Features

Rick Campanelli, left, and his family will be celebrating their first Christmas without the heart of their holidays, Antoinette, front left. The holiday season will not be the same without her, but they look forward to honouring her memory and perhaps start new traditions.

Dealing with grief at Christmas

It will be a sadder Christmas for Rick Campanelli and his family this year as they celebrate their first Christmas without family matriarch Antoinette, who passed away over the summer. Antoinette was the heart of the Campanelli family holidays. She prepared everything from the gifts to decorating the family home in Hamilton, Ont., and, of course, cooked Christmas brunch and dinner. The whole family rallied around Antoinette’s love for Christmas.

Books on saints, traditions make great Christmas gifts

By Regina Lordan, Catholic News Service

Christmas is a time of sharing, and what better thing to share than our faith? The following are some of the books suitable for Christmas giving that can teach youngsters some of the tenets of the Catholic faith.

The Vatican is reminding Catholics, through its Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, how much our faith owes to Judaism

Christmas shows Christians our Jewishness

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Just in time for Christmas, the Vatican is reminding the world just how Jewish the Christian religion really is.

CFS Hamilton staff members Chantelle Pavao and Christine Wong help wrap and organize Christmas gifts for this year’s Miracles on Main Street drive.

Catholic Family Services making sure everyone is involved at Christmas

By Jean Ko Din, The Catholic Register

Christmas is a celebration of the family, which is why Catholic Family Services offices across the country are working hard to ensure that it is a merry season for everyone.

Pope Francis calls for a reading of the Dante Aligheri classic The Divine Comedy as preparation for the Year of Mercy. So Herman Goodden took up the Pope’s challenge. He found it a “hard and demanding slog” but was pleased he did so. Goodden found it made him aware of his inadequacies in taking the full meaning from certain works. A bonus was the “magnificent” engraved plates of Gustave Doré.

My encounter with Dante

By Herman Goodden

When the 750th birthday of Dante Aligheri (1265-1321) was celebrated in Italy in May, Pope Francis invited Catholics all over the world to take up and read one of the cornerstone works of Western and Christian civilization, The Divine Comedy, as an act of preparation for the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy which launches Dec. 8. Francis says Dante “is a prophet of hope, herald of the possibility of redemption, liberation and the profound transformation of every man and woman, of all humanity.”

Our salvation depends on mercy, where we meet God

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Papal bulls are serious, powerful documents that once commanded the kings and queens of Europe. It was a papal bull that started the Crusades.

Dr. Bill Sullivan, a Catholic bioethicist, has authored the new College of Physicians of Canada guide on assisted suicide.

Doctors will need to engage patients on their end-of-life decisions

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Dr. Bill Sullivan — Catholic bioethicist, researcher and medical doctor — wants to counter demands for assisted suicide with conversation, care and relationships.

Spirituality is comforting in the aging process

By Evan Boudreau, The Catholic Register

TORONTO - Coming to terms with aging through spiritual discernment is critical to sound decision making in the second half of life, said Sr. Mary Rose Marrin.