The chemical weapons massacre that killed 1,429 Syrians, mostly civilians, many of them children, was a monstrous act. “Abhorrent and repugnant,” said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. “A moral obscenity,” said U.S. President Barack Obama.

As the new academic year beckons, we ought not forget some of the happy news of the summer, namely that The Catholic Register won the Cardinal John P. Foley Award as the best national newspaper by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. Congratulations to my colleagues for this recognition.

It’s difficult to find anything more perplexing than the tragic shooting death of teenager Sammy Yatim, the former Brebeuf College School student. It has caused a great gulf in the community with people lining up to either detest or defend police actions. One web site called the Toronto Catholic Witness Blog posted a story entitled “Sammy Yatim: A victim of the Toronto Gestapo Police.”

On the feast of St. Augustine 100 years ago the doors to the Scarborough seminary named in the saint’s honour officially swung open to welcome 51 aspiring priests into this new masterpiece of the Canadian Church.

It is early Saturday morning deep in mid-summer and I am lacing up my shoes in the locker room at the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association before a long run. If someone were to look up the word “bliss” in a dictionary, my smiling face might well appear as the definition.

Pope Francis’ homilies and talks have been very well received for their familiar examples and their straightforward practical applications. Over the summer he has spoken in a profound and challenging way on many occasions, whether addressing the young people in Rio or speaking to bishops. Yet one of his most practical — and well noticed — bits of advice was an aside in a talk he gave to seminarians and religious novices on July 6 in Rome.

Firing Line, the PBS public affairs program hosted by the late William F. Buckley, Jr., not only won an Emmy Award (in 1969) but set a broadcasting record as the longest-running television show: 1,504 episodes over 33 years. The last Firing Line was in 1999.

My eldest child, my daughter, graduated with honours from high school this year and is about to head off to university. By the grace of God, her Catholic faith remains intact. In looking back at her school years, I can honestly say that raising a daughter in this culture is among the most difficult tasks I have ever undertaken.

Egypt’s dance with democracy has become a tragic failure. The optimism of the Arab Spring movement has been lost beneath a flow of blood that may yet carry the nation to all-out civil war.

Never have so many words been used to explain so few after Pope Francis said “Who am I to judge?” when asked about homosexuals.