FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2021 › February
February 17, 2021
For more than 10 years the Dufferin-Peel Catholic school board has hosted its “Black Futures” symposium during Black History Month in February. The goal though is to go beyond just one month in the calendar.
I am writing this in early February on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The account of that great biblical scene appears in Luke.
VATICAN CITY -- When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Pope Francis warned it could make inequalities existing around the world even worse.
VATICAN CITY -- Two days after the Iraqi government announced stringent COVID-19 precautions, including the closure of mosques and churches “until further notice,” the prime minister met with the Vatican nuncio to discuss preparations for the scheduled visit of Pope Francis.
February 18, 2021
OTTAWA -- Archbishop Peter Hundt says “sacrifices” will have to be made, but the Archdiocese of St. John’s has to move forward with compassion and understanding after a “dark chapter” of abuse in the Newfoundland archdiocese’s history.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has agreed to adjust the English-language wording to the conclusion of the Collect (the opening prayer) in the Roman Missal approved for use in Canada.
CLEVELAND -- Below-zero temperatures, teeth-chattering wind chills and deep snow turned the southern Plains into an Arctic landscape, forcing Catholic Charities agencies to adopt emergency measures to get people to safety.
It has been 15 months since Pope Francis made a pastoral trip outside Italy and that by itself makes his March 5-8 mission to Iraq newsworthy. But there’s much more at stake here than dipping his toe into foreign waters for apostolic purposes.
Special niece Re: Is technology threatening our humanity? (Jan. 17): I was impressed with Charles Lewis’ article. We have a niece who is Down’s Syndrome. Sarah is now 39. She was born with major heart and other problems. I was working in Kingston when her parents brought her as a baby to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, I was shocked what I saw — this little baby with tubes and machines keeping her alive.
BOGOTA, Colombia -- The bishop of a Colombian city suffering from a deadly spike in drug violence boarded a fire truck to spray the town’s main street with holy water and help to “cleanse it” of evil.
OTTAWA -- The Canadian Senate has voted to open access to assisted suicide even further than what the federal government is proposing.
There has been a massive resurgence of a kind of Neo-Apocalypticism of late, due in no small part to the persisting coronavirus pandemic with all its fallout; the embrace of Socialism/Marxism/Communism by the West (particularly among the young); racism in the spotlight again; civil unrest and violence; emerging globalist totalitarianism; the dominance and imposition of gender ideology; the undermining of the family and rights of parents; ever more radical abortion and euthanasia policies; “surveillance capitalism”; the rise of “fake news”; and now, sweeping censorship of free speech by left-leaning Big Tech.
February 19, 2021
In announcing another reorganization and consolidation of parishes, Quebec City Archbishop Cardinal Gérald Lacroix sought to focus the conversation on “our ability to fulfill our essential mission.”
VATICAN CITY -- As a last resort, the Vatican may sanction employees who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine for non-medical reasons, according to a new Vatican decree.
Since watching a Netflix documentary on veganism five years ago, Fr. Donatello Iocco has never been the same.
If going to Sunday morning Mass seems tantalizingly near and yet far as you watch your parish struggle to produce a weekly liturgy on Facebook or YouTube, imagine what it has been like for kids to be told to sit quietly and watch a TV Mass.
Soon after moving to work at The Red Deer Advocate in 1978 I learned that Albertans do not fit the stereotype outsiders have of them. Even in supposedly redneck Red Deer, a rapidly growing centre servicing the petroleum and agriculture industries, there was significant diversity of opinion.
February 20, 2021
OTTAWA -- A new organization focused on supporting families within the Catholic Church in Canada is now up and running.
Recently I was listening to a report that explained why margarine was bad for you, which concluded that we would all be much better switching to butter.
February 21, 2021
A team of more than 20 young Catholic ambassadors is working feverishly to rouse believers of Christ young and old across the world to participate in a global mission to pray the Hail Mary one million times by Easter Sunday.