FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2018 › December
December 17, 2018
Should doctors start prescribing a leisurely walk in the forest to improve health and well-being? According to researchers from Japan, the answer is a resounding yes.
In Broad Daylight: The Secret Procedures behind the Holocaust by Bullets by Fr. Patrick Desbois (Arcade Publishing, hardcover, 312 pages, $35)
Hopes dashed I was filled with hope when I read that the federal government plans to drop the contentious anti-abortion test for summer job funding. But on further reading, my hopes were dashed. In order to receive summer-job funding for students, groups no longer have to attest to supporting reproductive rights, but the new wording is just as restrictive and just as vile. Applicants must declare they won’t work to infringe on any Canadian legal rights. Keep in mind that Canada has no laws on abortion. Abortion is not illegal but there are no laws or statutes giving women the legal right to kill their unborn child. Other changes still deny pro-life groups from accessing summer-job funding. Any project or summer job that tries to “restrict access for a woman’s ability to access sexual or reproductive health services” (a euphemism for abortion) will be disqualified. I see this as a ploy to divide faith-based groups from pro-life groups. Trudeau and the Liberals are concerned about public opinion before the next election. This is just a way to appease faith groups until the election. Then, should the Liberals win, we can expect the full weight of government to come down on faith groups. Margaret Mountain, North Gower, Ont.
December 18, 2018
QUEBEC CITY – In the province of Quebec, one of the most secular societies in the world, debates around Christmas carols are not so much about faith and religion as they are about culture. A choir and sacred music specialist believes these carols remain beloved because people especially preserve the emotion associated with them.
WARSAW, Poland – The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church welcomed the election of a leader for the country's new independent Orthodox church.
VATICAN – In today's climate of mistrust, rejection and nationalism, the world urgently needs peacemakers and politicians who protect and lovingly serve others, Pope Francis said in his annual message for the World Day of Peace Jan. 1.
VATICAN – Before traveling to Rome for a major Vatican summit on the clerical sex abuse crisis and child protection, each participating bishop should meet with survivors of abuse, said the committee organizing the meeting.
VATICAN – Pope Francis made new appointments to the Dicastery for Communication, naming Andrea Tornielli, an Italian journalist, as its "editorial director" and Andrea Monda, an Italian journalist and religion teacher, as editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
VATICAN – While St. Joseph was a practical, down-to-earth man, he had enough faith to be open to God speaking through dreams, Pope Francis said at morning Mass.
JAKARTA, Indonesia – More than 90,000 police and soldiers and a moderate Muslim youth group will help guard nearly 50,000 churches across Indonesia, including some previously attacked by terrorists, during the Christmas period.
OTTAWA – Lawyers representing groups suing the Employment Minister over last year’s pro-abortion Canada Summer Jobs attestation say pro-life groups should be eligible for funding this year.
Ontario’s palliative care doctors are warning that the government is not ready for “an imminent spike in the number of people facing end-of-life.”
Medical ethics can’t be limited to patient choice, or even the health problems patients face, according to the president of the World Medical Association.
OTTAWA – The Liberal government has promised to study three new reports on the possible expansion of the euthanasia law to include minors and those who suffer from mental disorders, but advocacy groups warn the government will likely expand the law after the 2019 election.
The following is the Christmas message released by Bishop Lionel Gendron, Bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil and president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
For your average serf of medieval Europe, Christmas was a pretty good deal, but not really a big deal.
Christmas may come but once a year, but at the Furniture Bank they keep their eyes and ears open to the season year-round.
“The Huron Carol” you may have so enjoyed singing and listening to all these Christmases — well, it’s not the true words of St. Jean de Brébeuf’s you have been led to believe.
“The poor you will always have with you.” Prophetic words of Jesus 2,000 years ago.
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but for some it can be the loneliest.