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April 11, 2017
With about 300 priests concelebrating, dozens of deacons in attendance and an overflow assembly standing in the aisles of St. Michael’s Cathedral, the Archdiocese of Toronto re-equipped itself for another year of baptisms, confirmations and ordinations by welcoming the new supply of chrism oil.
OTTAWA – The murder of a pregnant mother and her unborn child has revived calls for Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code to recognize unborn victims of crime.
April 12, 2017
By exporting abortion to the developing world the Canadian government is jeopardizing the morality of the nation and the mortality of those it should be helping, says a bioethics and social research report.
OTTAWA – The power of the Shroud of Turin could be found among the thousands of people who visited Ottawa’s St. Isidore’s Parish between April 4-11.
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican stamp and coin office has big plans for early May: the release of stamps marking retired Pope Benedict XVI's 90th birthday and important events in the life of the church spanning almost 2,000 years.
VATICAN CITY – A new initiative in Italy will allow blood donors to receive a free ticket to the Vatican Museums.
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Pope Francis has dismissed a New Hampshire priest from the clerical state, after the priest was convicted of stealing some $300,000 from the local diocese, a hospital and a deceased priest's estate.
GRAND-BASSAM, Côte d’Ivoire – The regional conference of West African bishops has commended a regional economic union for its efforts to promote peaceful transfers of power, while also noting areas of concern, including religious intolerance and youth unemployment.
LAGOS, Nigeria – The Catholic bishop of a diocese at the center of the Boko Haram insurgency said the militants need to be fought on several levels.
For Jaclyn Dela Cruz, to properly depict the Resurrection she had to capture how Jesus might have felt on that first Easter morning.
VANCOUVER – Four hundred years after he was killed with an axe while trying to unify the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, St. Josaphat’s goal of church unity remains as important as ever, say priests of the religious order that resulted from his reforms.
ROME – Fifteen Franciscan friars continue to live and work in Syria; two of the friars minister in towns controlled by Islamic State forces.
NAIROBI, Kenya – Two remote Catholic missions in Central African Republic were targeted by former militants.
The majority Liberal government at Queen’s Park has crushed an opposition attempt to incorporate conscience protections for doctors in its legislation on assisted suicide.
April 13, 2017
It’s been said family can provide us with great strength and expose our greatest weaknesses. Or, as comedian George Burns once said: “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”
There is a new Easter tradition in the United Kingdom: going to the local historical house to hunt for chocolate eggs.
We may be powerless to save Egyptian Christians from terrorist bombings, Syrian civilians from poison-gas attacks or to silence the guns in Africa’s many war zones, but Easter reminds us to never despair from walking as disciples of hope and peace.
OTTAWA – Vera Shroff has been fascinated by Catholicism since she was a little girl in India, despite being raised in one of the world’s most ancient religions.
There is something about the language of music that transcends words.
As tensions rise between world powers over events in Syria and Korea, Canada needs to show some “backbone” when it comes to nuclear weapons disarmament, says former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament Doug Roche.