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September 12, 2016
ROME – A room with a view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica from a monastery atop the Aventine Hill is very nice, but Abbot Gregory Polan knows he will miss his brother monks at Conception Abbey in Missouri very, very much.
VATICAN CITY – Members of the Pope's commission for child protection, including an abuse survivor, have been speaking with new bishops and major Vatican offices as part of a mandate to develop and educate the church about best practices.
VATICAN CITY – In a brief outdoor ceremony, Pope Francis administered the sacrament of confirmation to 16-year-old Giuseppe Chiolo, who had come to the Vatican by ambulance from Florence.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – When aid worker El-hedji Gombe Abba was growing up, very little happened on the road that runs through Niger's Diffa region into the city, but nowadays people fleeing Boko Haram violence form a seemingly endless line along it.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis thanked a group of bishops in Argentina for providing their priests with concrete guidelines for implementing the section of his apostolic exhortation on the family about circumstances in which divorced and civilly remarried couples might eventually be allowed to receive Communion.
UNITED NATIONS – St. Teresa of Calcutta was described as the human face of eternal hope who embodied the founding principles of the world body during a program honoring her canonization.
September 13, 2016
VATICAN CITY – The current economic model that places profit over the common good of all human beings must change in order to confront the challenges the world is facing today, a Vatican official said.
EDMONTON – Toronto’s newest auxiliary bishop was called to be a servant leader, “a man for others,” in his episcopal ordination Mass Sept. 12 at St. Joseph’s Basilica.
Pope Francis says "an encounter with Jesus overcomes our indifference" and warned against bad habits that, even within a family, prevent us from truly listening to others and empathising with them. The Pope’s comments came during his homily at Tuesday’s Mass celebrated at the Santa Marta residence.
OTTAWA – The impact of Bill C-14 that legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada will be among the issues facing Canada’s bishops as they gather for their annual plenary Sept. 26-30 in Cornwall, Ont.
September 14, 2016
VATICAN CITY – To kill in the name of God is satanic, Pope Francis said at a special requiem Mass for a French priest assassinated by youths claiming allegiance to the Islamic State.
OTTAWA – A Nova Scotia court decision that upheld the right of police to release names of men arrested for soliciting prostitutes is being applauded by experts in human trafficking who are now calling for Canada’s anti-prostitution laws to be enforced across the country.
BONN, Germany – As Europeans planned weekend street protests against a controversial trade treaty with the United States, a European Church leader said intergovernmental agreements were worthwhile when they reflected ethical standards.
WASHINGTON – Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore sharply criticized comments made by Martin Castro, chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, that the phrases "religious liberty" and "religious freedom" were "code words" used to discriminate.
EDMONTON – Born 51 years ago amid the optimism of Vatican II, Alberta’s award-winning Catholic newspaper, the Western Catholic Reporter, will publish its final issue Sept. 26.
When discussions about Catholic fiction arise certain names are always mentioned: J.R.R. Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Thomas Merton and so forth. Even C. S. Lewis comes up, even though he was a member of the Church of England.
September 15, 2016
TORONTO – A blockbuster lineup headlined the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year, but among the lesser known films drawing attention was one featuring Pope Francis, Fidel Castro and Barack Obama.
WASHINGTON – Religion is big bucks — worth $1.2 trillion annually to the American economy, according to the first comprehensive study to tabulate such a figure.
I can’t express the sadness my heart feels at the rising rate of suicide among young people today. The numbers are staggering and I feel helpless thinking of so many who have lost hope.
In the Roman Catholic culture within which I grew up, we were taught to pray for a happy death. For many Catholics at the time, this was a standard petition within their daily prayer: “I pray for a happy death.”