As it elects its next federal government, Canada faces significant issues: a global trade war, the most intense front line of which is its own border; badly deteriorated trust in most social institutions; international criticism of its culture of death; and new popular backlash on the environment. Fortunately there are also glimmers of hope.
With the spate of elections tapering off, we hope to resume a more normal pace of communications. This month’s offerings include columns published previously in the Catholic Register and B C Catholic newspapers, and the Canadian Catholic News.
In this issue:
Beyond Left & Right
Killing the Conversation about Life
Prudence and the Environment
Globalism, Solidarity, Subsidiarty
In Whom can we Trust?
A Prayer of Pope Francis
In Good Conscience
Contributor Miles Smit says a leftover seating plan for the French parliament has outlived its usefulness as political metaphor. Fortunately, the Church offers abundant replacements.

Beyond left and right: how the Church overcomes the hollownesss of outdated labels
By Miles Smit
Few mental traps seem as innocuous as the herding of our political instincts, energies, and ideas into the pens of the Left-Right distinction. Yet the very soft commonality of the terms makes them all the more obscuring – and damaging.
“Right” and “Left” are used as proxies for free markets versus. socialist alternatives, conservative versus. liberal, Tradition versus. Progress etc. We owe the idea to the seating arrangement of the National Assembly in Paris following the French Revolution, from which time it has become a placeholder for parties that favour either “order” or “movement.”
But surely, it might be argued, both order (as the perquisite of justice), and movement (as a living energy that can meet the changing demands of prudence) are essential? True enough, except that the divided French National Assembly post-1789, and the polarized politics it influenced, came after grievous loss of the socially and politically necessary counsel the Church can offer.
Fast forward to the available political options in 2025 Canada and it is increasingly obvious, both to intuition and on analysis, that the ideas and leadership needed to address what ails us are simply not on offer. Yet no one would have much trouble scoring the major parties from left to right. What true principles do they really advance?
If the left-right polarity was ever serviceable, it has surely outlived its day. Indeed it is in many ways intolerably costly.
Not only is the divide unhelpful for capturing real issues and options, it has a divisive logic that pits brother against brother. Indeed it often looks as if that is the point: left and right narratives protect unjust aggregations of power by concealing the actual interests and mechanics of the regimes we live under, and create antagonistic, adversarial dynamics that thwart natural and emerging fraternity.
In Canada, which suffers from weak fraternity and a poverty of positive common identity, this adversarial – and ultimately fratricidal – logic is especially costly.
Further, by emphasizing orientation by opposed camps, it has a tendency to suffocate the pursuit of grounded, durable and possibly unifying principles.
What is the most promising vector of escape from the traps of a false L – R divide? Surprisingly to some, the answer increasingly looks like a reinvigoration of our social covenant in keeping with the principles of Catholic social teaching.
The basic principles of this approach include the conviction that all the private and worldly goods of a society cannot be rightly assessed without a strong awareness of the common good, and an orientation of that shared good to the highest and most spiritual Good. It also contains at least two axioms of justice:
Solidarity, which tells us that the welfare of each person in a political entity such as a nation, including the weakest, and those who do not (yet) have a public voice, is inviolable and of great importance, and;
Subsidiarity, which holds that individuals, families, small communities and other intimate circles must remain empowered to determine everything within the sphere of their competence.
Those two principles might seem incompatible, but the stark reality is that societies such as Canada’s are often low in both solidarity and subsidiarity. Individuals, families etc. are neither furnished with flourishing in basic material or spiritual goods by the common good, nor are they free to acquire and cultivate these goods on their own.
On the one hand, we are our brothers’ keeper, and their want of essential goods is a social and political problem. On the other hand the prerogatives of smaller circles of intense attachment, from private property to family rearing are sacrosanct. If that is so, why are politicians who meaningfully promote this balanced picture scarcely to be found?
The question brings us back to the hopefulness of our present moment. The answer is that new grassroot trends include hopeful shoots. Once-unchurched men and women, troubled by the turbulent darkness of the secular world, are swimming towards Catechism classes as the only “ship on the horizon.” Similarly the Church itself, once casually dismissed as irrelevant, is increasingly identified as the only truly catholic, that is, broad, inclusive and universal, hub of belonging that can unite mankind in a globalized, connected, yet wearied and precarious world.
The Church offers uniquely valuable, humane answers to social problems, and in some cases, the only answers. Given Her Divine mandate, this is to be expected, but there are many tokens evident to common sense, from the Church’s nonpareil network of social services worldwide, to the useful example of political pluralism found in medieval Catholic societies.
