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May 12, 2021
VATICAN CITY - Four former students at the minor seminary located in the Vatican testified May 12 at the ongoing trial of Father Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary.
Since early May 11, Israeli bombs have been falling around the Rosary Sisters school in Gaza, which sustained light to moderate damage inside and outside the compound -- including to the front door and solar panels used for electricity.
May 13, 2021
VATICAN CITY - An elderly man stood alone in St. Peter's Square May 13, using his wooden rosary beads to pray by a simple plaque marking the place where St. John Paul II was shot exactly 40 years earlier.
Canada has been riding the fast track on assisted suicide for almost five years, yet it still hasn’t put in place effective protection for health care providers who do not want to play any part in ending a life this way. It’s called conscience rights and it is one of the freedoms specifically mentioned in Canada’s Charter.
The Pride flag will be flying over Ontario Catholic schools in a number of jurisdictions, including Toronto, in the month of June.
NEW DELHI - Catholic officials in India are working to help citizens get help during the second wave of COVID-19 and the accompanying lockdown.
May 14, 2021
In a world of 79.5 million forcibly displaced people, 26 million of them officially designated refugees, Pope Francis wants us thinking and praying about our borders in moral, ethical and spiritual terms.
OTTAWA - Two organizations trying to have Quebec’s secularism law Bill 21 — which bans public sector workers from wearing religious symbols at work — overturned by the courts will be joining the provincial government in appealing an April 20 court decision that upheld most of the controversial law.
OTTAWA - The ongoing COVID pandemic could not silence Canada’s pro-life movement as hundreds marched through the streets of the nation’s capital May 13 while thousands more gathered online for the annual March for Life.
Houses of worship were among the many sectors of Alberta society hit with the most stringent COVID-19 capacity guidelines since the first wave of the virus last spring. New regulations are limiting in-person worship services to 15 people in high case areas, down from the 15 per cent of building fire code capacity.
After U.S. President Joe Biden’s surprise turnaround in favour of temporarily suspending patent protection for COVID-19 vaccines, Church leaders are redoubling their lobbying, hoping a World Trade Organization agreement will get vaccines into arms south of the equator.
It has become commonplace to speak of our current reality as “a time like no other.”
I recently gave a virtual commencement speech at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Barry’s Bay, Ont. Incidentally, OLSW (as it shall henceforth be abbreviated) is one of only two Canadian Catholic colleges or universities on the prestigious Newman Guide of the Cardinal Newman Society.
May 15, 2021
OTTAWA - The federal government’s much-hyped national daycare plan will cost up to four times the price tag the Liberals promised in its recent budget, according to the religious think tank Cardus.
Despite plenty of reasons to believe otherwise, Christianity remains the greatest force in the global push for human equality, human rights and the dignity of the human person.
A well-known face in the corridors of Ontario Catholic education, Patrick Daly credits the support of family and colleagues for his effectiveness and longevity as a leader.
Premier Christian Radio in the UK just sponsored a survey that investigated how the COVID crisis has affected religious beliefs and attitudes. There were three major findings — namely, that 67 per cent of those who characterize themselves as “religious” found their belief in God challenged, that almost a quarter said the pandemic made them more fearful of death, and that around a third of those surveyed said that their prayer life had been affected by the crisis.
The Loretto Sisters want some answers and some accountability from Canada’s largest for-profit operator of retirement homes and private long-term care facilities.
May 16, 2021
Pentecost Sunday, May 23 (Year B) Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23 What would the Spirit find if Pentecost occurred today? It would find a divided and broken world at war with itself.
The new president of Brescia University College is a political scientist who wants to liberate social justice from politics and an educator who wants to free teaching from the classroom. Lauretta Conklin Frederking has been named the 13th principal and the new president of Canada’s only Catholic women’s college. The London, Ont., college was founded by the Ursuline Sisters in 1919. Its 1,500 students also attend Western University.