It’s not every day the Pope is thankful to be “scolded” by one of his bishops but, of course, these are not ordinary days.

CALGARY -- The Calgary-based charity Access52 was fully immersed in providing teens, parents and teachers from Catholic and public schools with live motivational events when the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the doors shut on its audience.

OTTAWA -- The annual National March for Life planned for May 14 in the nation’s capital has been cancelled.

VANCOUVER -- A peaceful spiritual event in Vancouver became a traumatizing one when at least a dozen people hijacked an online prayer group with shouting and obscene images.

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

In the early 1980s, Canadian music icon Anne Murray released her classic country song, “A Little Good News,” in response to suffering she witnessed in society. 

The quarantine measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 have ground the National Campus Life Network’s (NCLN) face-to-face activism to a halt, but not its voice.

Viewership has skyrocketed, appreciative comments are flowing in from around the world and the phone is ringing constantly in the Markham, Ont., offices of the National Catholic Broadcasting Council. It certainly isn’t business as usual.

In his recent letter to Register readers, Publisher-Editor Jim O’Leary reminded us all that “the need has seldom been greater for us to unite spiritually as communities of faith.”

The sign on the door may read “Closed until further notice” at Loyola House Ignatius Jesuit Centre and other retreat centres around the country, but that doesn’t mean spiritual life needs to take a break.

Cardinal Thomas Collins will participate in a live online interaction with parents and children as part of extensive Holy Week and Easter activities and services announced by the Archdiocese of Toronto.

“You better not have any excuses for being bored.”

That was always my parents’ warning at the start of every summer as we had books, board games, bikes and other various activities to enjoy. What they really meant was for us to “take advantage of the situation and appreciate the present as much as possible because there might be something in the future that will make this a fond memory.”

Young Catholics wishing to enrich their relationship with God during the COVID-19 pandemic should have no problem discovering that there is a slew of quality online resources at their disposal — and more options are materializing by the day.