NEWS

John Paul II was a bridge to young people

{mosimage}

I will never forget the scenes in Rome surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005. More than half the crowd of four million-plus people that descended upon Rome were young people from every part of the world. Such a thing would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - In a brief document, the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation reaffirmed that the Catholic Church is the one, true church, even if elements of truth can be found in separated churches and communities.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Canada’s biggest bank has just crashed the socially responsible investing party as lining up investments with values goes more mainstream.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Early in May, when James Doak of Ottawa booked a hotel room for the 2008 International Eucharistic Congress next June 15-22 in Quebec City, he discovered the hotel he chose was already 90-per-cent full.

TORONTO - For Toronto’s Archbishop Thomas Collins, more diversity equals less controversy in Canada’s Catholic community over liturgy.

“We celebrate Toronto as the most diverse diocese in the world. We’ve just been enriched. I think the whole church has.” Collins told The Catholic Register following the release of Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, which declared the 1962 Latin Missal one of two approved forms of the Mass. “This is a great thing, and it solves all of this disputing and all this stuff.”

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY — In a long-awaited overture to disaffected Catholic traditionalists, Pope Benedict XVI relaxed restrictions on the use of the Tridentine Mass, the Latin-language liturgy that predates the Second Vatican Council.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - The wish to abolish abortion in Canada topped the CBC’s Great Canadian Wish List on Facebook with 9,543 votes.

{mosimage}In a groundbreaking letter to Chinese Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI established new guidelines to favour co-operation between clandestine Catholic communities and those officially registered with the government.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Across the city of Toronto in late June, flags were flying at half mast. Outside of Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Scarborough, the lowered flag was accompanied by a photographic memorial set up in honour of former student and fallen soldier Cpl. Stephen Bouzane. Cpl. Bouzane, 26, died alongside two comrades, Sgt. Christos Karigiannis and Pte. Joel Vincent Wiebe, when their unarmoured vehicle hit a roadside bomb southwest of Kandahar on June 20.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Hundreds of people crammed into Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral June 20 to attend a Mass marking 50 years of Opus Dei’s presence and work in Canada.