stop the evils

No one should be blind to the crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine, deaf and dumb to Vladimir Putin’s policy or to the Russian Orthodox patriarch’s, support for the crimes of both.

Pope Francis must visit the Patriarch in Moscow immediately and tell him to stop the Russian evils in Ukraine.

Mile Pletikosa

Scarborough, Ont.