Cardinal Thomas Collins said there is no mistaking what the last six months of dealing with COVID-19 has been: a plague on our world.

This column is a shout out to a good man. No one can accuse me of trying to curry favour with him. I do not need a job or need to borrow money.

“So good to see you.”

And with those words, Cardinal Thomas Collins launched into the first Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica June 17 where he had a live congregation since the COVID-19 pandemic closed churches in the Toronto archdiocese and nationwide in mid-March.

OTTAWA -- In a country where thousands of babies are aborted each year before they can draw their first breath and euthanasia towards the end of life is now a legally protected aspect of the public health care system, Toronto Archbishop Cardinal Thomas Collins blessed Canadians on the frontline of the pro-life movement during a virtual candlelight vigil on May 13.

While restrictions are expected to remain in place for the immediate future, preparations are under way for a time when churches will re-open, Cardinal Thomas Collins wrote in a pastoral letter.

Across Canada, COVID-cloistered Canadians plugged in throughout Holy Week in big numbers to view Mass at home on TV and over the Internet.

Amid the disruption and anxiety of the COVID-19 crisis, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto has issued a pastoral letter for Holy Week in which he urges the faithful to reach out in “prayer and responsible action” rather than collapse into “selfishness and despair.”

In a letter to priests of the Archdiocese of Toronto, Cardinal Thomas Collins said it is “essential” to proceed with Holy Week and Easter ceremonies even though every church in Canada’s largest diocese will be closed throughout the holiest days on the Church calendar. 

Church doors may be closed and the opportunity for a communal celebration of the Eucharist have ceased for the time being, but the Mass will go on, said Cardinal Thomas Collins.

In a speech that touched on religious freedom, conscience rights, euthanasia and Christian persecution, Cardinal Thomas Collins evoked the life of St. John Henry Newman to urge people of faith to be courageous in the face of “an aggressively secular society.”

Toronto takes a major step toward claiming its first saint on Oct. 20 with a Mass to close the initial stage of investigation into the possibility of canonizing Sr. Carmelina Tarantino.

Over 200 people forming a “Ring of Peace” around Our Lady of Lourdes in downtown Toronto came together to declare that the real face of religion is the very opposite of the hate that moved terrorists to bomb three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

In one of the darkest hours for the “City of Light,” the Catholic Church in Canada has united in prayer and solidarity with Paris as it watched one of its grandest treasures engulfed in a raging inferno.

The National Catholic Mission has seen some changes over its 20 years, but there’s one constant that’s been key to making it a success.

OTTAWA – It was the gift to beat all gifts.