Browse › 2020 › December

December 2020

December 17

Christmas Mass conundrum

December 17, 2020

Catholics across Canada will mull whether they should attend Christmas week Masses in person or if they should just stay home and watch a virtual service.

TV Mass priests help share Christmas hope

December 17, 2020

It is a sad fact that melancholy is a palatable state of mind for many as Dec. 25 approaches — especially in this year of the pandemic.

Editorial: A Christmas wish

December 17, 2020

This is not the Christmas we envisioned for ourselves or our children. There’s no getting away from that, no matter how hard we try.

Readers Speak Out: December 20, 2020

December 17, 2020

Legal opening Re: Liberals to implement UN’s Indigenous rights declaration (Dec. 3): The Trudeau government’s vow to implement Bill C-15, legislation based on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), is certainly a welcome move in that it will inject the full colour and spirit of that document into the Canadian legal system. At its core, the declaration expresses the uniqueness of Indigenous cultures, their ties to the land itself, their spirituality and the necessity of preserving their right to self-determination; this is necessary for their survival and undoing the harm of colonization and racism.

French court finds former nuncio guilty of sexual assault

December 17, 2020

VATICAN CITY -- A French criminal court found an Italian archbishop who was once the Vatican's ambassordor to Canada guilty of sexual assault against four men and handed him, in absentia, an eight-month suspended prison sentence.

Christmas communion service approved for lockdown regions in Toronto

December 17, 2020

Cardinal Thomas Collins has approved a short service to give parishes in lockdown regions within the Archdiocese of Toronto the option of offering Holy Communion on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day while maintaining the 10-person limit in churches.

Nativity stamp year-and-a-half in the making

December 17, 2020

It’s been a long process, but Sandra Dionisi is finally seeing the fruits of the more than 300 hours labour she put into this year’s Canada Post Christmas stamp.

Christmas Drawing Contest 2020 winners

December 17, 2020

There is one sure sign that Christmas is around at The Catholic Register — the sudden surge of mail into the office on deadline day for the our annual children’s Christmas drawing contest.

Cathy Majtenyi: Christmas story holds many life lessons

December 17, 2020

It’s that time again. We rush through the shops, picking those perfect presents for our loved ones. Family and friends will soon surround our Christmas table for a feast, followed by robust caroling and gift exchanging.

COVID-19 ornaments prove to be top sellers

December 17, 2020

COVID-19 Christmas ornaments are flying off the shelves in Ottawa this holiday season.

December 18

Bill devalues the disabled, say advocates

December 18, 2020

Blind, traumatized and unable to work, Amy Hasbrouck is still fighting a law she believes values disabled lives as less than the lives of the able-bodied.

Canadian’s art stands in for Brooklyn’s Nativity

December 18, 2020

A diocese of immigrants will be using Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz’s acclaimed Angels Unawares as its Nativity this year.

Cardinal Pell's book shares spiritual insights from prison

December 18, 2020

ROME -- The first evening Australian Cardinal George Pell was incarcerated, he began writing a record of his thoughts and experiences in the form of a diary.

Gerry Turcotte: Searching for the ‘core’ of Christmas

December 18, 2020

At breakfast recently my daughter noted that my cardigan made me look like an academic. As a professor I wasn’t sure how to take the comment. But I admitted that the first thing I did when I began teaching in a university was to rush out and buy a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows.

Best of the season: Christmas movies to capture the spirit

December 18, 2020

Isn’t it fascinating how, back in spring 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, the first impulse for comfort and familiarity was an urge to watch Christmas shows? The goodwill and good feels of Christmastime pageantry is powerful medicine.

December 19

Poorest at back of COVID vaccine line

December 19, 2020

Canada, with 37.6 million people, has agreements to purchase 194 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with options to buy another 220 million. If all these vaccines pan out, we could vaccinate Canada’s entire population almost six times over.

Surviving the season of loneliness

December 19, 2020

Already vulnerable and alone, many homeless and at risk youth are finding themselves dealing with more than the coronavirus and its restrictions this Christmas. To them, loneliness is another pandemic.

Home for Christmas: A story of pain, family and power of faith

December 19, 2020

By Christmas Eve the Advent wreath is aglow with the candles of love, hope, joy and peace, and we await the lighting of the White Candle which signifies the coming of Jesus into our world and into our lives. We pray again that this presence will become a reality which we can sense and touch, but for many it becomes an elusive dream that vanishes when they awaken from their restless sleep.

Glen Argan: Birth of Christ offers a ‘new normal’

December 19, 2020

In a famous fifth-century sermon, St. Leo the Great preached that Christmas is a time for rejoicing. “Sadness should have no place in the birthday of life.”

Marymount students share Christmas wishes with troops

December 19, 2020

The students from Sudbury, Ont.’s Marymount Academy have let Canadian military serving overseas that they aren’t forgotten this Christmas season.