If the fulfillment of this promise seems remote, it is in truth certainly a large development only beginning truly to sprout up. But a growing number of people see a meaningful and substantial expression of political Catholicism as not only salubrious and necessary for all, but inevitable.
This commentary originally appeared in the Canadian Catholic News.
Of Common Interest
Statistics show that the leading cause of death for Canadians in 2022 was intentional action by others. Why are we not talking about that?

The Sanctity of Life: killing the conversation in Canada
Why are Catholics so obsessed about abortion? And euthanasia? There are many other evils we could concern ourselves with. So why don’t we get real, give up, and join everyone else in the 21st century?
The answer, of course, is that the sanctity of life – the dignity of the human person – is the foundation of all principles and all content of the Church’s social teaching. It is our Catholic conviction that the entire purpose of this life is for each of us, each and every human soul God chooses to put into this world, to spend all of the time, talent, and strength He has entrusted to us to find our way back to Him by loving Him, sharing in His work of creation, and caring for all the souls He has placed around us, ensuring that every one has all the opportunity and resources he or she needs to do the same thing – in their own way, using all the time, talent, and strength God has entrusted to them.
Voluntary termination of life at any time necessarily frustrates that purpose.
Abortion and euthanasia (including socially-assisted death, or SAD) are not issues to be ignored.
Why is it, then, that abortion, SAD, and other important life issues have dropped out of virtually all civic discourse outside the Church? It is a sad fact that nearly all of our political parties, along with most of our fellow voters, have stopped talking about or even acknowledging the evils of abortion, SAD, and other sins against the sanctity of the body and the dignity of life. They’ve just gone silent. And they can only do that because, to some extent, we allow it. Is this because we as a society have been distracted by the comforts and worries of modern life, and lost touch with the purpose of life? Or are we simply hiding, like the timid steward of Matthew 25:18?
The intentional killing of human beings is not a small problem in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, the leading cause of death for Canadians in 2022 (the latest year for which comprehensive comparative data is available) was cancer. Based on statistics provided by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, the federal Ministry of Health, and others, it was homicide – the intentional termination of life by human beings rather than nature:
Causes of Death in Canada, 2022
- Abortion 97,211†
- Cancer 82,412*
- Heart Disease 57,357*
- COVID 19,716*
- Accidents 18,365*
- Cerebrovascular Disease*** 13,915*
- SAD (“MAiD”) 13,241**
- Lower Respiratory Disease 12,462*
- Diabetes 7,557*
- Influenza and pneumonia 5,985*
- Other Assault / Homicide 489
SAD finished 7th, but with its steady 31% annual growth rate reported by the Minister of Health, it is climbing fast. All told, homicide accounted for the lives of 110,941 Canadians in 2022. An impressively disappointing lead.
Is it possible for us, the Church, to do something about that? Is it possible for us to keep these topics alive in ways that are gathering and healing, rather than divisive and hurtful, and therefor likely to succeed in spreading not only awareness, but change of heart and improvement?
Of course it is. There are many ways. We can (and should) talk to our local candidates and speak up about life issues, and we can (and should) join political parties, whichever seem most attractive (or least objectional) to us, and we can (and should) speak up (respectfully) to other party members, vote for the best leaders, and even offer our own time and effort as candidates or volunteers.
And if we want to have an effect, now is a good time to start. The most famous published work of one of our party leaders in next week’s election bears the watermark of Catholic social teaching, even though it apparently dare not speak that name. And we have many parties who profess concern for upholding the dignity of people in a wide variety of ways – though they seldom trouble to define what they mean by that. Why don’t we ask them, or suggest answers with our votes?
There are other signs of hope, too, including a quietly-introduced new “Quality of Life” index of social well-being meant to drive government policymaking. Enough to work with, if we roll up our sleeves, pray, and start participating.
This article originally appeared in the Catholic Register and in the Catholic Insight magazine.
†Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, (www.arcc-cdac.ca/media/2020/07/statistics-abortion-in-canada.pdf, updated April 18, 2024)
* Statistics Canada, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250305/t001a-eng.htm
** Health Canada, Fourth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada 2022
*** defined as strokes and other brain blood vessel concerns
Globalization is coming. We can’t stop it, but by staying faithfully and prayerfully engaged, we can help shape it.

Subsidiarity & Solidarity: Globalization
Tariffs. Carbon levels and carbon taxes. Election interference, the internet, misinformation. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza, military posturing in the Pacific. Globalism, nationalism, populism. Migration and deportation. International finance and electronic currencies. Defence of borders and Canada’s place in the world.
