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May 2013

May 1

Israeli president says all people can learn from St. Francis

May 1, 2013

ASSISI, Italy - Becoming an honorary citizen of Assisi, Israeli President Shimon Peres said the town's most famous son, St. Francis, has important lessons to teach all people of good will.

Pope: Unemployment, slave labor go against God's plan, human dignity

May 1, 2013

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis called for an end to slave labor and human trafficking as well as greater efforts to create dignified work for more people.

Cardinal Collins appeals to CRTC to keep Vision TV on basic cable

May 1, 2013

GATINEAU, Que. - Toronto's Cardinal Thomas Collins has urged the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to not to let the faith community get “rolled over.”

May 2

May 5, 2013 issue

May 2, 2013

Exclusive articles, video, audio and photo galleries in the Catholic Register: Digital Edition for our May 5th, 2013 issue:

Israeli court OKs construction of barrier through Salesians' property

May 2, 2013

JERUSALEM - An Israeli court has approved the construction of the Israeli separation barrier along a route that will nearly surround a convent and its primary school and confiscate most of their land on the outskirts of Beit Jalla, West Bank.

FDA 'acted irresponsibly' in lowering age for emergency contraceptives

May 2, 2013

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration "acted irresponsibly" with its decision to lower the age limit from 17 to 15 for purchasing an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, said an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

No game, no pain

May 2, 2013

In the past two decades, government-sponsored gambling in Canada has more than quintupled. The average adult now spends about $515 annually on lotteries, slot machines, video display terminals, horse racing and casinos. Together, these dreamers and optimists drop almost $14 billion a year into government coffers.

Mighty winds and little breezes

May 2, 2013

Elinor had been trying to mend a family relationship but found it ever more broken. She had done all she could think to do, including incessant prayer.

The Christian struggle with secularity

May 2, 2013

We live in a highly secularized culture. Generally this draws one of three reactions from Christians struggling to live out faith in this context.

There remains much to be done

May 2, 2013

Ascension of the Lord (Year C) May 12 (Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53) Just where did Jesus go when He ascended? In a medieval artistic rendering of the Ascension, Jesus’ feet dangle from under a cloud as the rest of His body disappeared. This definitely represents a literal way of reading the text as well as a spatial understanding of the cosmos. God is ‘“up there” somewhere, and when we die we go either “up there” or “down below’” as the case may be.

Catholic Missions the lifeline to Canada’s mission territory

May 2, 2013

TORONTO - When the Oblates in 1857 found an Innu community in the isolated interior of Labrador, they were shocked to hear the rosary being recited, said Sr. Sheila Fortune, a Sister of St. Joseph.

Pope Francis welcomes Benedict back to Vatican

May 2, 2013

VATICAN CITY - For the first time in history, the Vatican is home to a pope and a retired pope.

A tale of two unhappy foreign students in Boston

May 2, 2013

When the Boston bombing suspects were first named, they were granted the title “unhappy foreign students.” Before the details of the Tsarnaev brothers’ 10-year residence in the United States were revealed, pundits floated this theory as a way to encourage pity for them. After all, they were foreign. “Give me a break,” I yelled at the Internet. “I was an unhappy foreign student in Boston.”

Teachers promoting critical thinking should be celebrated

May 2, 2013

About 35 years ago, I walked into religion class at Neil McNeil High School in east end Toronto and the Rolling Stones song “Sympathy for the Devil” was blaring from an old record player. My first thought was some cheeky classmate put it on, but the teacher was sitting at his desk, head bopping to the music, drumming a ruler. When the song ended, the teacher began a discussion with questions like: Is there really a devil? If there is, what possible scenarios could lead to sympathy for him? Why does God even allow the existence of a devil?

The facts are the facts

May 2, 2013

I was on a plane flying from London to Toronto when the Boston Marathon slaughter took place. Security at airports always takes quite a long time because of the number of terrorist attacks, almost all of them in the name of Islam, that have been made on air travellers. A few days later I sat at my desk at the television station where I host a show and read of two Muslim fundamentalists arrested for allegedly plotting to murder innocent people on Canadian trains.

We’re not in it for the money

May 2, 2013

When Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran stepped out on the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on March 13 to tell the world that it had a new pope, he had no idea that the news would cost him more than $30,000. Cardinal Tauran sits on the supervisory board of the Institute for the Works of Religion, or the Vatican Bank. The five cardinals on the board were given an annual stipend of 25,000 euro until 2012. Pope Francis cancelled it. I don’t know what Cardinal Tauran did with his stipend, or what the other four cardinals — Tarcisio Bertone, Odilo Pedro Scherer, Telesphore Placidus Toppo and Domenico Calcagno — did with theirs...

A double-double shot of His grace

May 2, 2013

Recently I was at a checkout counter as a couple in the next line were having a bit of a disagreement. I tried not to pay attention but soon I was drawn in. “Sir, excuse me,” the lady turned and asked. “Can you solve a mystery for us?” Oh goodness, I thought, they know I’m a priest and want me to solve some theological mystery, like the Trinity or why Pope Francis took the name he did or who came first, the Easter Bunny or Santa? “Sure,” I replied, sighing...

COLF calls for end to feticide

May 2, 2013

OTTAWA - The Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) is calling for an end to female feticide through sex-selective abortion, the theme of this year’s National March for Life May 9.

High visibility assisted suicide in Swiss clinic should not prompt change to laws

May 2, 2013

OTTAWA - The highly publicized assisted suicide death of a Winnipeg woman in a Swiss clinic April 25 should not prompt Canada to change its laws, says Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

May 3

In fashion, religion is the new black

May 3, 2013

Whether I’m roaming the streets of downtown Toronto or scanning through Instagram pictures online, I notice religious symbols are increasingly being used as fashion statements.