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May 1, 2020
It was a trying Lent. The Church has lived something historically unprecedented, as Catholics worldwide were able to go to church nowhere and everywhere. Friends and family shared the joy of seeing Mass around the world and the grief of fasting from receiving communion, even on Good Friday, even on Easter Sunday.
This year’s theme for Catholic Education Week is “Igniting Hope,” apt at any time but especially now when hope is so much needed.
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has expanded the ranks of the top members of the College of Cardinals, naming as "cardinal bishops" Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
OTTAWA -- The tradition of honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary in the month of May is taking on even greater significance this year as Catholics around the world are being asked to turn to the mother of Jesus for protection during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
OTTAWA -- A coalition of Catholic and other faith-based organizations and social justice groups are joining forces in a new initiative to unify the voices demanding action to address climate change.
LONGUEUIL, Que. -- French Canadian artist Claude Lafortune, who hosted children’s programs based on the Gospel on Quebec television, died of COVID-19 April 19. He was 83.
Educators across Ontario have rejigged curriculum to meet the needs of quarantined students and many seem to have found their virtual teaching groove — but not without challenges.
OXFORD, England -- A top Polish historian has questioned claims by German researchers that newly opened Vatican archives contain information damning the role played by Pope Pius XII during World War II.
May 2, 2020
Perhaps one of the most enduring images of angels is the sight of these messengers of God singing celestial hymns of praise while twanging heavenly harps.
Loneliness is certainly not unique to this time of pandemic, but it is no surprise that under quarantine we are lonelier than ever.
It’s a pandemic within a pandemic — and a damning indictment of how we’ve been failing to care for our most vulnerable. People living in seniors’ homes across Canada are being hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19.
Thirty-five years ago, in July 1985, Catholic education in Ontario took a major step forward when Bill 30 was passed by the Ontario Legislature, granting full public funding to Catholic schools through Grade 13. The battle for equal funding with the public boards was a long one, finally won when Premier Bill Davis, who had rejected the idea in 1971, announced the change in policy in June 1984. Here’s The Catholic Register’s report from its June 23, 1984 edition:
Facing lockdowns, economic strife and the health threats brought on by the deadly coronavirus, Catholics across the country and in the United States turned to the Blessed Virgin for help May 1.
May 3, 2020
Fifth Sunday of Easter May 10 (Year A) Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12 The period of serene apostolic simplicity and unity did not last long.
While physical distancing has left people feeling isolated, outreach initiatives by the Kenora Catholic District School Board are fostering hope by helping students and families realize they are not alone.
On a cold afternoon in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took my shopping trolley to go for some groceries.
We need not sit sipping Lysol lemonade and Clorox cocktails in the left field bleachers with Donald Trump to insist that recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is too important to be left exclusively to politicians and health care technocrats.
May 4, 2020
VATICAN CITY -- Priests and doctors who gave their lives caring for the spiritual and physical well-being of others during the coronavirus pandemic are like Jesus, the good shepherd, who laid down his life for his flock, Pope Francis said.
MUNICH -- In a newly published biography, Retired Pope Benedict XVI said the Catholic Church is threatened by a "worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanist ideologies." He cited same-sex marriage, abortion and the "creation of humans in the laboratory" as examples.
COCHIN, India -- An Indian court sentenced former sacristan Johny Vattaparamban, 54, to life imprisonment for the 2018 murder of the rector of popular St. Thomas Shrine at Malayattoor, in southern Kerala state.