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February 11, 2016
MEXICO CITY - A prison riot in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey has claimed 52 lives, offering another example of the problems plaguing Mexico's prison system and casting a pall over the arrival of Pope Francis in the country.
February 12, 2016
Lent is a season which seems to always start strong in our hearts, and then gradually falls apart throughout our time of suffering alongside Jesus. We are now starting our journey. We already binged on pancakes a few days ago and a good few of us decided to give up either candy, chocolate, television or cellphones. (I’ll pray for you guys, don’t worry.)
TORONTO - Life is very different for the girls at the Abundant Life Centre in Kenya when compared to the students at Toronto’s Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School.
TORONTO - Five pro-life student groups are before the courts fighting to have their voice heard on campus.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO HAVANA - Making his 12th trip abroad, Pope Francis was accustomed to collecting interview requests, notes and gifts from the journalists who travel on the plane with him.
MONTREAL - Six Canadian aid workers killed in a terrorist attack in Burkina Faso last month were remembered at their respective funerals on Feb. 6 as humanitarians who touched lives and left people on two continents in mourning.
TORONTO - Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ may focus on climate change, but the essence of the Pope’s environmental encyclical is really a call for cultural change, said the director of the Vatican Observatory.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO - Esteban Alanis, 23, once ran with a local gang known as “Los Parqueros,” which would accost people for their cash and cellphones in a working-class neighbourhood of southeast Ciudad Juarez. He called the crimes “easy money,” while gang activities offered a sense of belonging and an adolescence of parties, girls and underage drinking.
MEXICO CITY - With anticipation growing in the streets of Mexico City for Pope Francis' visit, a group of local pilgrims found time to thank their "mother" and prayed that it would give their country a spiritual awakening.
HAVANA - At long last, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow embraced, kissing each other three times.
TORONTO - Toronto schools got to join in on the NBA All-Star excitement through the National Basketball Association's FIT program to promote fitness and healthy living among youth.
PARIS - Germany’s Christian churches, long the most positive voices greeting waves of Middle Eastern refugees pouring into the country in recent months, have begun to admit the need to limit the flow now that public opinion towards the newcomers has turned from welcoming to wary.
February 13, 2016
There comes a point as flames are consuming a house that a homeowner realizes it’s time to drop the fire extinguisher and grab the family jewels in the sad realization that the battle is lost.
In a presentation made Feb. 3 in Ottawa to the Special Joint Committee on Physician-assisted Dying, Cardinal Thomas Collins, appearing on behalf of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience, opposed physician-assisted suicide and urged lawmakers to protect the conscience rights of health-care providers. Here is a text of his submission.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided it doesn’t need a communications committee any more.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM HAVANA - Though their differences are recognizable and real, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow emphasized their obligation as Christians and as bishops to encourage collaboration among Christians and charity for all who suffer.
MEXICO CITY - Pope Francis demanded forceful denunciations of drug violence in Mexico from the country's bishops, who have preferred timid pronouncements instead of speaking prophetically on a tragedy that has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past 10 years and left an another 25,000 Mexicans missing.
MEXICO CITY - Pope Francis told Mexico's president and government officials that the country's future can be bright only if government and business leaders put an end to a culture of "favors" for the influential and scraps for the poor.
February 14, 2016
TORONTO - Conversations with Andrea Frizon can take a while. Words don’t come easily. The best way is to sit across from her and hold out both hands. She will lightly lay her hands on yours then withdraw them. Ask her questions that call for a choice and indicate the choice with your hands. “Does painting make you happy (indicate your right hand) or unhappy (indicate your left).” Andrea chooses the right hand with a light touch.
MEXICO CITY - Pope Francis fulfilled his much-desired wish to pray in silence before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe