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March 2015

March 11

L'Arche founder Jean Vanier wins Templeton Prize

March 11, 2015

Jean Vanier, the Canadian advocate for people with developmental disabilities who helped create an international network of residential communities that champion the rights of their residents, has won the 2015 Templeton Prize.

May 23 outdoor Mass set for beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero

March 11, 2015

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero will be beatified in San Salvador May 23, said Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator or chief promoter of the archbishop's sainthood cause.

Vanier cites St. Therese of Lisieux, Gandhi as spiritual role models

March 11, 2015

WASHINGTON - In 1964, when Jean Vanier quietly began what would become an international network, he had "no idea that this would be a revolutionary reality ... that it would grow," he remarked joyfully.

March 12

A wasted battle

March 12, 2015

Sometimes I wonder how and why it all went so wrong. How and why so many Catholics adopted a series of spasms in place of a considered, Christ-centred response to pressing social issues. Seldom was this as clear and painful as the reaction from numerous Catholic activists to the new Ontario sex education curriculum. There were myriad letters and statements, there were demonstrations, there were dire warnings that this was all about denying parental involvement in our children’s moral education and that five- and six-year-olds would be encouraged to indulge in dangerous activities directly contrary to Catholic teaching.

Knowing God introduces us to infinite love

March 12, 2015

Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22 (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33)

Death to the death penalty

March 12, 2015

I have been staunchly against the death penalty since I started visiting the now-defunct Kingston Penitentiary as an undergraduate, meeting weekly with a group of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Spirit makes rebirth possible for us

March 12, 2015

The Gospel for the fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B) features a nocturnal conversation between two important religious teachers: on the one hand a notable “teacher of Israel” named Nicodemus, and on the other, Jesus, whom Nicodemus calls a “teacher from God.”

Gender equality report hits centre court

March 12, 2015

Basketball superstar LeBron James and the National Basketball Association have joined best-selling author Sheryl Sandberg in promoting gender equality, the timing coinciding with International Women’s Day on March 8.

Mary Wagner sees the people despite the crowd

March 12, 2015

On a frozen afternoon in February, I visited Mary Wagner in the Vanier Centre for Women. The prison is a long, low building in Milton, Ont., and its waiting room for visitors is surprisingly pleasant. It has a clean, cream-tiled floor, cream-painted walls with blue-grey doors and trim and blue-green metal chairs locked together. A Coke machine and a snack machine glow from a corner. Large signs proclaim the centre “scent-free” and small signs ask visitors if they suffer from coughs or chest pains. A framed document extols the virtues of the warden.

Hearing confession is source of grace, conversion for priest, Pope says

March 12, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Hearing a Catholic's confession should be awe-inspiring for a priest, an experience that makes him look at his own life and willingness to convert, Pope Francis told a group of seminarians, new priests and priests who hear confessions in the major basilicas of Rome.

Trampled rights

March 12, 2015

Requiring doctors to remain pillars of integrity while chipping at their moral underpinning is an odious contradiction. Yet that is what the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario proposes with a draconian new policy that tramples on conscience and religious rights.

Filipinos join fast for climate justice with Typhoon Haiyan in mind

March 12, 2015

MANILA, Philippines - Dozens of Filipino Catholics are joining a global Lenten fast to call on world leaders to act on climate change.

March 13

Food security is a basic human right

March 13, 2015

“Some people are starving around the world,” I used to say to myself, when an unfinished meal was thrown away. In the couple times I let this comment slip to other friends, the response was usually the same. “It’s not like I can send them my food,” or “It’s my meal, I can do what I want with it,” both of which are valid points.

Faith and family in film

March 13, 2015

Some are searching, some have found and some are sharing God’s love in a story that follows the apparently separate lives of a dozen people until they collide — literally — and their eyes are opened to the power of Christ’s cross.

Haitian cardinal wants police to boost security for country's religious

March 13, 2015

WASHINGTON - Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes, Haiti, charged that police have failed to protect religious and priests who have faced a growing number of break-ins, robberies and attacks, including rape.

Government reps say Christian survival in Middle East 'in question'

March 13, 2015

VATICAN CITY - In a joint statement, representatives of more than 50 countries have recognized that Christians are particularly endangered in the Middle East, and they called on the international community to reaffirm the human right to freedom of religion.

Anniversary interview: Pope talks about his election, papacy, future

March 13, 2015

VATICAN CITY - When Pope Francis went out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica for the first time, he said he did not prepare what he was going to say, but "I felt deeply that a minister needs the blessing of God, but also of his people."

St. Vincent de Paul members abducted in Syria, whereabouts unknown

March 13, 2015

VATICAN CITY - The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been unable to confirm the number of its members abducted in Syria, as well as where they are being held.

At Lenten penance service, Pope announces Holy Year of Mercy

March 13, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis announced an extraordinary jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy, to highlight the Catholic Church's "mission to be a witness of mercy."

March 14

Christian sounds in Canadian music awards spotlight

March 14, 2015

For Canadians, the award season is not over just yet. After the Grammys, the Academy Awards and other high-profile American awards shows have come and gone, there is still the JUNO Awards, which air on CTV March 15 from Hamilton, Ont. The JUNOs honour Canadian musicians and recognizes their artistic and technical achievements in music over the past year.