Rosary making turned into life’s ministry
TORONTO – It is a collection of beads hung on a chain or a piece of rope, anchored by a cross. The rosary may not look like much but it is one of the most powerful spiritual weapons Catholics can carry.
An ocean of tears calls for mercy, compassion, Pope says
VATICAN CITY – The tears shed by men, women and children around the world each day cry out for mercy, compassion and consolation, Pope Francis said during a special Year of Mercy prayer service for those who weep.
Pope prays for Orthodox, Catholic Christians kidnapped in Syria
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis led Christians in praying for Catholic and Orthodox clergy and religious kidnapped in Syria and around the world.
When it comes to happiness, there's no app for that, Pope tells teens
VATICAN CITY – Happiness "is not an 'app' that you can download on your phones nor will the latest update help you become free and great in loving," Pope Francis told thousands of teenagers.
20 years beyond the grave, Nouwen still teaching
TORONTO – Fr. Henri Nouwen is still trying to help us understand. He’s been dead 20 years, but he’s still there talking to us about our gifts and our failures, our hopes and our doubts, God and love and sin and community and loneliness.
Scott McCaig dared to be a priest
OTTAWA – Bishop-elect Scott McCaig traces the beginning of his priestly vocation to a chance glimpse of a sign on the side of the road.
'VatiLeaks' trial: Author says he had duty to publish private documents
An Italian journalist said he was given private documents by a Vatican official detailing problems with financial reforms and that he had a duty to publish them.
"Amoris Laetitia" lets us know sex is not something to be looked down upon
Sex is not something the Church fears or is trying to control. Sex is not the opposite of prayer and spirituality, it’s not something we grudgingly concede to the young. Sex is not merely the mechanism of reproduction, although there’s no such thing as a full and true understanding of sex that can’t live with our human capacity to make babies.
Moving Vatican II forward
Pope Francis’ long meditation on love in the family does more than sum up two meetings of the world’s bishops in Rome in 2014 and 2015. Francis is bringing a new spark to an old fire.
Collins’ misgivings allayed by final Synod document
TORONTO – In six months Cardinal Thomas Collins’ misgivings about the 2015 Synod on the Family have been banished by a deeply scriptural Synod summation from Pope Francis.
For Catholic astronauts, flying to space doesn't mean giving up the faith
WASHINGTON - On the International Space Station there's a place, while filled with robotic equipment, where astronauts like to hang out. Called the Cupola, the small module has seven large bay windows that give crew members a panoramic view of Earth.