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December 7, 2020
VATICAN CITY - Even though the world is facing a pandemic that may limit many people's ability to celebrate the sacraments, particularly those people who are in isolation, quarantining or hospitalized with COVID-19, confession by phone is still most likely invalid, said Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis approved new changes to the Vatican's financial watchdog agency concerning its internal governance, hiring procedures and its role as a "supervisory" body.
December 8, 2020
VATICAN CITY - Marking the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph being declared patron of the universal church, Pope Francis proclaimed a yearlong celebration dedicated to the foster father of Jesus.
VATICAN CITY - Mary's Immaculate Conception offers a glimpse to the promised life for all Christians who open their hearts to God and his grace, Pope Francis said.
December 9, 2020
OTTAWA -- The official changing of the guard in Ottawa-Cornwall is now complete.
VANCOUVER -- Public health officials in B.C. have extended the existing bans on events including public Masses until Jan. 8, meaning no public in-person Christmas or New Year’s Masses this year.
Our world has been in a state of unceasing evolution since the dawn of time. Yet amidst all this change and progression, one thing has remained steadfast and constant for humanity: suffering.
In times of adversity, people often search for some light to shed understanding and comfort. For 13-year-old Rachel Bearisto, this light was a new Christmas tradition begun amidst the restrictions COVID-19 has forced upon the holiday season.
Not just a vaccine but a cheap, ethical, Canadian vaccine is on its way before 2022, and it’s not just a solution for COVID-19, says the new chief operating officer at Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics.
Once again our Catholic churches are closed in Toronto. Perhaps by the time you are reading this that will have changed. It is unlikely, but possible.
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. federal judge said the Trump administration must fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, after the program that protects qualifying young adult immigrants from deportation was suspended this summer.
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not some distant, colourful, Mexican tradition for former New Brunswick Lieutenant Governor Graydon Nicholas.
December 10, 2020
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked faith communities for helping Canadians struggle through nine long months of COVID-induced uncertainty and isolation, he also urged a group of 250 clergy and faith leaders from a wide range of religions to do more over the home stretch while vaccinations roll out.
WINDSOR, Ont. -- It’s not Christian teachings that have been at the root of discrimination and oppression in the way whites have treated Indigenous people, but how Church leaders have interpreted those teachings, Senator Murray Sinclair said.
To say that legislation on the rights of Canada’s Indigenous peoples was overdue is more than an understatement. It is a tragedy.
Ordinary acts We commend Glen Argan for his courageous column (Nov. 22) on the sexual abuse by clergy. He says “ordinary people” have done great things for the world by “telling the truth … or witnessing to an injustice.”
Archbishop Anthony Mancini could hardly have envisioned a more atypical adieu to his service with the Halifax-Yarmouth archdiocese.
After seven years as the Pope’s diplomatic representative in Canada, Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi is off to Albania.
December 11, 2020
A Canadian missionary who, just an hour before the soldiers committed their crime, came face-to-face with men who raped and murdered four U.S. churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980, is urging Canadians to remember the martyrdom of both the American missionaries and the Salvadoran people.
How difficult it is to get out of the centre of the universe. And how painful to find our way there.