FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2015 › June
June 4, 2015
What’s the use of an old-fashioned, hand-held lantern? Well, its light can be quite useful when it’s pitch-dark, but it becomes superfluous and unnoticeable in the noonday sun. Still, this doesn’t mean its light is bad, only that it’s weak.
The following are the clergy changes for the Archdiocese of Toronto. The changes are effective July 2 unless otherwise noted.
Once, across a crowded meeting room, I recognized a face. Our eyes locked. Weeks earlier, this person and I had attended the same retreat. We both knew we needed to steal away and talk, as soon as possible. When the opportunity came, each of us took it immediately. We found a quiet place. We talked as though we’d known each other for years. “I had to speak to you,” said my new old friend. “I feel as though we met in Narnia, and back here in the regular world I have to touch you to know it was real.” I understood instantly.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment, "Laudato Sii" (Praised Be), a line from St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle of Creatures," will be released June 18, the Vatican press office announced.
VATICAN CITY - With financial assistance from Pope Francis, a Rome parish led 50 homeless and poor people on a pilgrimage to see the Shroud of Turin June 4 and has provided the money needed for another Rome parish to do the same a week later.
OXFORD, England - French Catholics have urged church support for a campaign to stop Western companies from buying oil from Islamic State, in effect funding the mass killing of Christians.
June 5, 2015
In today’s dating world, men who want to wait until marriage for sex are unicorns. People say they exist, but no one you know has ever dated one. Over the years, I’ve been on a lot of dates. There’s been many that went nowhere, and three that turned into somewhat serious relationships. As a practising (if somewhat lapsed) Catholic over the last five years, I had certainly never dated a unicorn.
BRAMPTON, ONT. - The Dufferin-Peel community celebrated 50 years of Felician education on May 29-31. The milestone anniversary was held in honour of the Felician Sisters’ groundbreaking contribution to Catholic education in Ontario.
VATICAN CITY - Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Pope Francis on June 10, with pressure on the pontiff to speak up about the Kremlin’s role in the Ukraine conflict.
VATICAN CITY - The mission-oriented agencies of the Church must guard against operating like nongovernmental organizations, empty of Christ's presence, Pope Francis said.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis sent "heartfelt condolences" to the citizens of Ghana after at least 150 people were killed in a gas explosion in the country's capital, Accra.
Right-to-die legislation passed a milestone in California Thursday (June 4) when the state Senate approved a bill to legalize physician-assisted dying in a 23-14 vote.
Pope Francis met Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, while outside in St. Peter’s Square anti-abortion protesters drew attention to one of the most controversial topics up for discussion between the two leaders June 5.
June 6, 2015
WASHINGTON - Matt Fradd, a popular Catholic speaker who said he has dedicated his life to fighting pornography, teamed up with longtime youth minister Mark Hart, known as the "Bible Geek," and LifeTeen to develop an app designed to assist young people find victory in their battle against porn.
TORONTO - When the Islamic State attacked the city of Mosul in June 2014, members of Toronto’s Jesus the King Council of the Knights of Columbus knew they had to respond.
LEBRET, Sask. - The glory days of the big stone church at Lebret were decades ago when it was the focal point of a thriving Roman Catholic mission in the heart of the Qu’Appelle Valley northeast of Regina. But Sacred Heart Church is back in the spotlight this year as the oldest Catholic parish in southern Saskatchewan celebrates its 150th anniversary.
The Canny Scot: Archbishop James Morrison of Antigonish, by Peter Ludlow (McGill-Queens University Press, 352 pages, hardcover, $34.95). For those of us interested in how Church social action really happens, Peter Ludlow has written a fascinating, accessible, full-length biography of Archbishop James Morrison, one of the most important Canadian bishops of the 20th century.
3 Moments of the Day by Christopher S. Collins, S.J. (Ave Maria Press, 138 pages, softcover $17.60). Prayer is a conversation with God — but are we delivering a one-way monologue? It can sometimes be difficult to hear God in prayer. However, 3 Moments of the Day presents a refreshingly simple, straightforward method to help us encounter God not only in prayer but throughout the day.
VATICAN CITY - Fr. Leon Dehon, founder of the Sacred Heart of Jesus religious order, had prayed to God for humility, Pope Francis said; God granted his prayer posthumously by allowing his beatification to be blocked amid claims of anti-Semitism.
TORONTO - Nepalese are busy rebuilding their country a month after the first of two devastating earthquakes. But the mountainous Asian nation got its practice in disaster recovery putting communities back together during more than a decade of civil war between Maoist rebels and government forces — a war that set individual communities in violent opposition to one another.