Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Michael is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register.

He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.

Follow him on Twitter @MmmSwan, or click here to email him.

For 21-year-old Development and Peace activist Yusra Shafi, being at the COP27 meetings in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, is “an incredible opportunity,” but sometimes an incredible opportunity to be frustrated.

John Swales, survivor of years of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of London, Ont., priest Barry Glendenning, doesn’t want Catholics to walk away from their Church over another round of abuse revelations emanating now from France. He wants the Church to change.

Forced conversions, lost childhoods, years of hiding, living in limbo — the persecution Christians face around the world was given specific, concrete shape by the testimony of survivors at the annual Red Wednesday vespers in Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica.

Ottawa has spent $3 billion out of its $6 billion, 10-year plan to bolster home and community care, including palliative care, across Canada. But the federal government can’t quite say what exactly the money was spent on.

Getting the best care, the right care, for friends, family or self isn’t always easy. But the Archdiocese of Toronto is trying to make it easier with the new HopeLine for palliative care support.

A new era of mass immigration to Canada, one that will see 500,000 newcomers per year by 2025, is good news for the Catholic Church in this country.

One of Canada’s leading supporters of Medical Assistance in Dying is in favour of an anti-MAiD campaign launched by the Christian Medical and Dental Association of Canada and backed by Ontario’s bishops.

Getting a university degree at age 84 is a bit unusual. Preparing to start a Master’s program at 85 is a rarity. Doing all this while diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is stunning.

Canada’s Ukrainian Catholic bishops are asking all Catholics for prayers, charitable giving and three days of fasting Nov. 24 to 26 in solidarity with Ukrainians living with food shortages and facing days without heat, light or water as Russia continues to target civilian infrastructure, especially Ukraine’s power grid.

The Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet’s “MAiD Despite Questionable Eligibility” database does not yet include Sathya Dhara Kovac, a 44-year-old Winnipeg woman who revealed in her self-penned obituary that she used the MAiD system to end her life — not to hasten an imminent death or avoid intolerable suffering, but because she couldn’t get enough home care.