LETTERS ABOUT THE 1960 cHRISTMAS FRONT PAGE began arriving immediately. The following were in the January 14, 1961, issue.
"This is one of those notes we should write often, and seldom do. I wish to compliment you on the front page of the Christmas issue of The Register. It is sensational. The editors and writers deserve much credit for the idea and the manner of presenting it. REV. J. N. FULLERTON Toronto"
"The Canadian Register comes, from time to time, to this Anglican Community, of which I am assistant superior. I would like to commend you most highly for the Christmas issue front page written as 'news.' It is not as easy to do this as many of your readers may surmise. You have published the rumor, prophetic, and official Roman elements in the right proportions. At the same time, you have succeeded in maintaining the reverential atmosphere so necessary in dealing with the Mystery of the Incarnation. I thought you wouldn't mind a little pat on the back from an Anglican Religious. REV. JOHN McCAUSLAND Bracebridge"
"...Thank you for...reporting on Bethlehem in the modern style. What an impact this made on some of our Protestant neighbors! ....people were amazed at the freedom of the Catholic press! ...We cannot get the very few English-speaking Catholic families around here to subscribe to The Canadian Register, but, as the saying goes at home in Bavaria: 'A dog that has to be carried to the hunt is better left at home.' F.BAADER Knowlton Quebec"
"...These may be busy days, but there is still need to take time and extend congratulations on the makeup of your Christmas edition of The Register, especially the front page. The idea of news presentation is imaginative and the copy is of comparable excellence. All flattery aside, hats off to you and your staff. REV. LEONARD J. WALL Toronto"
They were greatly appreciated, but we couldn't help noticing that our readership, ordinary folks in pews all over Ontario, did not contribute any.
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One of Fr. Hanley's local assignments led me to Heathfield, the motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul. It's the only religious order established in Kingston, Ontario. That was in 1861, with a mandate to look after elderly poor people. In 1960 Heathfield's centrepiece was a great house built around 1840, rented 1865-76 by Sir John A. Macdonald, bought by the nuns in 1930, and enlarged a few times.
Two Sisters spent six days a week baking communion breads for all parishes in the Diocese of Kingston. Their "waffle irons" and cutting machines filled orders for from 2,000 to 5,000 wafers a day. Since the bakery began operating in 1862, the location and equipment had evolved, Sisters had introduced improvements such as better flour, better cutters and dryers, and a counting machine. But my guide, Sister Mary Richard, drew the line at using an electric mixer because mixing by hand, in one direction, prevented bubbles from forming pinholes in the finished product. There are things gadgets cannot do better than loving hands. Faster, yes. Better, no.*
My hostess that day was Mother Lenore, then the Mother Assistant of Heathfield. She was one of eight children born to a Montreal Star type-setter and I wish I'd taken the time to write her story. She and her sister Mary became nuns, Mary in the awesome Sacred Heart order which still runs schools for daughters of diplomats and businessmen around the world. Two brothers grew up to be The Most Rev. Alexander Carter, Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, and His Eminence Cardinal G. Emmett Carter of Toronto.
Emmett was the youngest of the eight and not surprisingly a hyper-achiever. His legacy includes the founding of St. Joseph Teachers College in Montreal. I first knew him as the chaplain of McGill University's Newman Centre, whose members nicknamed him The Boomer. Next he served London, ON, as bishop, in 1978 became archbishop of Toronto, a cardinal in 1979, in 1982 founded the amazing Covenant House shelter for homeless youth....
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GLIMPSES of how Canada worked: a writer's memoir.
Non-FictionDuring the first 30 years of my journalistic career in the second half of the 20th century, good jobs of all kinds were available all over Canada. Those of us born in the 1930s and early '40s were in great demand because our generation was very smal...
