A caring Church
The archdiocese of Toronto’s $105 million fundraising drive is unprecedented in the Canadian Church. But the ambitious campaign is about much more than asking parishioners how much can they give. It’s asking them how much do they care.
Les glorieux Catholic
A colleague and good friend of mine is an intractable Leafs fan, meaning he is generally unaware that NHL hockey exists after the palest first quarter moon of April.
Justin’s pro-life solution
Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau interrupted the first long weekend of the summer to issue a “personal reflection” on his decree, announced on May 7, that pro-life candidates would be barred from contesting Liberal Party nominations.
Pope’s Holy Land visit not your ordinary pilgrimage
The “principle purpose” of the May 24-26 visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land is not a conventional pilgrimage, as conducted by John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I.
- By Carl Hetu
Business as usual in Catholic schools
Jesse Jackson once said, “Text without context is pretext.” His comment applies to the recent discussions around an Ontario Divisional Court decision that clearly is pretext taken out of any contextual understanding.
Collins receives outpouring of support for Trudeau letter
TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins has been receiving an unprecedented outpouring of support in the wake of his open letter that urged Liberal leader Justin Trudeau to reconsider an inflexible stand against pro-life supporters.
Economic reform will be key to Vatican change under Francis
VATICAN CITY - Canonization week in Rome served as something of an informal annual general meeting. The universal Church was catching up with herself after a momentous year since Conclave 2013, and everyone was talking about our new Holy Father. Over these weeks, I hope to share with readers some of what I heard about Francis’ reforming papacy from those in Rome from around the world.
The thought police
Just as elected officials are required to uphold the law they also have the right, and sometimes the duty, to advocate for reform. That doesn’t mean they’ll get their way — and most times they don’t — but in a free and democratic society it does mean they can follow their conscience, act on principle, voice reasonable opinions and, hopefully, not be judged for their beliefs, particularly those founded in faith.
No place for state in personal beliefs of nation
Just before Christmas, 1967, then-justice minister Pierre Trudeau famously said: “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.”
- By Robert Brehl
Pope Francis' pilgrimage for unity
Catholics sometimes forget what the Pope's job is. It's not hard to mistake the Masses, meetings, audiences, addresses, encyclicals, photo opportunities and tours of St. Peter's Square in the popemobile for the Pope's job.
So many are part of the Church but know so little of it
It was a dark, overcast and drizzly morning in the beautiful city of Vancouver. Tens of thousands of runners passed by the hotel in the mis-named Vancouver Sun Run, the largest annual 10-kilometre road race in the country and the second biggest of its kind in the world. The taxi driver deftly manoeuvred through a number of side streets to avoid the countless runners in an effort to bring his fares to the busy airport in time for flights.