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April 1, 2015
WASHINGTON - Hundreds of Christian religious leaders of various churches signed onto a Holy Week call to end the death penalty in the United States.
OTTAWA - The Chaldean Catholic Eparch of Canada says Canadian military intervention against the Islamic State is a humanitarian necessity to protect defenceless people in Iraq and Syria.
A northern Nigeria Muslim leader who promised to pursue a nonreligious agenda as president will now have to deal with an Islamic terrorist insurgency that has wreaked chaos in the country’s north.
April 2, 2015
The day the Supreme Court released its decision in the case involving Montreal’s Loyola High School, I thought it was merely more judicial zaniness on offer.
The drama of Holy Week is a story about a king. The crowd that welcomes Jesus on Sunday, waving their palm branches, acclaims Him: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel!”
What makes it possible is doing it together. Since Ash Wednesday, a colleague and I have been fasting — taking only one meal of soup and bread a day.
TORONTO - Toronto Catholic students are bringing the story of Jesus Christ to life for their peers during Holy Week.
Second Sunday of Easter (Year B) April 12 (Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 118; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31)
It’s been the winter of our discontent. After a practically snow-free December and January, the Maritime provinces were relentlessly buffeted by snowfall after snowfall during February and March. Two and sometimes three storms in a week left Nova Scotians scratching their heads and cussing their fortunes.
There should be no ifs, ands or buts. Christians are called to live like Christ.
GENEVA - The Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva called on the international community to assist Nigeria and neighbouring countries to rid the region of Boko Haram insurgency.
Through the powerful Scripture readings of the Triduum, and especially the Gospels of the Easter Vigil and Easter morning, we catch glimpses of the profound meaning of the Paschal mystery. How can we give expression to the conquest of death and the harrowing of hell? We must honestly admit to ourselves that we have no words.
INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana's Catholic bishops April 1 urged people to show mutual respect for one another and allow "the necessary dialogue" to take place to make sure no one in the state will face discrimination, "whether it is for their sexual orientation or for living their religious beliefs."
“You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised. He is not here” Mark 16:6 (Gospel of the Easter Vigil).
TORONTO - At St. John’s Bakery, the spiced, sweet scent of freshly baked hot cross buns fills the air. The bakery revives this popular tradition every year in anticipation of the joy of Jesus’ resurrection. But more than preparing an Easter treat, the hands that make the hot cross buns are symbols of hope and community.
The biblical accounts of Jesus’ passion and death focus very much on His trial, describing it in length and in detail.
TORONTO - Schools could be made safer by eliminating a “code of silence” among students that discourages them from informing on classmates, said the head of a panel on school safety.
MIAMI - Some of the Church’s most ancient traditions and rituals are witnessed during Holy Week, including the preparation, blessing and distribution of oils central to the Catholic Church’s sacraments and rites.
JERUSALEM - Several pilgrim groups gathered in a sunny courtyard in Jerusalem’s Old City. They were preparing to follow a tradition reaching back at least to the fifth century: walking along the Via Dolorosa, through the cobbled streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.
VATICAN CITY - Priestly ministry is hard, sometimes lonely or dangerous work serving the neediest with an open, vulnerable heart, Pope Francis told the world's priests.