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October 2015

October 7

Pope Francis may travel to Mexico in 2016

October 7, 2015

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Tuesday (Oct. 6) that “concrete steps” were being taken to arrange a papal trip to Mexico, with reports Pope Francis’ visit could come in early 2016.

California governor signs right-to-die bill sought by Brittany Maynard

October 7, 2015

Physician-assisted dying will become legal in California under a bill signed into law on Monday (Oct. 5) by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

Italian priest loses parish post after blaming children for sexual abuse

October 7, 2015

ROME - A priest has lost his post in northern Italy after saying he can “understand” pedophilia within the church. The priest appeared to blame children for sexual abuse and described homosexuality as a sickness.

More open approach can ease fear of Synod manipulation, cardinal says

October 7, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Greater emphasis on small-group discussions and incorporating that work into the Synod's final draft document is helping alleviate any suspicion of the Synod being manipulated, said one of the four Synod presidents.

October 8

Putin’s Syria intervention takes eye off of Ukraine

October 8, 2015

OTTAWA - While the world’s attention is focused on Russia propping up the “atrocious Assad regime” in Syria, President Vladimir Putin continues to foment the crisis in the Ukraine through an exploitation of religious allegiances, said a Canadian historian.

Pope Francis’ visit boosted the church. The pope himself? Not so much

October 8, 2015

Pope Francis’ first U.S. visit gave his already-high favourability ratings only a modest bounce with most Americans — and no bounce at all among Catholics.

Synod’s challenge

October 8, 2015

Pope Francis has energized debate about the threat to the planet’s natural environment. But now he faces an even greater challenge — mobilizing Catholics and society in general to tackle the man-made threat to the bedrock of our social environment, the family.

Pope set-up says plenty about rifts in Church

October 8, 2015

Francis caught up in smear job by social ideologues

Chaput: Synod must speak to global Church, not just West

October 8, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said the Synod on the family must recognize global diversity while staying true to Church doctrine.

Why do good things happen to bad people?

October 8, 2015

(Vatican Radio) God does not abandon the righteous, while those who sow evil are like strangers, whose names heaven remembers not. This is the lesson Pope Francis drew from the readings of the day at Mass Thursday morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.

French court dismisses genocide charges against priest; Rwanda not happy

October 8, 2015

KIGALI, Rwanda - A Rwandan government commission has criticized the dismissal of genocide charges against a Catholic priest who fled to France after the 1994 mass killing of the African country's Tutsi inhabitants.

African archbishop: We’re not blocking progress in the church

October 8, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Ghanaian Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle defended African bishops’ role in the Vatican’s meeting on family issues, stating they were not in Rome to block progress but to present their own views.

Msgr. Formosi, former Catholic Missions head, passes on

October 8, 2015

TORONTO - Former Catholic Missions In Canada president Msgr. Roger W. Formosi passed away Oct. 6 after a lingering illness. He was 73.

Cardinal Collins to tell Synod pastors must lead people towards God

October 8, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Showing mercy and accompanying people who are living in situations that go against church teaching entail helping to steer them in the direction that God wants, said two synod participants.

October 9

The heart of the Hamilton diocese

October 9, 2015

When I was first accepted as a member of Youth Speak News, I knew my first task was to visit the Hamilton diocesan headquarters and introduce myself. It was important for me to do as an involved, young Catholic.

This Synod is about the Holy Spirit

October 9, 2015

The Synod on the Family is not about communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, or how to reach out to gay Catholics, or even celibacy of priests. It’s about the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis reminded 318 delegates as they began closed door discussions on family issues.

Netanyahu prohibits Israeli parliament from visiting Temple Mount

October 9, 2015

JERUSALEM - In a bid to defuse the wave of Palestinian violence that has struck Israel and the West Bank during the past few weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prohibited all of the country’s parliamentarians from visiting the Temple Mount, a contentious site holy to both Jews and Arabs.

Discern and watch, even in good times

October 9, 2015

The Christian must discern all things, even when everything is going well. That was at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily at Mass on Friday morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.

Ideas of God may be obsolete, but God isn’t

October 9, 2015

My mother and I have an annual tradition of spending a day together at the Canadian National Exhibition. This year, as we sat in sunny chairs near a shady gingko tree, listening to the approaching parade, a tall man folded himself into the neighbouring chair. Taking a break from his booth, he told us it was his 38th year exhibiting there. He showed us a smooth rounded stone with a hole in the middle: a cobblestone he’d reclaimed from the lake. They were dumped there because they were obsolete, but he finds beauty in them.

So much beyond our imagination

October 9, 2015

Recently, at an academic dinner, I was sitting across the table from a nuclear scientist. At one point, I asked him this question: “Do you believe that there’s human life on other planets?” His answer surprised me: “As a scientist, no, I don’t believe there’s human life on another planet. Scientifically, the odds are strongly against it. But, as a Christian, I believe there’s human life on other planets. Why? My logic is this: Why would God choose to have only one child?”