The upcoming federal election raises deep, concerning questions of national rights, individual freedoms, and international obligations. How can we properly understand these issues, or distill our understandings into a single vote each? Thankfully, our faith offers both prayer and doctrine to guide us.
The Catholic social principles of subsidiarity and solidarity help us determine who should best bear responsibility for different aspects of governance. They teach us that each of us must do what we can to care for ourselves, so that we don’t become burdens to others (1 Thes. 14:9-12) while at the same time calling us to ensure that everyone else has the same opportunities we have, and fair access to resources they need to act on them. (Matthew 22:37-40)
Subsidiarity, from the Latin for support or assistance, means that each element of society, from the most powerful government to the least powerful citizen, should fulfill its own proper civic role while helping those at in other social positions attend properly to theirs. Properly observed, subsidiarity helps us avoid encroaching on others’ rights to act or decide things for themselves.
One consequence of this is that each individual, and each smaller group of people, should be allowed to make for themselves all the decisions they can responsibly handle, and be given the support needed to put their decisions into action. This order is preferred over assigning the task to larger groups or greater authorities, even for convenience or efficiency. With this approach, each individual or “lower order” element of society retains the freedom to chart its own course to salvation. (CSDC, 185, 186)
Solidarity is the glue that binds us all together: acceptance of the profound human truth that everyone else is as important as we are, and that the good of one is the good of all. (CSDC, 193). We’ve all heard the adage, “Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime”. It well illustrates the interplay between subsidiarity (teach people to feed themselves, as they are capable of this work) and solidarity (at least make sure those around us aren’t hungry). Properly applied, these principles ensure that people are properly fed without being made dependent on others.
A theme touching on many election issues is globalization: the development of broad international mechanisms for economic and administrative efficiency in seeking the common good. In some senses, globalization is not only a good idea, but necessary – especially the need to curb abuses associated with global finance, armament, and our shared environment. (CSDC, 467-468; Evangelii Gaudium (“EG”), 234-237; 368-371).
Like it or not, globalization is happening, fuelled by the desire for power and profit. The extent to which it should be allowed to develop is another question, and is at least partly in our control. We should all do what we can to see that globalization happens in ways that are good for everyone. (cf. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 37; Caritas in Veritate, 21, 37; EG, 55-58.) This includes prayerfully voting with our Catholic principles in mind.
As the election approaches, we must keep up with the parties and the candidates, assessing carefully what they say. What do their records tell us about their willingness and ability to deliver on promises? What would be the effects of those promises if kept?
A changing world calls us constantly to seek new social and personal balances as we all search for God in our own ways. (cf. 1 Cor. 12) In discerning our vote for this election, let us ask: Should Canada strive for greater self-sufficiency, per the subsidiarity principle? While no nation ever is truly self-sufficient, Canada perhaps could come closer than most, with its abundance of arable land, water, energy, and building materials. Greater self-sufficiency might create many good jobs and significant wealth, particularly in the deepest sense of “wealth” (well-being) – both factors relevant to solidarity.
As the election approaches, we should pray for ourselves and for everyone of good conscience, even those who draw conclusions different from ours. God has everything under control. We just need to do our part. Queen of all Nations, pray with us.
This commentary originally appeared in the Canadian Catholic News.
Argument has flared again about the truth of climate change. Certainly there are arguments on both sides. But the credible weight of science – and more importantly, the magesterium of the Church – suggest that real risks exist. Do we want to gamble with a future that belongs to others? What would prudence suggest?

Prudence and the air we breathe
People are interesting creatures. If asked, most of us will tell you that the most important things in life – aside from God, of course – are our families, our friends, the beauty of a sunny spring morning, and cool, clear autumn days of bright, coloured leaves. Many of us might also tell you that the only thing that approaches (or ought to approach) our faith in the love, wisdom, and fidelity of God, and the infallibility of Holy Mother Church, is our faith in the humanity, benevolent impartiality, wisdom, and near-infallibility of science.
How consistent is our behaviour with those sentiments? Do we walk the talk, or are our choices sometimes tinged with just a little complacency and a fondness for comfort, above even nature, beauty or family?
We are all aware by now of the increasingly heated debate raging about the environment and the effect, if any, we humans are having on it. The Pope, the Canadian and US bishops’ conferences, NASA, NOAA, the Japanese and European meteorological agencies, and countless universities and non-profits (left wing and otherwise) have told us insistently that climate change is real, potentially catastrophic, and directly influenced by human behavior. Pope Francis has gone so far as to give us two specific encyclicals on the topic.
