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February 1, 2014
TORONTO - Toronto’s Christian Hanif, on a sports trip to Rome, found out that sometimes in life you score when you least expect it.
If there’s any such thing as Christian ethics (and there is), most of us would imagine it might be based on the Golden Rule. But few moral theologians spare more than a passing thought on the crowning lines of the Sermon on the Mount: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
TORONTO - Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald discovered the secret to Church unity when he was the episcopal bishop of Alaska.
MaterCare International has issued a code blue alert for pregnant women in conflict zones around the world.
February 2, 2014
TORONTO - Having faith helps Andy Kemp, a Toronto paramedic, make sense of the madness that is a regular part of the job.
With Canadian speed skating legend Jeremy Wotherspoon as an older brother, national team member Jamie Gregg as a husband and two former Olympians as parents-in-law, Danielle Wotherspoon-Gregg has big skates to fill at her first Winter Olympics. But Wotherspoon-Gregg, who’ll represent Canada in 500-metre speedskating at the 2014 Winter Games, has faith to keep her calm.
TORONTO - Despite claiming citizenship in both Canada and the United States, U.S.-born Sr. Helena Burns always pulls for the maple leaf in international hockey. The 2014 Olympics will be no different.
February 3, 2014
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has chosen the theme, "He became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich," for this year's Lenten message, said a Vatican statement Jan. 31.
OTTAWA - The Canadian government should urge Israel to stop construction of a section of its security wall that threatens the livelihood of 58 Christian families and a Catholic religious order, said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in a letter to Canada's foreign affairs minister.
VATICAN CITY - Three key figures in the establishment of the Catholic Church in Canada and in Brazil are likely to be declared saints before the end of the year, said a Jesuit who is helping prepare the material needed for their canonizations.
February 4, 2014
VATICAN CITY - Courageously follow Jesus in seeking out the poor and sinners, and in making difficult sacrifices in order to help and heal others, Pope Francis said.
MANCHESTER, England - The Queen of England will visit Pope Francis at the Vatican in April, Buckingham Palace announced.
OTTAWA - The Church in Ukraine needs support in its vital role in ensuring dialogue, reconciliation and forgiveness as the country remains in turmoil, said CNEWA Canada national secretary Carl Hétu.
February 5, 2014
OTTAWA - Despite millions of dollars in aid, Syria is "totally broken" and needs a worldwide mobilization to end the suffering, said Carl Hétu, national secretary of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association of Canada.
OTTAWA - As part of its ongoing process of renewal and healing, Nova Scotia's Antigonish diocese is promoting a program for parishioners based on Sr. Nuala Kenny's book Healing in the Church: Diagnosing and Treating the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis.
February 6, 2014
EDINBURGH, Scotland - The Scottish Parliament has passed a bill that will allow same-sex marriages to be performed later this year, but religious organizations have the right not to perform them.
Israeli leaders have a fundamental duty to provide safety and security for their citizens. But they must act reasonably, and that does not include a carte-blanche license to bulldoze the rights and livelihoods of innocent people who pose no threat to anyone.
It is official: Pope Francis is a rock star. Or, at least that is what Rolling Stone magazine is announcing to the world by putting the Pontiff on its current cover.
I’m 55 years old, bald, and 20 pounds overweight. In other words, I didn’t make a point of sitting down on a late January Sunday night to watch the Grammy music awards. Our youngest daughter, however, is 16 so she most certainly did.
Papa is in Rolling Stone. Which is not exactly what The Temptations sang in 1973, but then at that time who could have expected that the Pope — then Paul VI — would have been on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, the magazine of pop music, with occasional forays into cultural criticism?