Features/Features

A man stands beside a sign indicating the Toronto Stock Exchange index in downtown Toronto in this CNS file photo.

King’s course shows economics should seek meaning

Pope Francis challenged young Catholics to “transform an economy that kills into an economy of life” at a three day “Economy of Francesco” meeting in Assisi Sept. 22-24.

When Pope Francis delivered his apology to Canada’s Indgenous peoples in Alberta this summer, students and faculty at Waterloo, Ont.’s St. Jerome’s University watched intently alongside an Indigenous elder.

Encounter, heal and purify: St. Jerome’s plan for reconciliation

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

All histories are contested. If they weren’t, there would be no reason to study history. For an historian running a Catholic university in Canada right now, this nation’s history of colonialism and residential schools has created a special responsibility — not to the past but to our future understanding of ourselves.

A seagull flies in front of a mural which shows a group of men, led by then-Fr. Edward Daly, right, carrying the body of shooting victim Jackie Duddy during 1972’s Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland, one of the most infamous days in Northern Ireland’s “The Troubles.”

Irish unity: will dream come true?

By PETER STOCKLAND AND SUSAN KORAH, The Catholic Register

The historic emergence of a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland will be a significant, though not the decisive, factor in achieving a reunited country, says a Belfast MP visiting Canada.

Denyse Thomasos, above, sits before her piece Arc. Fr. Dan Donovan says what is important about Thomasos’ work is not so much its religious affiliation, but its spiritual instinct.

Catholic artist gives audience a complex experience

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Trying to explain the effect of Denyse Thomasos’ immense, complex, abstract paintings, Fr. Dan Donovan reaches for St. Thomas Aquinas.

Deacons prepare to distribute communion at Mass.

Permanent diaconate in Toronto marks 50 years

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Deacon Steve Pitre is determined not to celebrate 50 years of the permanent diaconate in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Instead, he wants to celebrate the Church that embraced, encouraged and prayed with deacons over the past 50 years.

A statue of Mary overlooks the tiny fishing village of Trinity, Nfld.

A pilgrim Church looks to Mary

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

For Catholics who have for years heard Mary’s first words in the Gospel of Luke as the defining moment of her life, it may seem the Pope is flipping the script on the Lord’s mother.

Pope Francis greets Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during a meeting at the Vatican in this April 3, 2014, file photo. The pope sent well-wishes to the queen on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee celebration marking 70 years on the throne.

Queen Elizabeth was a bridge of reconciliation between Catholics, Protestants

By Susan Korah, Catholic Register Special

She was known to millions as “the Queen,” as if she was the only royal matriarch in the world. But she was no ordinary monarch. She was one of the last generation of leaders in the Western world who not only publicly declared her Christian faith but lived it.