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February 18, 2016
They say that the book you most need to read finds you when you most need to read it. I’ve had that experience many times, most recently with Heather King’s book Shirt of Flame, A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux.
Third Sunday of Lent (Year C) Feb. 28 (Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9) God often appears in the midst of the ordinary and mundane. Moses was only doing what he had done for so long — minding the flocks of his father-in-law. The bush that burned without being consumed was a flash of the transcendent and extraordinary.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Speaking from the symbolic platform of the U.S.-Mexico border, Pope Francis pleaded for the plight of immigrants while warning those refusing to offer safe shelter and passage that their actions and inhospitable attitudes were bringing about dishonor and self-destruction as their hearts hardened and they "lost their sensitivity to pain."
OTTAWA - It would be inappropriate for a person intent on assisted suicide to request the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast.
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's interreligious council invited the head of a leading Muslim institution to meet with Pope Francis as part of an effort to restart dialogue.
VATICAN CITY - An assembly of bishops at the Vatican should have more input from the lay faithful, said church experts attending a seminar hosted by the head of the Synod of Bishops.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM MEXICO - With physicians across Central and South American urging women to postpone pregnancy because of the Zika virus that causes birth defects, Pope Francis said using contraceptives could be a "lesser evil."
EL PASO, Texas - By the time the action started at the Sun Bowl Stadium Feb. 17 for the simulcast of Pope Francis' Mass from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, scarcely a few hundred people had arrived.
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM MEXICO - As the plane carrying him back to Rome from Mexico was flying over Texas, Pope Francis insisted building walls to keep immigrants out of one's country is un-Christian.
WASHINGTON - The joint declaration signed Feb. 12 in Cuba between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has met with a tepid reaction from Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
February 19, 2016
MONTREAL - Dr. Victor Goldbloom's dedication to Christian-Jewish dialogue earned him an audience with Pope John Paul II, a knighthood from Pope Benedict XVI and friendships with several Canadian cardinals.
TORONTO - Thanks to the Internet today’s youth have the power to influence systemic change on an international scale, Toronto students heard from an award-winning Filipino journalist.
Like any other Sunday I sat in those wooden benches, eagerly waiting for the priest to take his place at the pulpit and give his homily. Impatiently drumming my fingers against the wooden edge, I looked around the church.
Mary Gyulay was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a year and a half ago, at the age of 22. At the time of her crisis, she turned to God.
TORONTO - Clayton Shirt speaks bluntly when it comes to past treatment of First Nations people by the Catholic Church and Canada.
MONTREAL - A century ago, more than a thousand innocent men and boys were arrested during the First World War and shipped to an internment camp at Spirit Lake in the Abitibi region of Quebec, 600 km northwest of Montreal.
MONTREAL - Dr. Victor Goldbloom, the first Jewish minister in a Quebec government and pioneer of Jewish-Christian dialogue in Canada, died Feb. 14 after a heart attack. He was 92.
OTTAWA - The federal government announced Feb. 18 it will be restoring health care for all refugees seeking a new life in Canada.
VATICAN CITY - Australian Cardinal George Pell called for an inquiry into the leaking of accusations that he is under police investigation for the alleged abuse of minors.
February 20, 2016
NEW YORK - Run, don't walk, to the nearest multiplex and see "Race" (Focus), a supremely entertaining biopic about Olympic track and field legend Jesse Owens (Stephan James).