FREE access to the digital edition and archives until September 2. Click here. →
Browse › 2021 › February
February 21, 2021
Second Sunday of Lent, Feb. 28 (Year B) Genesis 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18; Psalm 116; Romans 8:31b-35, 37; Mark 9:2-10 The story of the sacrifice of Isaac is one of the most puzzling, difficult and potentially dangerous passages in the Bible. It should make us all ask some important questions: Did God actually ask this of Abraham, and if so, what does that say about God?
A sneak peak at a forthcoming guide to reconciliation between Indigenous Canadians and the rest of us has Toronto Catholic District School Board Indigenous education central resource teacher Frank Pio excited about the good it might do in high school classrooms.
February 23, 2021
VATICAN CITY -- Marking the 90th anniversary of the apparition of Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska, Pope Francis wrote a letter to Catholics in Poland expressing his hope that Christ's message of divine mercy would remain "alive in the hearts of the faithful."
VATICAN CITY -- Christians must never engage in dialogue with the devil, but instead must fight against temptations with the same spiritual weapons Jesus used in the desert, Pope Francis said.
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis accepted the resignations of 75-year-old Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, and 77-year-old Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica and vicar for Vatican City State.
February 24, 2021
VATICAN CITY -- For believers, the ability to practice their faith and receive spiritual guidance are "the highest of essential services," and pandemic practices over the past year have shown they are not automatically super-spreader events, the Vatican foreign minister said.
Dorothy Pilarski is only half joking when she urges the women in her mother’s group to use their kitchen counters as a pulpit.
I hear this often: there isn’t much Christian or religious material out there. I also hear the media is now very secular. And this is where I stop people and say: No! You are wrong, it’s everywhere — we’ve just lost the art of finding Christianity and religion in everything.
A Vancouver group connecting seniors and youth is throwing it back to the past by reviving a bygone practice: pen-palling.
In The Idea of a University, John Henry Newman (now Saint) outlined his vision of a liberal education that spoke of the virtues and purpose of a university. Originally an Oxford man, his famed conflict at Oriel College — where he argued with the Provost that a tutor needed more engagement with undergraduates — resulted in Newman being cast out of his beloved institution and turning instead to a life of research.
I had some concern about writing this column, worried that it might be construed as self-pitying or a way of drawing attention to myself. But as a Catholic I wanted to bring attention to myself so prayers would come my way. So this is why I am writing about the news I received a few weeks ago that my liver cancer had returned.
OTTAWA -- MPs voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Chinese government for engaging in genocide against religious minorities in that country.
February 25, 2021
As a general strike swept across Myanmar — three weeks after a Feb. 1 military coup prevented a new, elected government from taking office — a Toronto-based Kachin Catholic activist found herself praying for the safety of her family at home in the Southeast Asian country.
Condolence messages have been flowing in along with the tears at Toronto’s Furniture Bank since news broke of the passing of the organization’s founder, Sr. Anne Schenck on Feb. 17.
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed a Saskatchewan public school board’s leave to appeal the Theodore school decision, which enshrines in law public funding for non-Catholic students attending Catholic schools. The Feb. 25 decision confirms the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision last March that overturned a 2017 ruling by Justice Donald Layh that sought to limit the funding of non-Catholics in the Prairie province’s Catholic schools.
Lenten alms-giving to Canada’s Catholic international development agency is getting turbo-charged by religious orders.
As Canada continues to hurtle toward being a world leader in helping people commit suicide, let us spare a moment to consider an alternative: Giving people a reason to live.
$178 million might be a lot of money or it might not be anywhere near enough. It all depends what you want to do with it.
Bad match Re: Missal updated in Canada (Feb. 21): Changing the Collect Prayer to read “God, forever and ever” ignores the beauty of the English language itself, which clearly expresses the community of the Holy Father in His three divine personas: the Lord Himself, the Holy Son and the Spirit. Saying “One God” reminds the believer that God’s magnificence is embodied by three partners who are united in one form, the Trinity.
Canada’s bishops are continuing to study federal legislation that provides legal protections for Indigenous communities in the form of internationally recognized rights.