Rose of SharonNEWMARKET, Ont. - When Tabatha Spooner was 16 years old she imagined herself becoming a dance instructor. That was when she was just a kid. Now, she has a kid. His name is Joshua Crilly and he’s 14 months old.

Having a child has changed a lot of things in 19-year-old Spooner’s life. The biggest change is her mind.

Christian media face challenging times

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Christian publicationsTORONTO - Christian media in Canada are feeling the heat to modernize their news delivery and increase subscriptions if they want to keep their publications alive.

The Canadian Church Press (CCP), which in conjunction with the Association of Roman Catholic Communicators of Canada (ARCCC) held its annual conference here May 13-15, has seen its members suffer a two-per-cent decrease in subscriptions across the board in the past year. The theme of the conference? “We’re all in the same boat.”

Movement to make Mary co-redemptrix

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{mosimage}Christians have debated Mary almost as long as they have been devoted to Mary. A renewed effort to persuade Pope Benedict XVI to declare a fifth Marian dogma may be setting the stage for a renewed tussle over Our Lady.

School's out on junk food

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Twenty-six per cent of Canadians between the ages of two and 17 are overweight or obese. That’s three times the obesity rate of 25 years ago. In 2004 eight per cent of kids were obese, as opposed to just overweight, compared with only three per cent in 1978.

To be an Easter people

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{mosimage}What does it mean to be an Easter people? The Creed will give us some clues. Crafted as a testimony to the far-reaching significance of the presence in our midst of the Risen Lord, the Creed is our particular take on reality that in turn sets the course of our lives. It makes categorical claims about how we understand God, creation, humanity, the culmination of human history and the ultimate meaning of existence.

Sisters new ways one with the Earth

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Though often portrayed as the far-out fringes of Catholic religious life, nuns and sisters who have dedicated themselves to ecological causes actually represent a new kind of traditionalism within the church, according to an American religious studies professor.

Paulists celebrate 150 years of evangelization

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Jazz isn’t just the American art form. It’s also the art of the possible.

Nobody knows whether the Paulist Fathers got rhythm, but for 150 years this quintessentially North American community of priests has been riffing on themes laid down by St. Paul the Apostle 1,900 years ago. “It’s not I who live but Christ who lives in me,” wrote St. Paul. That nugget has led Paulists to conclude Christ expresses himself in the individuality of every Christian — that the charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit are the essence of who we are.

Food crisis a globalization crisis

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Though there have been droughts and wars and corrupt governments, since the fall of the Berlin Wall millions have been lifted out of dire poverty, and millions more from moderate poverty into the middle class, by markets and globalization. Muhammad Yunis and the Grameen Bank bank have shown how a little capital and access to markets can transform lives and communities in the two-thirds of the world where poverty is normal. Indian economist Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize for demonstrating that in democracies with open markets people do not starve.

Catholic doctors' guilds look to unite

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Catholic doctors are scrambling to have an influence nationally in coming debates over pro-euthanasia legislation.

Abortion a public concern

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Lining the sidewalk across from a crisis pregnancy centre and its abortion clinic neighbour in downtown Toronto April 18, 24 people held signs up to passing traffic with messages related to abortion.

Caring for each other will save environment

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{mosimage}TORONTO - The Earth needs to be treated as a sacrament given to each other because “time is running out,” said Fr. Pier Giorgio di Cicco.