On the other hand, an increasing number of groups, including various political parties, corporations, and public interest groups, hotly deny the truth of climate change, or at least any human effect on it; and proudly claim the rightness of continuing to burn up the earth’s limited supplies of oil, coal and other things, to make energy. Several Canadian political parties, for example, justify rolling back environmental initiatives on grounds that human-produced CO2 is not pollution but a beneficial natural gas needed by all plants, and that CO2 as a cause of climate change is an unproven theory.
Yet it really does appear, from multiple scientific sources, that since the industrial revolution and particularly since the start of the second world war, atmospheric CO2 levels are up something like 30%, to new historical heights; and that average temperatures are rising steadily beyond their customary historical cycles. It also seems clear that we have cut down a very large portion of the world’s trees. Knowing from high school botany classes that trees and other plants remove carbon and other substances that won’t help us breathe from the air, doesn’t that suggest something we ought to be careful about?
Some of us are old enough to question, based on our own lived experience, whether on average there is as much ice or snow as there used to be, even if sometimes there still seems to be quite a lot of it; or whether there really are more, and bigger, storms and forest fires than there used to be. I know also that when I fly or look out of high-rise windows, the horizon often seems to be oranger than it used to.
One might be forgiven for concluding that common sense is telling us that something might be up.
Of course there is uncertainty. There is always uncertainty. The only thing we can really know, as René Descartes taught us, is “we think, therefore we are.” And honestly, which of us who does not head up a university or government lab has the means or expertise to know about climate change and human activity for certain?
When all is said and done, don’t we Catholics have a responsibility to listen to our Pope and bishops? They are not scientists, generally (though Pope Francis is reported to have trained as a chemist), and climate science is not subject to the doctrine of infallibility, but they are responsible for helping us understand our duties to God and His creation, our families and one another, and those who will follow us; particularly within a framework of principles like solidarity and the common good, and virtues like charity and prudence.
Even if we have lost all trust in governments and other voices that we used to regard as authoritative, what is the wise course? The prudent course? The kind of course we might adopt while helping our children cross busy downtown streets for the first time? Should we be careful with a future that belongs to other people?
Should we perhaps be a little careful, as individuals and as a country, with activities that involve putting poisons into the air, water, and ground?
People are interesting creatures.
Of Common Concern
Very few of us trust one another these days, much less governments or other social institutions. How do we get past that, return to a place where we can hear and understand, and respect, one another? Through re-commitment to truth and shared values.

In Whom can we trust? Good government, trust & shared values
It is widely reported that public trust in politics is low and declining.1 And it is easy to see why: the news is filled with reasons to distrust governments, politicians, corporations, public figures, charities, and other social institutions.
Strict and ever-tightening control of messaging from parties and from government2; exclusion of inconvenient voices from public consultations3; long lists of promises made during elections and later cast aside.4 Charges of bias in governments and public media.5 Allegations of misuse of vaccines offered with foreign aid, or as defense against disease.6 Missed environmental targets.7 Coverup of abuse by institutions charged with caring for children.8 We even see loss of trust in the internal workings of our political parties, highlighted by the resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in protest against financial “gimmicks” proposed during a time of significant economic threats.
And now Canada faces an election in which partes are waiting to release formal platform statements until advance voting has already started – as if during the preceeding three years of stoutly criticizing everyone else, they had given no thought to their own proposed policies. If our parties decline to commit publicly to positions on relevant issues in good time for voters to reflect on them before voting, how are we to confidently decide which ones to support?
Without truth and its child trust, democracy cannot survive.9 The keys to truth and trust are shared and commonly-practiced values. And we Catholics have a duty to do something about that.
As always, our Catholic answer begins with turning to God in prayer. Humans have long been aware that it is unsafe to rely on anyone but God, for truth, support, or anything else. Psalm 118, for example:
Better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put one’s trust in mortals.
Better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put one’s trust in princes.
As always, prayer must be supplemented by effort. Our faith includes an inseparable social dimension: remember Chapter 22 of Matthew: in addition to loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, we are to love our neighbours as ourselves. Add Chapter 25 of Matthew, and we have to do these things with our strength, in expectation of being judged on them as nations as well as individuals.
Fortunately we have many options. There exist glimmers of hope. Most of our parties, once they finally do get around to publishing platforms, still feel obligated to acknowledge the importance of truth, transparency, and accountability. We just have to hold them to it, by joining the party or writing letters of inquiry and concern, or both. Moreover the government has recently defined frameworks for trust, transparency, and quality of life10 for use in forming policies, each of them promoting values which are, on paper, arguably consistent with Catholic social principles, values, and virtues. And they have published these frameworks on the internet. This means they are inviting letters or visits to ministers and MPs, whether that was their intention or not.
