News/Canada

Men in jumpsuits purported to be Egyptian Christians held captive by the Islamic State militants kneel in front of armed men along a beach said to be near Tripoli, Libya, in this still image from an undated video. The video is said to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya.

Genocide call tangled up in politics

By

Widespread slaughter, expulsion, kidnapping and rape of Christians, Yezidis and other ethnic and religious minorities in territory controlled by the Islamic State may well constitute a genocide, but the Canadian government will not join a growing international movement and formally call it a genocide before there is a proper, third party investigation.

Canadian bishops are calling on the federal government to "reconsider" its decision to close the Office of Religious Freedom launched by the former Conservative government under ambassador Andrew Bennett (pictured above.))

Bishops ask government to reconsider closing religious freedom office

By

OTTAWA - The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has asked the federal government to “reconsider” its decision to close the Office of Religious Freedom.

Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas diocese hopes more of the Church and Canadians educate themselves about issues like the European settlement of North America from the indigenous people.

Righting wrongs done to natives begins with ‘truthful history’

By

OTTAWA - Canadian bishops are calling on Catholic institutions to tell “a truthful history” of the Church’s interaction with indigenous peoples.

Observing two different calendars has led to the Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrating Easter on different dates.

A few lost minutes altered Easter forever

By

The most significant 11 minutes and 48 seconds in the history of Christianity have been widening the gulf between Orthodox and Western Christians since 1582. But if Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant Christians can get their act together, the world’s Christians might finally start celebrating Easter on the same day.

Fr. Nilo Macapinlac (left) and other devotees of the Black Nazarene statue currently at Sacred Heart parish in Wetaskiwin, Alta.

Black Nazarene a ‘gold mine of spiritual treasures’

By

WETASKIWIN, ALTA. - Eddie Año’s eyes brim with tears as he recounts taking part in the annual procession of Señor Nazareno in the heart of Manila.

This refugee family from Aleppo, Syria, which did not wish to have its name published, is among the 25,000 refugees welcomed to Canada. As Catholics, we welcome the stranger, says Bishop Douglas Crosby.

‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’

By

Editor’s note: the following is the Easter message released by Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As Syrian refugees begin to settle into their new reality of life in Canada, stories of their journeys to this new land all have similar themes. Feeling under siege and faced with an uncertain future in the midst of war, many people were compelled to flee their land, their homes, their work, their education and all that seemed familiar in order to find new life.

Pope Francis blesses a smaller sculpture of Homeless Jesus created by Timothy Schmalz in 2013. The life-sized sculpture has found another home on the steps of the papal charities.

Homeless Jesus finds a new home at the Vatican

By

Homeless Jesus has found another home, this time in the Vatican.

Cardinal Peter Turkson was in Toronto March 21 to deliver the 2016 John M. Kelly Lecture at the University of St. Michael’s College.

Progress is not always a good thing, says cardinal

By

TORONTO - We have the technology to extend life beyond its natural limits, so why not apply our technological resources to end a life when natural death eludes us? Why not take full responsibility for the control humans already exercise over life?

The mandate of Andrew Bennett and the Office of Religious Freedom will come to an end at the end of the month. The Liberal government has refused to extend its mandate.

Canada's Office of Religious Freedom mandate comes to an end

By

OTTAWA - The Liberal government kicked off Holy Week on March 21 by giving the boot to the Office of Religious Freedom.

Catholic thought mixed on political wisdom of deficit spending

Catholic thought mixed on political wisdom of deficit spending

By

OTTAWA - As Canada enters a new round of large budget deficits and rising federal debt, Catholic social teaching provides no straightforward answers on the wisdom of deficit economics.

The tabernacle at Toronto’s St. Joan of Arc Church is a classic example of modernist architecture that was a staple of churches built from around 1955-77. It’s not a style that we see in new churches any more.

Modernist churches a thing of the past

By

TORONTO - There are a lot of very traditional Catholics who would have trouble explaining what a baldaccino is. Even the select few who know might have trouble identifying the hexagonal baldaccino above the altar in St. Joan of Arc on Bloor Street West.

Page 298 of 509