The Quotation of the Week (August 16 - 22, 2015)

A quotation of Confucius on 'a job one loves,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (A village marriage band playing its tunes in Savar of Dhaka District, Bangladesh: January 8, 2012) © Jerome D'Costa

THE CATHOLIC REGISTER: A Publication of Toronto

It's the official weekly newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. It provides news, features and articles on different aspects of Catholic life and the Church -- local and global. 

It's online edition is available at: The Catholic Register

Nunavut Gets Its First Mosque

A mosque under construction in  Iqaluit, Nunavut's capital city

 Photo courtesy: Toronto Star

Map of Nunavut, a Canadian territory

Map courtesy: www.geology.com/

Nunavut's first mosque in its capital city of Iqaluit, spearheaded by Syed Asif Ali, a Muslim immigrant engineer from Pakistan, is proceeding to its completion, reports the Toronto Star.

It will be the first mosque in the entire territory of Nunavut which has a Muslim population of about 100. These immigrant Muslims, coming from different countries, migrated to Iqluit from various Canadian provinces for job purposes. In the meantime, some of these Muslims married local women and a number of local people also embraced Islam as their religion. 

As the church is an integral part of any Christian community, so is the mosque for the Muslims. This need for a place of worship is being realized today through donations from Muslims as well as non-Muslims. 

Nunavut is a Canadian 'territory' -- not a province -- with an area of 2,093,190 sq. kilometres, and, according tot he 2011 census, its population is 31,906 -- of whom, 83.6% is Inuit ('Eskimo'), 14.96% non-aboriginals, 0.44% Metis, and 0.34% the First Nations people.

In each July, the average temperature in Nunavut varies from 4 to 11 degree Celsius, and in January it goes down to -21 to -33 degree Celsius.

For more on the mosque and the Muslims in Iqaluit, please read the following:

• Nunavut's Muslims building little mosque on the tundra
• Iqaluit Muslims to build Nunavut's first mosque
• Islamic Society of Nunavut (website)

7th-Grade UK School Girl Gets Higher IQ Scores Than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking

Nicole Barr with her Mensa IQ score

Photo courtesy: The Daily Mirror

Twelve-year-old Nicole Barr of Harlow in the Essex county scored 162 points on the Mensa IQ test, topping famous scientists Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, reports the Daily Mirror. She, belonging to a humble migrant Roma or gypsy family, surpassed them by two points!

Expressing her pride, mother Dolly Buckland, 34, said of her daughter, "She's a hard, hard working child. She stays after school for homework club and never misses a day."

She further said, "From a young age she's been picking out mistakes in books and magazines. She's a happy, fun-loving girl who is always asking for extra homework. She's determined to finish school and go to college and university to be a paediatrician."

The average adult IQ score is 100, and 140 and up fall into the 'genius' category. 

For more, kindly read:

• Genius 12-year-old scores higher on IQ test than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking
• Nicole Barr, 12-Year-Old British Girl of Roman Ancestry, Scores Higher On IQ Test Than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking 

The Quotation of the Week (August 9 - 15, 2015)

A quotation of Ivan Turgenev on 'holiness,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (The altar at St. Lawrence the Martyr Church in Scarborough, Toronto: Dec. 7, 2015) © Jerome D'Costa

Gretta Vosper: A Preacher of God Turns Into an Atheist, Wants to Remain a Pastor in the United Church of Canada

Pastor Gretta Vosper in front of her "The Legacy Wall" a few years ago

 Photo courtesy: Gretta Vosper website

Pastor Gretta Vosper in front of her church at West Hill of  Scarborough in Toronto

Photo courtesy: Canadian Press

What? A preacher of God who is a religious pastor is an atheist -- a non-believer of God and the Bible?

Yes. According to a Canadian Press report, Gretta Vosper, 57, is a female minister of the United Church of Canada at West Hill area of Scarborough, Toronto, and she has turned into an atheist and vows to fight the Church review whether she is fit to remain as a minister. 

Ordained in 1993, she became engaged in this particular church in 1997. Later she became an atheist -- a non-believer of God and the Bible.

Pastor Vosper says that the idea of an interventionist, supernatural being, on which so much church doctrine is based, belongs to an outdated world view. According to her, how you live is more important tha what you believe in.

"I don't believe in ... the god, called God. Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share," she says.

"Is the Bible really the word of God? Was Jesus a person?" she asks. Then she replies, "It's mythology. We build a faith tradition upon it, which shifted to find belief more important than how we lived."

The United Church authority is actively reviewing her case, but she is determined to remain as its pastor as before.

For more on the topic, please read the following:

• Unprecedented United Church probe could lead to removal of non-believing Toronto minister
• Atheist Minister Continues Fight to Remain Ordained in United Church of Canada
• Atheist minister praises the glory of good at Scarborough church
• Colby Cosh: The heretical minister to help her flock evolve out of the need for church
• How do you solve a problem like Gretta Vosper, atheist clergywoman?
• Gretta Vosper: minister, author, atheist (Pastor Vosper's website)
• United Church of Canada

Pope Francis Reaches Out to Divorced and Remarried Catholics

Pope Francis meets with newlywed couples in an audience in the Vatican

Photo courtesy: CNS photo via The Catholic Herald, London

Pope Francis, in his August 5 general audience in the Vatican, continued his catechesis [teaching] on the family, touching on the situation of the civilly divorced and remarried Catholics, reports the Vatican Radio.

"In these decades, in truth, the Church has been neither insensitive nor lazy. Thanks to the in-depth analysis performed by Pastors, led and guided by my Predecessors, the awareness has truly grown that it is necessary to have a fraternal and attentive welcome, in love and in truth, of the baptized who have established a new relationship of cohabitation after the failure of the marital sacrament; in fact, these persons are by no means excommunicated — they are not excommunicated! — and they should absolutely not be treated as such: they are still a part of the Church," he said. 

For further news on  and analysis of this topic, please visit the following:

• Pope: divorced and remarried people not excommunicated (Vatican Radio)
• Pope Francis on the divorced and civilly remarried (YouTube video) 
• Pope Francis: GENERAL AUDIENCE (Wednesday, 5 August, 2015) (w2.vatican.va) 
• Pope: Divorce and remarriage contradicts the sacrament, but Church always reaches out (Catholic News Agency)
• Pope: 'By No Means Excommunicated,' but Divorce and Remarriage Contradicts the Sacrament (National Catholic Register)
• Pope Francis: The Divorced and Remarried Are Not Excommunicated (aleteia.org)
• Pope: Divorced and Remarried Are Not Excommunicated, Should be Welcomed (America magazine) 
• Divorced and remarried Catholics are not 'excommunicated,' says Pope (The Catholic Herald)
• Francis: Divorced and remarried are not by any means excommunicated (National Catholic Reporter)
• Pope: "No closed doors" to divorced and remarried, they are part of the life of the Church (AsiaNews) 
• Pope Francis Urges Priests to Welcome Remarried Catholics (The New York Times)
  
• Pope Francis: Church Should Welcome Divorced, Remarried Catholics (TIME magazine)
• Pope Francis Says Remarried Divorced Catholics Still in Church (The Bloomberg News)
  
• Pope Francis Says Church must welcome divorced, remarried Catholics (Religion News Service)
• Pope Francis's embracing of divorced Catholics still needs to overcome divine law (CBC News)
  
• Stop shunning divorced Catholics, Pope Francis tells his flock (The Telegraph)
  
•  Pope Francis on the Divorced and Remarried: 10 Things to Know and Share (National Catholic Register)