The Catholic Church and its parishes, like much of the world, has long avoided questions surrounding mental health, says Fr. Stephan Kappler president and chief psychologist at Southdown Institute. The Archdiocese of Toronto is opening up the conversation with its inaugural Mental Health Sunday May 7.

Tackling the stigma around mental health

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For the parish that seeks to know, understand and draw a little closer to suffering — the suffering of Christ on the Cross or the suffering of their brothers and sisters — there is a resource hidden in the pews, quietly praying. People who struggle with depression, addiction, anxiety, compulsions and social phobias have suffered, will suffer and know suffering. The mentally ill and those struggling with mental health can teach a parish about suffering.

A woman and her family are taken into custody by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer after walking across the U.S.-Canada border at Roxham Road in Quebec.

Archdiocese of Montreal protests Roxham Road shutdown

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The Archdiocese of Montreal has issued a strong rebuke to the federal government for the March 25 closure of Roxham Road, the most heavily trafficked “irregular” entry point for asylum seekers located on the Quebec-New York border.

A photo that went viral shows Pope Francis in a designer bomber jacket. It was later exposed as fake.

Ethical concerns for an AI world

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A recent photo created by an app showing Pope Francis wearing a designer bomber jacket went viral on social media, fooling millions around the world. 

New CCAS CEO Priscilla Manful.

Children’s aid faces up to race issues

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Less than 10 per cent of the children in Toronto are Black, yet more than half the kids in the care of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto are Black. Priscilla Manful is determined to do something about it.

Perhaps Canada has not seen anything so polarizing in recent years as the Freedom Convoy protests that sprung up across the country. A May 7-9 conference will explore such polarization from a faith perspective.

Seeking common ground in a polarized world

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When Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us” in a comic strip back in 1970, he didn’t know the half of it. Pogo never heard of Twitter, attack ads, bot farms or “doing your own research.” Pogo could never have imagined a Church or society broken down into political and cultural sects caught up in perpetual rhetorical war with one another.

Agnes Thomas, the new executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto.

Agnes Thomas driven to make impact

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Dr. Agnes Thomas’ depth of experience, gleaned from years of service to several communities, has led to a new role as executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto.

With the Vatican repudiating the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery,” another step has been taken toward reconciliation. These are good steps, but more is needed, say former Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine and Wolastoquey elder Graydon Nicholas. The Vatican statement shows it has set itself an ambitious agenda, said Regina Archbishop Don Bolen.

A step further on pilgrimage of penance

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Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, endorsing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, confessing the sin of a colonizing mentality, promising to stand with Indigenous peoples when they struggle for their land and their rights and committing the Church to reconciliation with Indigenous people world-wide — all this arrived in a two-page statement issued jointly by two Vatican dicasteries as another step in the pilgrimage of penance Pope Francis undertook in Canada last summer.

St. Bernard Church in Digby County, N.S., has been deconsecrated and put up for sale. The Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth says there is plenty of interest in the property.

For sale: landmark Nova Scotia churches

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Despite needing repairs topping $1 million, a recently deconsecrated landmark Acadian church has drawn extensive interest from buyers since being put up for sale by the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth late last month.

Fr. Robert Assaly is ordained in 2019 as Montreal’s first and only married Latin-rite priest.

‘Dear Fr. Robert’ Montreal’s only married priest

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The April 1 funeral for Fr. Robert Assaly at  Montreal’s St. Thomas More Catholic Church featured a rare sight: front pews filled by his large family with his wife Nancy, their children and spouses.

Relief projects for Rohingya refugees will be among those cut as Development and Peace-Caritas Canada deals with major aid cuts in Canada’s latest budget.

Development and Peace protests foreign aid cuts

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The federal government plans to spend a lot of money — $496.9 billion in 2023-24 — but the growth in federal spending projected by the latest budget hasn’t done anything for Canadian agencies that deliver humanitarian assistance and development aid in poor countries around the world.

A boy is pictured in a file photo standing in front of wind turbines at the Ashegoda Wind Farm, near Mekele in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

Churches must press government on climate, MP says

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As the world’s scientists once again draw attention to the dire state of a warming planet, it’s time for churches to up their game on climate change, said Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

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