Rudyard Griffiths

Commentary 10 July 2026 Emissions flow from a factory’s smokestacks in Toronto, Jan. 8, 2025. Cole Burston/The Canadian Press. In the late medieval church, a sinner of sufficient means didn’t need to stop sinning. He could purchase an indulgence—a certificate remitting the penalty for sins already committed—and carry on with his conscience cleared and his ledger balanced. The practice so scandalized a German monk that it helped launch the Reformation.

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” The phrase comes to us from the Roman poet Virgil, whose epic, the Aeneid, recounts the fall of Troy. As the Greeks feigned retreat, leaving behind a colossal wooden horse at the city’s gates, the Trojan priest Laocoön begged his countrymen not to accept it. Whatever this is, he warned, it conceals a threat. The Trojans, exhausted by a decade of siege and eager to believe their troubles were over, wheeled the horse inside the walls.

Last week, The Hub’s publisher, Rudyard Griffiths, was invited to address the graduating class of St. Michael College Schools in Toronto. The following is the text of his remarks. Principal Pat Daly, Father Andrew Leung, faculty, parents, and students, it is an honour to address you today.