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March 2021

March 10

Charles Lewis: Stupidity abounds in an arrogant world

March 10, 2021

We often bemoan the state of the world. A word such a “tragic” is often used. War and famine still plague much of the world and here in Canada we live under an anti-life government. So yes, tragic is fitting.

Calls made to re-open Canadian Office of Religious Freedom

March 10, 2021

OTTAWA -- Conservative MPs are calling on the federal government to re-open an office advocating for religious freedom around the globe, 10 years after a Pakistani politician was murdered for speaking in favour or religious freedom around the world.

March 12

Ontario still lacks detailed plan to tackle homelessness

March 12, 2021

Ontario is on track to miss its goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2025, according to a new report from the province’s Financial Accountability Office, and still lacks a plan to reach that goal.

A year of COVID — a time of learning and caring

March 12, 2021

Fr. Wilson Andrade’s smile is as broad, his laugh as ready and his intense interest in people as alive as it ever was. But he confesses that a year of lockdowns, online Masses and separation from his St. Ann’s parishioners in Toronto’s East Chinatown neighbourhood hasn’t been easy.

Cathy Majtenyi: Glass houses and safe drinking water

March 12, 2021

It’s an end-of-March deadline that’s not going to be met. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has failed to deliver on his election promise that public water systems on all First Nations reserves will be potable by March 31, 2021, says Canada’s Auditor General.

St. Vincent de Paul Society keeps marching forward amid pandemic difficulties

March 12, 2021

A year into the COVID pandemic and the Vincentian resiliency has not withered as Canadian chapters of the St. Vincent de Paul Society continue to help people in need.

Editorial: A hopeful reality

March 12, 2021

How many times over the past year have you heard the phrases “getting back to normal” and “putting COVID-19 behind us”?

Readers Speak Out: March 14, 2021

March 12, 2021

Love story Re: Is technology threatening our humanity? (Jan. 17): My youngest son was born in 2015. On the third day of his life, the geneticist told me that my son was born with Trisomy 21, otherwise known as Down syndrome.

Pope Francis names woman Scripture scholar as secretary of biblical commission

March 12, 2021

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has named Sister Nuria Calduch-Benages, an Old Testament scholar and professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, to be secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

Vatican says general absolution still permissible during pandemic

March 12, 2021

VATICAN CITY -- Offering general absolution to the faithful without having them personally confess their sins first may still be done in places seeing serious or increasing levels of coronavirus infections, a Vatican official said.

Francis Campbell: Strike three, and with God, you still aren’t out

March 12, 2021

Lent is a time for reflection and renewal.

Grey zone worship restrictions relaxed

March 12, 2021

Restrictions on places of worship in grey lockdown zones will be loosened and churches will be able to host services with up to 15 per cent of their capacity as of March 15.

March 13

Doctors work to gain trust for COVID vaccine in northern Canadian Indigenous communities

March 13, 2021

Just a little jab is no big deal for most of us, but getting COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of the most vulnerable took a trio of St. Michael’s Hospital doctors way above and way beyond — 1,200 kilometres above and beyond to the fly-in community of Neskantaga First Nation in Northern Ontario.

Virtual exhibit explores experiences of historic Irish famine migrants

March 13, 2021

A virtual exhibition is telling the story of Ontario’s Irish migrants of 1847 and the caregivers who put their lives on the line during one of the worst health-care crises in Canadian history.

Peter Stockland: God Squad mission to build role models

March 13, 2021

For a decade of his 31 years with the Calgary Police Service, Sean Lynn worked with at-risk youth.

March 14

School partners unite to fill the pantry shelves for those in need

March 14, 2021

If the Panther Pantry shelves at St. John Paul II Secondary School are full, then staff believe the home cupboards of the school’s most disadvantaged students won’t be empty.

God's Word on Sunday: God’s promise is already within us

March 14, 2021

Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 21 (Year B) Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33 God gave both bad news and good news to the people of Israel.

With a year of COVID there will be plenty of reasons to seek healing in liturgy

March 14, 2021

A year into COVID and Martyrs’ Shrine director Fr. Michael Knox is looking ahead, imagining how we might pray after the pandemic comes to an end.

March 15

Vatican says no blessing of gay unions

March 15, 2021

VATICAN CITY -- While homosexual men and women must be respected, any form of blessing a same-sex union is "illicit," said the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Parent’s comments taken out of context, says archdiocese

March 15, 2021

The Archdiocese of Toronto has come to the defence of a man who drew complaints to police for comments he made concerning a proposal to fly the gay pride flag to recognize June’s “Pride Month” at Toronto Catholic schools.