FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2015 › February
February 4, 2015
OTTAWA - The Dignity for All campaign launched its national anti-poverty plan Feb. 3, urging politicians to make eliminating poverty a federal election issue.
OTTAWA - As Catholics mark the Year of Consecrated Life, the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops looks to a future of hope for Canadian religious.
February 5, 2015
TORONTO - The coming months will be critical for Canada’s pro-life movement as the country faces the potential legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Normally none of us like feeling sad, heavy or depressed. We prefer sunshine to darkness, lightheartedness to melancholy. That’s why, most of the time, we do everything we can to distract ourselves from melancholy, to keep heaviness and sadness at bay. We tend to run from those feelings inside us that sadden or frighten us.
When patients are asked what they want in a doctor, a common response is compassion and integrity. Good doctors follow their convictions in trying to do what is right for their patient, and good doctors should not be separated from their consciences and humanity when caring for others.
Advocates of religious freedom scored a big win on Jan. 28 when a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge bluntly told that province’s law society to stop trying to impose its morality on a private Christian university.
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) Feb. 15 (Leviticus 13:1-2, 45-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45) Those whom we despise, fear and exclude often reflect our own fear and lack of love. They show us who we are inside, and that is why we fear them so much. The ancient scourge of leprosy was a perfect example.
There are many more questions than answers. That’s the way it is with most tragedies but this one seemed even more perplexing, even more heart-rending.
MONTREAL - Pope Francis has been invited to Montreal in 2017 to participate in celebrations marking the city’s 375th anniversary.
VATICAN CITY - The leaders of the world's bishops' conferences and religious orders must ensure they are doing everything possible to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse and are offering appropriate care for victims and their families, Pope Francis said.
As world attention shifts to the growing influence of Muslim militant groups on the African continent, few have paid any attention to the ongoing bloody conflict in South Sudan.
A popular pastor has been asked to step aside for a "period of reflection" after financial and ecclesiastical "irregularities" were uncovered in a large Archdiocese of Toronto parish.
Next month, on March 24, the Church in San Salvador will mark the 35th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Soon the whole Church will celebrate the beatification of Archbishop Romero, for on Feb. 3 Pope Francis approved the decree for his martyrdom. (Martyrs do not require a miracle for beatification, but do require one miracle after beatification for canonization.)
The great Catholic journalist Malcolm Muggeridge said there is nothing more pathetic than a ruling class on the run. Well, maybe there is. Maybe it is a community that lets its institutions die from the inside out.
Br. Marcellus Corkery was just getting ready to close up shop in Montreal. The few remaining Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God were elderly and their ministries in health care had all run their course or passed on to lay control.
February 6, 2015
WARSAW, Poland - Catholic and Orthodox archbishops in Ukraine appealed for national unity against pro-Russia separatists as calls mounted for the United States to help arm Ukrainian forces.
A journalist once yelled at me for being black and not knowing the name “Jim Crow.” At the time I was a young university student in Toronto. I did know about American history and the deep-seeded racial segregation in the United States. And yes, I should have known that the laws that supported this anti-black culture were referred to as “Jim Crow,” but I should have known this as a North American resident and not only because of my skin colour.
BANGALORE, India - Church leaders criticized police manhandling of Christians who gathered Feb. 5 at the gate of Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi to protest recent attacks on churches.
Despite calls for quick and decisive action from opponents of the Supreme Court ruling that legalized physician-assisted suicide, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the government has no intention of acting hastily.
February 7, 2015
TORONTO - Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe is determined to teach women how to stitch their lives, torn by war and slavery, back together again.