The Church on the Street: Reaching out a hand of hope
It is a frigid evening, and the setting sun leaves the grip of darkness on the downtown area where hope and despair wrestle nightly for sovereignty.
Bob Brehl: France takes bold step to ban mobile phones in elementary schools
A couple months ago, this space was devoted to a new book by a California psychologist and researcher who argues constant use of smartphones is making young people unhappy, even depressed.
- By Robert Brehl
Charles Lewis: It’s official… pro-lifers are second class citizens
Most everyone has read an editorial or an opinion piece attacking the federal government’s summer jobs program for excluding organizations that are pro-life — like the Roman Catholic Church. It has caused outrage in many quarters. We should be grateful that it is more than the usual orthodox suspects who see the injustice in this warped decision.
God's Word on Sunday: God is about compassion, not vengeance
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jan. 21 (Year B) Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 25; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo: My 2018 includes less time with my phone
Spending more time with family, making forgiveness a habit and being less judgmental could help you make good on one of the most popular 2018 New Year’s resolutions.
Charles Lewis: Priests take the plunge into a heroic mission
Earlier this month I attended the funeral of Msgr. Gregory Haddock, a priest of Opus Dei. The homilist at St. Michael’s Cathedral said pain had been Fr. Greg’s constant companion, but he never complained. Parkinson’s disease slowly ended his life.
St. Francis Xavier relic highlights vital role of immigrants
The visit of the relic of St. Francis Xavier to the Mississauga, Ont., parish named after him will likely be the largest Catholic event of the year in Canada. Numbers are not the most important part of any pilgrimage, but they do tell part of the story. And the 13,000-plus pilgrims that came to St. Francis Xavier parish to honour their patron is an important story about the state of the Church in Canada.
Mary Marrocco: Keeping faith in calm and chaos
Oxford is a beautiful town, by nature and centuries of human living. Exploring there once with friends, we saw a memorial, arrestingly inscribed: “To the Glory of God, and in grateful commemoration of His servants, Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, Prelates of the Church of England, who near this spot yielded their bodies to be burned, bearing witness to the sacred truths which they had affirmed and maintained against the errors of the Church of Rome.”
God's Word on Sunday: God sends us an invitation to listen
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jan. 14 (Year B) 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42
Editorial: A lost opportunity with NAFTA
One failing of the ongoing negotiations to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement is that leaders are fixated on wealth, not poverty.
Peter Stockland: Time to re-think funding in fight for summer jobs
Canada’s former ambassador for religious freedom sees recent punitive changes to Ottawa’s Canada Summer Jobs program as the epitome of anti-faith hostility.