Shortly after U.S. president Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, the Washington Post’s two young reporters who played such a pivotal role in uncovering Watergate received a personal letter from their gutsy publisher Katharine Graham.

Over the Christmas season, one story after another that I read or watched seemed to indicate Christianity is under siege around the world.

It’s easy to look around and be pessimistic. Public and household debt levels are alarmingly high in Canada. The Church is roiling from one abuse scandal to another. So many parts of the world seem in chaos with rampant corruption, wars and terrorism.

The televised funeral of George Herbert Walker Bush at the Washington National Cathedral was a reminder of times when the office of the U.S. President worked for bipartisanship, decency and decorum.

The other day, I went to pay my respects to the widow and two children of a friend and neighbor whom I played pick-up hockey with for several years. He was only 55.

Just when one thinks the current president of the United States can’t do anything more brazen, he trumps that belief and goes one further.

Pope Francis had little or no choice but to accept the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop in Washington, D.C.

Is it possible for a Catholic bishop to not know sex with children is a crime? 

Frustrated by the Church’s inability to defuse long-running clergy sex scandals, Pope Francis has summoned the worldwide presidents of Catholic bishops conferences to the Vatican in February to find better ways to protect children and eradicate predatory priests.

Amidst the sexual abuse scandals involving Catholic priests around the world — in particular the revolting crimes of 301 Pennsylvania priests over 70 years unearthed in an August grand jury report — a prominent U.S. bishop is calling for the laity to stay and fight, not abandon the Church.