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June 5, 2018
On June 12, 1984, Ontario Premier Bill Davis surprised everyone with the announcement that the province’s Roman Catholic schools would be put on equal footing with the public school system and be fully funded through the end of high school. The end of the long fight to secure the funding — which included intense lobbying efforts by Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter — also brought out some words of caution by The Catholic Register’s Fr. Tom Raby in his column of June 30, 1984:
When I was a child I watched a movie called Village of the Damned. It was creepy and scary.
Next month will mark the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical of Blessed Paul VI which reaffirmed the immorality of contraception at a time when many in the Church and the world expected a change.
OTTAWA – Courts have no place in deciding a religious group’s rules, the Supreme Court said in a unanimous judgment May 31.
When Birthright first took root 50 years ago, little did the founders foresee it growing from its little office in Toronto to an organization spanning North America and even making inroads into Africa.
June 6, 2018
VATICAN – In his prayer video for June, Pope Francis asked that digital communications and social media platforms would be a place of inclusion and encounter, rather than isolation and “alienation.”
VATICAN – Peace is a gift that can easily be destroyed through petty gossip and speaking ill of others, Pope Francis said.
DUBLIN – President Michael D. Higgins of Ireland described the treatment of women and children in state-controlled institutions managed by the Catholic Church as a "deep stain on Ireland's past."
MANILA, Philippines – A Catholic priest who once served as chaplain of the Philippine National Police was wounded after a gun attack June 6 in Calamba City, about 25 miles from Manila.
With an $11.6-million donation, Toronto’s St. Joseph’s Health Centre will create one of the largest, most advanced and most comprehensive palliative care units in Canada.
LIMA, Peru – More than 1,000 young pilgrims will share their cultures, joys and struggles at a gathering of indigenous youth in a small town in Panama just before World Youth Day in January.
A private member’s bill that would decriminalize the purchase of sperm, eggs and rent-a-womb surrogacy would open the door to exploitation of poor women and legalize a form of child trafficking, according to a member of the 1990s Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies.
June 7, 2018
Though it all hinges on an invitation from Canada’s bishops, the superior general of the world’s 17,000 Jesuits — including Pope Francis — is certain the Pope will issue an apology on Canadian soil for Catholic involvement in Canada’s residential school system.
VATICAN – Pope Francis wished a happy 90th birthday to the "father of liberation theology" and thanked him for his contributions to the Catholic Church and his love for the poor.
Spiralling costs and mountains of red tape may force some Catholic refugee sponsorship agencies out of business and cause others to cut back on the number of refugees they’re prepared to welcome, according to the Catholic Refugee Sponsorship Council representing 20 agencies across Canada.
If tradition is the democracy of the dead, as G.K. Chesterton famously said, surely abortion has become a tyranny of the living over life past and future.
OXFORD, England – The Catholic Church in Congo said emergency measures will remain indefinitely in place in parishes at risk of Ebola, and urged effective action against the disease by the government of President Joseph Kabila.
VATICAN – Pope Francis said that when he was on the Greek island of Lesbos, "while enchanted by the scenery of the blue sky and sea, I was struck by the thought that such a beautiful sea had become a tomb for men, women and children who had for the most part sought only to escape inhumane conditions in their own homelands."
This summer is going to be different than summers in the past. After graduating from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College a few weeks ago, I have struggled to maintain a strong spiritual life without the regularity of a school and work schedule.
June 8, 2018
VATICAN – God shows his love, not with great speeches, but with simple, tender acts of charity, Pope Francis said.