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March 1, 2014
Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller has asked the British Columbia government to reconsider its decision not to prosecute violations of Canada’s prostitution laws.
If you’re not ready, you can lose track of Lent. After Ash Wednesday slips by, the Thursdays and Fridays of Lent can seem a lot like any other Thursday or Friday.
March 2, 2014
Perhaps we haven’t considered Lent in terms of opportunity. Most of us picture opportunity knocking in the form of a new job, a surefire investment, a vacation, an adventure. Fasting, penance, charity, prayer are given to us as duties, obligations, tasks.
A Polish Catholic community in Sydney, N.S., seems to be fighting a losing battle to keep its beloved St. Mary’s Polish Church afloat, but it is determined to keep up the fight.
March 3, 2014
VATICAN CITY - As uncertainty reigned in Ukraine and Russian troops appeared to have control of the Crimean peninsula, Pope Francis again asked the world's Christians to pray for Ukraine and urged the parties involved in the conflict to engage in dialogue.
March 4, 2014
TORONTO - When Msgr. Gregory Ace received a call from Cardinal Thomas Collins his first reaction was a slight sense of panic. “When the Cardinal called me he called me on my cellphone and when the Cardinal calls you kind of think, oh, am I in big trouble or something?”
March 5, 2014
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis suggested the Catholic Church could tolerate some types of nonmarital civil unions as a practical measure to guarantee property rights and health care. He also said the church would not change its teaching against artificial birth control but should take care to apply it with "much mercy."
VATICAN CITY - Lent is a time to shed lazy, un-Christian habits and snap out of one's apathy toward people harmed by violence, poverty and not having God in their lives, Pope Francis said.
TORONTO - More than 1,500 people crammed the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton, Ont., on March 4 to wine, dine and celebrate seven soon-to-be priests at the Archdiocese of Toronto's 24th annual Ordinandi Dinner.
March 6, 2014
Among the thornier challenges Pope Francis has presented to Church hierarchy is to see if a path exists to bring divorced and remarried Catholics back into a full life of faith.
Before you judge anyone walk a mile in their shoes; that way when you do judge them you’re a mile away and you’ve got their shoes! But seriously, as they say, at the very heart of Christianity is empathy. If we can imagine what others feel and feel what they imagine we gain an insight not only into another’s experience but also into what Christ told and taught. Never, surely, is this more necessary than with the Catholic response to the aspirations of the gay community.
Last week we had the honour of hosting Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, in Kingston at the annual St. John Fisher Dinner. The Fisher Dinner, named in honour of a great man of letters before his courageous defence of marriage and martyrdom under Henry VIII, supports the work of our Newman House Catholic Chaplaincy at Queen’s University and the missionaries of Catholic Christian Outreach who are an essential part of our mission.
The most beautiful Mass in Toronto is at Holy Family Church, 1372 King Street West, at 11 o’clock on Sunday mornings. There is not much parking, but on Sundays the streetcar stops right in front of the church. The parish is administered by the Fathers of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri.
As we approach the first anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, it is not difficult to find him top of mind.
Second Sunday of Lent (Year A) March 9 (Genesis 12:1-4; Psalm 33; 2 Timothy 1:8b-10; Matthew 17:1-9) All great things begin with an act of faith and trust. The Western religious traditions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — trace their beginnings to the command of God to Abraham and his response.
No one, be that an individual or an institution, controls access to God. Jesus makes this abundantly clear.
For Catholics, the practice of fasting has by and large fallen off the screen, due in large measure to the minimalistic interpretation of what Church members are told “fasting” means: “Take only one full meal. Two smaller meals are permitted as necessary, but eating solid foods between meals is not permitted.”
CAIRO - Egypt's minority Christians have various opinions regarding claims that they are being persecuted in their predominantly Muslim country.
VATICAN CITY - Because his cassock doesn't have a breast pocket, Pope Francis said he wears a cloth pouch under his white robes to carry the crucifix he took from a deceased priest.
If 842 million people are hungry you can’t just invite them over for lunch. But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless. Development and Peace wants Catholics to stop thinking of world hunger as a permanent condition or an unsolvable problem that will never change.