From the editor's desk

Catholic New Times, Feb 9, 2003 by Ted Schmidt

As war fever continues to afflict the Christian president of the United States, few Christians are buying his pathetic rationalizations. All over the world, people of religious conviction are pleading, marching and vigilling against this unholy crusade, sure to cause untold suffering to an already beleaguered people.

It was refreshing to see St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto bring in the prophetic peace bishop, Tom Gumbleton, to encourage our resistance. Jim Doris reports on this forum (please see page 15).

"Ethical Reflections" ... ah, the memories! Twenty years ago, the church made front-page news issuing a bold challenge to society to hear the cries of the unemployed. The bishops correctly discerned that we were dealing with a moral crisis, that economics has moral implications. The human person had become subservient to capital. "The current structural changes the global economy, in turn, reveal a deepening moral crisis ... wherein 'capital' is reasserted as the dominant organizing principle of economic life ... directly contradicts the ethical principle that labour, not capital, must give priority in the development of the economy."

Inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1982 encyclical Laborem Exercens, "Ethical Reflections" showed the church how to be a relevant historical actor, faithful to its kingdom mandate. Three important Canadian voices look backward and forward for us: Remi De Roo, who needs no introduction (coincidentally, saluted by Mary Jo Leddy on page 6); Bill Ryan, like Remi, still vitally engaged in the church's social project; and Mary Boyd, the longtime church conscience in Prince Edward Island (pages 10-11).

We welcome back CNTs very own, Janet Somerville, whose pristine prose does justice to the recent conference on the life of Don Heap, worker-priest. While we understand the focus of the organizers, Don, without Alice Heap, is like bacon without eggs. A tip of our hat to this amazing Christian woman (please see page 14)