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May 4, 2017
WARSAW, Poland – Church representatives have accused the European Union of ignoring pledges to defend religious freedom, despite commitments set out in special 2013 guidelines.
Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 14 (Year A) Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12 Dissension and resentment in the Christian community is nothing new.
Fr. Stan Fortuna, better known as “the rapping priest,” is being featured in several events in the Hamilton, Ont., area May 5-6.
WASHINGTON – The House passed a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act by a four-vote margin May 4. The final vote was 217-213.
WASHINGTON – Many religious leaders viewed President Donald Trump's executive order on religious freedom, which he signed in a White House Rose Garden ceremony May 4, as a step in the right direction.
May 5, 2017
Recently, a friend of mine told me about a conversation she had with a classmate at college. To make a long story short, the topic of abortion came up and once this classmate realized my friend was pro-life, she started to get angry.
In mid-April The Globe & Mail gave two days of coverage to the suicide of Adam Maier-Clayton, just 27 years old. He lived for years with a variety of psychiatric disorders and unremitting pain. There is no doubt he knew suffering.
OTTAWA – The crowd for the National March for Life has grown from the hundreds to the tens of thousands since its inception in 1997, but that doesn’t mean the 20th edition of the event in Ottawa on May 11 is a cause of celebration.
Ontario will have a one-stop-shop service for people weighing their end-of-life options — palliative care, hospice care, home care or assisted suicide — up and running by June 1, a government spokesperson has told The Catholic Register.
Even now there are people in the Church who use rigidity to cover-up their own sins. That was the warning of Pope Francis at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. Commenting on the first Reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, the Pope focused on the figure of Saint Paul who, from being a rigid persecutor, became a meek and patient proclaimer of the Gospel.
VATICAN CITY – In the prayer video for May, Pope Francis challenged the Catholic community to pray that the continent's Christians will witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.
PARIS – French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has worked for years to have the electorate accept her anti-immigrant National Front as a mainstream political party. This strategy, known in French as “dédiabolisation” (un-demonization), has won over growing numbers of average voters.
VATICAN CITY – On Friday Pope Francis told seminarians studying in Rome to resist complacency and to think of their studies as strength training for their hearts and wills, preparing them for service to others.
MANCHESTER, England – The Vatican is investigating the decision of a group of psychiatric care centres run by a Catholic religious order in Belgium to permit doctors to perform euthanasia of "nonterminal" mentally ill patients on its premises.
WASHINGTON– The American Health Care Act that passed by a four-vote margin May 4 in the House has "major defects," said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Social Development.
May 6, 2017
NEW YORK – Sound fundamental values underlie the spirited sci-fi follow-up "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (Disney). But thematic elements demanding discernment, together with some less than family-friendly dialogue, make this return to the stars best for grown-ups.
WAU, South Sudan – Rita Williams slept under a tree beside St. Mary Catholic Cathedral, her three hungry children beside her. Around them, as many as 16,000 other displaced people filled the cathedral compound, hoping the church would keep them safe as their country spirals into greater violence.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Esmeralda Solís Gonzáles is a young Mexican woman who was crowned last year as a beauty queen in her native town – and now she's joined the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament.
What do you say to a stranger who changed your life?
May 7, 2017
Contrary to popular belief, going on retreat does not require a change of scenery, but rather a change in thinking.