FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2013 › September
September 16, 2013
OXFORD, England - A senior Catholic priest in the Central African Republic has warned of growing clashes between Christians and Muslims, and urged the international community to act "within weeks" to prevent the country's breakup.
Social technology is a fantastic thing to hold in our hands — a Skype call connects you to overseas companions, a laptop connects you to projects away from home, a phone connects you to friends at all hours of the day. It’s a privilege to be just a call, click or text away. Generation Y is considered the most technologically savvy generation to date because of the rapidly changing trends. Still, there is debate about how much we rely on technology. Some say that it’s a wonderful tool and should be further explored and utilized. Some say it’s getting in the way of the more important things.
ROME - Acting in his capacity as bishop of Rome, Pope Francis offered words of encouragement to his diocesan priests, assuring them that recent and current scandals cannot overcome the Church's holiness and urging them to keep their vocations alive through love of God.
September 17, 2013
WASHINGTON - As military, police and federal investigators searched for answers as to why a lone gunman opened fired Sept. 16 at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people and wounding at least eight more, religious leaders and public officials offered prayers for the victims and their families.
WARSAW, Poland - A larger-than-life model of Blessed John Paul II as a younger man reaches out from the top of the exterior steps that ascend to All Saints Church, Warsaw's largest church.
September 18, 2013
The poster is plastered on walls and sported on T-shirts. The short phrase from the poster has found its way into conversations and catch-phrases around the world. But where did it come from? What does the message refer to?
OTTAWA - A 62-year-old man has launched a lawsuit against the Ottawa archdiocese for the childhood sexual abuse of a priest who was also his uncle.
September 19, 2013
A month ago Canada’s new ambassador for religious freedom called on Iran to stop persecuting followers of the Baha’i faith, the country’s largest religious minority. Citing Canada as a leading defender of religious freedom, Andrew Bennett urged “the regime in Iran to live up to its human rights obligations and to respect the voices, thoughts and beliefs of all Iranians.”
In a masterful book on grace, Piet Fransen suggests that we can test how well we understand grace by gauging our reaction to this story:
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 29 (Amos 6:1, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31) There isn’t much of a market for ivory beds today but many other symbols of luxury have taken their place. Amos wrote in the eighth century B.C. and addressed both the Northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. His stinging denunciations were meant to awaken the upper classes from their spiritual and moral lethargy.
OTTAWA - The proposed Charter of Quebec Values imitates France’s “unjust” imposition of anti-religious secularism, says Canadian constitutional lawyer and religious freedom expert Iain Benson.
TORONTO - The 40 Days for Life fall vigil in Toronto is on again, just months after the spring campaign was forced to take a hiatus.
Only in an age permeated with paradox could the victories of the gay rights movement present a model for religious believers in the public square. Yet whether one agrees or disagrees with what gay activists have achieved over the past 40 years, there is no doubt the strategic course they have followed has been wildly successful and worth emulating as a result.
Readers will indulge me, I trust, if I write again about Msgr. Thomas Joseph Raby, whose funeral was held last week in Kingston. It does not seem excessive to spend another week on his memory.
It’s something you never want to hear. You’ve believed and clung to something your entire life, something you stake your very existence on. Then someone suggests it’s all bunk, irrelevant, meaningless.
The Kenyan city of Mombasa is an ancient metropolis that bears the marks of its long history as a melting pot of civilizations, religions, cultures, races and nationalities. It is the gateway to East Africa and the coastal city of choice for many tourists from Asia, Europe and North America.
VATICAN CITY - In a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with one of his Jesuit confreres, Pope Francis spoke with characteristic frankness about the perils of overemphasizing Catholic teaching on sexual and medical ethics; the reasons for his deliberate and consultative governing style; and his highest priority for the church today.
JERUSALEM - Christians in Syria are continuing to be targeted by outside fundamentalist groups who have joined the country's long civil war, said the head of the Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem.
MANCHESTER, England - The bishop of Northampton, England, has appointed a priest to investigate the possibility of opening the cause for sainthood of G.K. Chesterton, a British journalist and author of the early 20th century.
MEXICO CITY - The archdiocese of Acapulco has suspended church services and instructed priests to turn their parishes into support centres after torrential rains on one of the busiest weekends of the year left the city cut off from other parts of Mexico.