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August 19, 2013
CAIRO - Attacks on Christian churches and institutions in Egypt appeared to be the result of Islamist extremists' anger over what they perceived as Christian support for the ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi.
August 20, 2013
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis will host a meeting of cardinals Sept. 30 to formally approve the canonization of Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII; the date for the canonization will be announced at that time, said Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.
VATICAN CITY - A Catholic bishop in Luxor, about 400 miles south of Cairo, said Muslims and Christians are afraid to leave their homes; because the shops are closed and no one is venturing outside, many are running out of food.
MANILA, Philippines - Teams of relief workers visited evacuation centers and Catholic parishes-turned-shelters across a wide area of the Philippine capital as they began assessing the needs of thousands of people who fled homes inundated by floodwaters.
August 21, 2013
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican ambassador to Syria said the international community must help find a political solution to the "serious crisis" continuing in the country.
August 22, 2013
VATICAN CITY - Vatican activities for the Year of Faith begin again in late September with an international meeting of catechists, followed in October by a Marian pilgrimage in the presence of the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima and a celebration of faith and family life.
VATICAN CITY - Rushed judgments in times of war and conflict, especially by the media, do not always lead to the truth and will not bring peace, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observer at U.N. agencies in Geneva, including the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
VATICAN CITY - To emphasis that the sacrament of baptism formally brings a person into the church of God and not just into a local Christian community, the Vatican has ordered a slight change of wording in the baptismal rite.
VATICAN CITY - Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran leaders in Jerusalem prayed for an end to violence and bloodshed in Egypt and the protection of the values of "democracy, dignity and religious freedom."
God is ineffable. This is a truth that’s universally accepted as dogma among all Christians and within all the great religions of the world. What does it mean?
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 1 (Sirach 3:17-20, 28-29; Psalm 68; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1, 7-14)
Egypt’s dance with democracy has become a tragic failure. The optimism of the Arab Spring movement has been lost beneath a flow of blood that may yet carry the nation to all-out civil war.
My eldest child, my daughter, graduated with honours from high school this year and is about to head off to university. By the grace of God, her Catholic faith remains intact. In looking back at her school years, I can honestly say that raising a daughter in this culture is among the most difficult tasks I have ever undertaken.
Firing Line, the PBS public affairs program hosted by the late William F. Buckley, Jr., not only won an Emmy Award (in 1969) but set a broadcasting record as the longest-running television show: 1,504 episodes over 33 years. The last Firing Line was in 1999.
Pope Francis’ homilies and talks have been very well received for their familiar examples and their straightforward practical applications. Over the summer he has spoken in a profound and challenging way on many occasions, whether addressing the young people in Rio or speaking to bishops. Yet one of his most practical — and well noticed — bits of advice was an aside in a talk he gave to seminarians and religious novices on July 6 in Rome.
It is early Saturday morning deep in mid-summer and I am lacing up my shoes in the locker room at the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association before a long run. If someone were to look up the word “bliss” in a dictionary, my smiling face might well appear as the definition.
OTTAWA - Representatives of four groups that advocate for disabled Canadians have written Canada’s justice minister urging him to fight against any attempts to decriminalize euthanasia.
TORONTO - With food prices climbing at nearly twice the rate of all other items on the consumer price index, small parish-based food banks are feeling the pinch.
August 23, 2013
TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board’s new director of education is “totally revved up for it to be September again” so she can continue to build on work already done.
TORONTO - Matthew, like many 18-year-olds, is heading to university for the first time this September. But unlike many of his peers, he was a Crown ward and will be part of the first generation of youth leaving the care of children’s aid societies in Ontario to benefit from the 100 per cent Tuition for Youth Leaving Care program.