In addition, Elections Canada has recently published a proposal for creation of a code of ethics for political parties, in hopes of encouraging them to behave more responsibly, and potentially more respectfully.11 If we work respectfully with Elections Canada, perhaps we can help open up a path to improvement.
Finally, at least two parties have broken modern precedent by taking a higher road, presenting their proposals in a spirit of gathering rather than on bashing other parties. We can talk to them, and assuming their values and their principles acceptable to us, we can vote for them. If enough people respond to better values with votes, the other parties will follow suit.
We can talk to one another, to our neighbours, our bishops, and our newspapers. It’s up to us to make the parties live up to the pious declarations with which they entice us, using whatever tools we have – including our own Catholic principles and new governmental frameworks.
If our democracy doesn’t work, there’s no one to blame but us.
- As one example, https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/canadians-are-very-unhappy-with-the-federal-public-service-and-for-good-reason-tim-sargent-in-the-hub/
- https://www.ubcpress.ca/brand-command
- https://www.catholicregister.org/item/1941-silent-negotiation-un-s-new-normal
- https://www.polimeter.org/en
- https://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/clc-blog/id/456/title/the-cbc-admits-anti-catholic-bias; https://www.ncregister.com/news/three-years-later-canada-mass-graves-remain-unproven
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1831725/
- Report 7, Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to the Parliament of Canada-2024, Office of the Auditor General of Canada, https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_cesd_202411_07_e_44576.html
- Wanted: Moral Courage in Canadian Child Welfare, First Peoples Child & Family Review, Volume 6 (2011)
- https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/government-wide-reporting-spending-operations/trust-transparency/government-canada-trust-and-transparency-strategy.html
- https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/government-wide-reporting-spending-operations/trust-transparency/government-canada-trust-and-transparency-strategy.html; https://www160.statcan.gc.ca/index-eng.htm
- https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=rec/tech/cod&document=p2&lang=e
Prayer
A Prayer of Pope Francis
In mourning our loss, we celebrate the life and gifts of a good shepherd, offering again his own prayer to Mary, Star of Evangelization:
Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves. Contemplating Mary, we realize that she who praised God for “bringing down the mighty from their thrones” and “sending the rich away empty” (Lk 1:52-53) is also the one who brings a homely warmth to our pursuit of justice. She is also the one who carefully keeps “all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).
Mary is able to recognize the traces of God’s Spirit in events great and small. She constantly contemplates the mystery of God in our world, in human history and in our daily lives. She is the woman of prayer and work in Nazareth, and she is also Our Lady of Help, who sets out from her town “with haste” (Lk 1:39) to be of service to others. This interplay of justice and tenderness, of contemplation and concern for others, is what makes the ecclesial community look to Mary as a model of evangelization. We implore her maternal intercession that the Church may become a home for many peoples, a mother for all peoples, and that the way may be opened to the birth of a new world.
It is the Risen Christ who tells us, with a power that fills us with confidence and unshakeable hope: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). With Mary we advance confidently towards the fulfilment of this promise, and to her we pray:
Mary, Virgin and Mother,
you who, moved by the Holy Spirit,
welcomed the word of life
in the depths of your humble faith:
as you gave yourself completely to the Eternal One,
help us to say our own “yes”
to the urgent call, as pressing as ever,
to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
Filled with Christ’s presence,
you brought joy to John the Baptist,
making him exult in the womb of his mother.
Brimming over with joy,
you sang of the great things done by God.
Standing at the foot of the cross
with unyielding faith,
you received the joyful comfort of the resurrection,
and joined the disciples in awaiting the Spirit
so that the evangelizing Church might be born.
Obtain for us now a new ardour born of the resurrection,
that we may bring to all the Gospel of life
which triumphs over death.
Give us a holy courage to seek new paths,
that the gift of unfading beauty
may reach every man and woman.
Virgin of listening and contemplation,
Mother of love, Bride of the eternal wedding feast,
pray for the Church, whose pure icon you are,
that she may never be closed in on herself
or lose her passion for establishing God’s kingdom.
Star of the new evangelization,
help us to bear radiant witness to communion,
service, ardent and generous faith,
justice and love of the poor,
that the joy of the Gospel
may reach to the ends of the earth,
illuminating even the fringes of our world.
Mother of the living Gospel,
wellspring of happiness for God’s little ones,
pray for us.
Amen. Alleluia!
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 24 November, the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and the conclusion of the Year of Faith, in the year 2013, the first of my Pontificate.
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