Blessed Teresa of Kolkata is pictured in 1992.

Words to live by

Only a handful of Catholics are quoted more often than Mother Teresa. Even today, 19 years after her death, the words of the saintly sister still resonate whenever the topic is mercy and compassion.

Pope John Paul II greets Mother Teresa at the Vatican in an undated file photo. When Mother Teresa is canonized Sept. 4, she’ll join three other Teresas who are models for today’s Church.

Four Teresas: models for our time

For centuries there was only one Teresa, the Carmelite reformer who was canonized on March 12, 1622, in the single most impressive canonization in the history of the Church. Gregory XV crowned the Catholic Counter-Reformation that day, canonizing in one ceremony the great Teresa of Avila, along with St. Francis Xavier, St. Philip Neri and St. Ignatius Loyola.

Displaced people who fled Islamic State violence, receive aid on the outskirts of Shirqat, south of Mosul, Iraq. Most Western humanitarian aid is failing to reach the thousands of Christians who have fled their homes as Islamic State fighters have swept through Iraq and Syria, three Middle Eastern bishops said at the 134th Knights of Columbus convention in Toronto.

Break the silence

Is the West’s tepid response to the religious cleansing of Syrian and Iraqi Christians a sign of naivety, greed or maybe cowardice? Or is there a Machiavellian strategy to ease religious tension in the region by silently watching a 2,000-year-old Christian presence simply fade away?

Phyllis Zagano, a senior research associate in the religion department at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., is seen in her office Aug. 2. Zagano, who has written extensively on the subject of women deacons, is one of six women appointed by Pope Francis to a 13-person "Commission to Study the Women's Diaconate."

Diverse, diligent panel gets female deacons talks off on right foot

The swiftness of Pope Francis setting up a Vatican panel to study the question of women deacons clearly indicates His Holiness wants resolution to the prickly issue.

Charles Lewis says there is no gay conspiracy, we are all neighbours.

There’s no gay conspiracy: we are all neighbours

The world abounds in conspiracy theories. It was always thus.

Ontario recently move to become the first Canadian jurisdiction to eliminate high-dosage opioid medications from its drug plan.

Relieving pain

Widespread abuse of prescription painkillers is a major problem that governments are right to address. But Ontario’s recent move to become the first Canadian jurisdiction to eliminate high-dosage opioid medications from its provincial drug plan goes a step too far.

World Youth Day pilgrims hold candles during eucharistic adoration with Pope Francis, July 30. The Pope told WYD pilgrims their mission cannot begin on the couch.

Mission begins beyond the couch

KRAKÓW, POLAND – The most impressive moment of World Youth Day had to be at the Saturday evening vigil, with Pope Francis leading more than a million young people in praying the Divine Mercy chaplet before the Blessed Sacrament. Not only was it a powerful witness of prayer, invoking mercy upon the Church and the world, but a confirmation of the marvellous ways of Providence.

Pope Francis greets Greg Burke, the new director of the Vatican press office, at the Vatican July 11. Burke, a native of St. Louis, has worked for the Vatican since 2012 and prior to that was a television correspondent for Fox News and a correspondent for Time magazine.

The Pope gets it

Next to the Pope, the Vatican’s most quoted person is probably the papal spokesman. In an often thankless job, the spokesman makes official announcements, corrects misinformation, fields reporters’ queries and, generally, is the public face of a Church that is frequently misunderstood.

Law enforcement personnel walk July 17 near the scene where police officers were shot in Baton Rouge, La. Three officers were killed.

America is reaping what it has sown

Earlier this month, we were driving to Minnesota to visit relatives on the night a black man was shot dead by police in a St. Paul suburb after being stopped for a broken tail light. That was a day after another black man was killed by police in Baton Rouge.

A man carries a European Union flag in London June 24, a day after voters in the United Kingdom decided to leave the EU.

Heed Brexit lesson

British bishops were quick to condemn a surge in racist and xenophobic incidents that followed the divisive vote that saw Great Britain bid adieu to the European Union. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, police reported a 57-per-cent spike in verbal and physical assaults on visible minorities, immigrants and even on some long-time residents born abroad.

“We need more prayer.” That may seem like a sweet but naive idea in dark days, but it is a form of action that connects us to a truth that can’t be trumped.

In dark days, put prayer into action

In the midst of all the bad news over the past month, especially the legalization of euthanasia, it is easy to forget there is a world of the spirit and prayer that rises above the grime and connects us to our true home where truth shines bright.

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