Pietro Parolin

The Jobin family, parents Marc and Carole and their nine children, have many dreams, but the greatest right now is to unite the entire family under one roof.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Jan. 23 (Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21)

The task facing Ezra and Nehemiah was enormous. The people of Israel had returned to the ruins of Jerusalem after 50 years of exile in Babylon. But there was a problem: their way of life and their understanding of their religion had become a dim and fading memory rather than a vibrant reality. They had to rebuild the political and religious structures of the nation as well as the temple. But most of all, they had to remember and rekindle their religious understanding.

It is a January deep freeze in Saskatchewan and my three-year-old buries himself in his blanket in the morning and says, “It’s cold and I’m tired. I’m not getting out of bed.” He just says what the rest of us are feeling.

Repeated comments from bishops, priests and highly placed Catholics minimizing damage caused by the residential school system risk torpedoing efforts at reconciliation, warns a high-profile Indigenous scholar and former judge.

Leisurely work-day walks provide a welcome respite from renewed restrictions brought on by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The pandemic has brought unprecedented reliance on the digital world to the forefront, and the Catholic Church has not been exempt.

MUNICH -- As Germans await publication of a report on how leaders of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising handled cases of historic abuse, a canon lawyer casts doubt on accusations against retired Pope Benedict XVI over possible negligence.

Borrow now

Because some Indigenous people will die before they can benefit from the five-year fundraising plan to raise $30 million for residential school survivors, it would be better for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to borrow the money and fundraise afterwards.

Mainstream outlets and social media players had kittens last week over remarks attributed to Pope Francis about the “selfishness” of people keeping pets in place of raising children.

In an alternative life, Cardinal Thomas Collins might never have been a bishop, an archbishop or a cardinal. He might very happily have remained a professor of New Testament with an intense interest in the Apocalypse of John. He would have dedicated himself to the formation of the next generation of priests at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ont., and happily translated the wisdom he encountered in academic study into homilies that resonate with the worries and hopes of ordinary Christians.