Bravo for Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who has emerged as a white knight for Catholic education.

As the Ontario bishops completed their ad limina visit to Rome last week, I couldn’t help but recall one of my favourite stories about one of Ontario’s favourite bishops.

Whether opening a free laundromat for the homeless in Rome or shunning the palatial papal apartments in the Vatican, Pope Francis knows the power of symbolic messages.

Just 19 days after two Palm Sunday terrorist bombings killed more than 45 Christian worshippers and injured a hundred more in Egypt, Pope Francis will personally take a message of peace and solidarity to that volatile nation.

On April 29, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy (OLSWA) will graduate the first class of its newly approved bachelor’s degree program.

Perhaps the greatest Roman Catholic voice to oppose Jewish prejudice was Pope John Paul II. He, more than any other Church leader, continues to enjoy the favour of the Jews. It was Pope John Paul II who categorically instructed the faithful that anti-Semitism is a serious sin.

The legalization of recreational marijuana elicits the usual snickers about pot and the people who use it. But it’s no laughing matter.

Data from two major polling firms show Canadians are nowhere close to the caricature of faith-hostile atheists that we’ve been led to believe characterize us.

We may be powerless to save Egyptian Christians from terrorist bombings, Syrian civilians from poison-gas attacks or to silence the guns in Africa’s many war zones, but Easter reminds us to never despair from walking as disciples of hope and peace.

It’s been said family can provide us with great strength and expose our greatest weaknesses. Or, as comedian George Burns once said: “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”