No memories are so sweet as those which cluster round the Infant Saviour’s festive season.

Far too late to save the summer jobs of thousands of students who went unemployed last summer, the government has finally conceded a heavy handed edict to link a public grant with Liberal Party ideology was a dumb idea.

As Parliament awaits the imminent arrival of a report on assisted suicide that may make a bad situation even worse, it’s worth noting some chilling stories from the first countries to legalize medically induced death. This could be our future.

Canadians generally prefer that people wait their turn, but compassion sometimes demands that we unite and jog someone to the front of the line. That time has come in the case of Asia Bibi. We should take her hand and hurry her to save haven in Canada.

Following reports of hideous conduct at St. Michael’s College School the administration acted swiftly to expel eight students and establish an independent review to examine how such shame could darken the corridors of the renowned all-boys Catholic school.

It is noble to mark the World Day of the Poor with gifts of charity, but Pope Francis has challenged Catholics to go much further than that. He asks us to observe Nov. 18 by making a serious examination of conscience “to see if we are truly capable of hearing the cry of the poor.”

A hundred years on, the numbers remain chilling — more than 15 million dead, including 61,000 Canadians.

As a caravan of some 7,000 weary migrants trudged across the poorest region of Mexico, heading for the U.S. border, they found sympathy and received donations of food, water and clothing from ordinary Mexicans who themselves had little. 

From the Pope on down, sentiment is growing to more fully integrate women into the everyday life of the male-dominated Church. So far, though, it’s been a lot of talk and too little action. Events at this month’s Synod of Bishops on youth illustrate that point.

Clearly, Cardinal Donald Wuerl was right to resign as Washington archbishop, but his fall has sent mixed signals about the Vatican’s resolve to get tough on clerical sex abuse.