A 355-person-strong group from Toronto’s St. Michael’s Choir School will be spending Easter and beyond in Rome, and will sing for Pope Francis at a general audience.

Easter prepares St. Michael’s Choir School for Rome

TORONTO - Holy Week is always a busy time for students of St. Michael’s Choir School, but four-hour rehearsals this year are not just for their requisite masses at St. Michael’s Cathedral. On Easter Monday, 180 boys from the choir school will board a plane and head to Italy for a series of musical engagements, and the opportunity to sing for Pope Francis.

Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, left, with her husband Donnell Leahy. MacMaster, a Catholic, will receive an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the Atlantic School of Theology May 4.

In the good and true is God, says fiddler MacMaster

As a theologian, Natalie MacMaster favours the toe-tapping, hand-clapping, step-dancing-around-the-kitchen-table school of theological inquiry. The Juno-Award-winning fiddler now has an honorary doctor of divinity degree to back up her theology.

Lionheart will be performing April 6 at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in conjunction with the gallery’s exhibit of 14th-century Italian art.

Lionheart brings back 14th-century hymns of praise

TORONTO - The Renaissance has always been worth looking at — all those gorgeous paintings and striking sculptures — but it’s also worth a listen.

‘Theology of dirt’ can stem ecological devastation

‘Theology of dirt’ can stem ecological devastation

Sacred Acts: How ChurchesAre Working to Protect Earth’sClimate, edited by Mallory McDuff(New Society Publishers, 288pages, softcover, $17.95).

Pacino di Bonaguida’s Tripytch with the Crucifixion, the Lamentation, and the Ascension of Christ from The ALANA Collection.

Renaissance greats grace AGO

Matthew Teitelbaum, the director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario, calls Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art “the greatest exhibition of Italian art ever to come to Canada.”

Stephen Scharper signs a copy of his latest book, For Earth’s Sake, after giving an hour-long lecture on the role of religious imagination in dealing with the environmental crisis.

The environmental movement has much to learn from religion

TORONTO - Curbing the effects of climate change and curing the environment will take religiously minded imagination, said author and professor Stephen Scharper.

Tim Schmalz, inspired by a scene in Toronto, sculpted his Jesus the Homeless figure in Beijing.

‘Jesus the Homeless’ home at last

TORONTO - Regis College has a new resident. “Jesus the Homeless,” a sculpture cast in bronze depicting Christ as a homeless man, was installed outside the Jesuit school of theology at the University of Toronto on Feb. 23.

Fr. Isidore Ouedraogol, Caritas Burkina Faso general secretary, attended the Toronto premiere of A New Leaf, a documentary on Canadian and Caritas efforts to help those suffering from severe famine and drought in West Africa.

Canadians aid Caritas Niger in turning A New Leaf for the fight against severe drought

There was severe hardship but no famine in West Africa last year. Crops failed, locusts and other insects consumed farmers’ fields and at least 18 million people suffered through a food shortage.

A challenge to make the Creed our own

A challenge to make the Creed our own

An ideal book for the Year of Faith

Toronto’s Cardinal Thomas Collins signs a copy of his new book, Cornerstones of Faith, at the archdiocese’s pastoral centre Feb. 20.

We cannot serve both God and wealth

Editor’s note: Cornerstones of Faith: Reconciliation, Eucharist and Stewardship, by Cardinal Thomas Collins, was recently published by Novalis. What follows is an excerpt from the book.

Vision TV and Zoomer TV owner Moses Znaimer

Vision viewers fight to keep channel on basic cable

TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins is joining thousands who want Vision TV to remain on basic cable so that its religious programming continues to be available to the widest possible audience.

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