Pietro Parolin

Newly elected Catholic Women’s League president Fran Lucas has a long list of hopes and dreams for Canada’s largest women’s organization, but the most immediate item on her wish list is “to come back to something as close as possible to the normal we once knew.”

It has been nearly five years since Come From Away debuted and enraptured big-city theatre audiences with its musical depiction of how the people of Gander created a ray of light within the darkness of 9/11 for nearly 7,000 Americans forced to make an emergency landing in the remote Newfoundland town.

The doors have opened at the newest hospice in the Hamilton, Ont., area as the ribbon was cut on the new Margaret’s Place Hospice on the campus of St. Joseph’s Villa.

It can be difficult, these days, not to become crabby, bitter and divisive. Every day, we receive so much that frightens or angers us, and seems to threaten our very being. 

Pope Francis’ decision to tighten restrictions on the use of the Tridentine liturgy has been the most significant global Catholic news story of the summer.

Ageless Mass

Thanks so much to Charles Lewis for his wonderful column “A discouraging message on Latin Mass” (Aug. 1-8). My sentiment was “he took the words right out of my mouth.” And I know many folks that agree 100 per cent, including young people who have discovered the beauty and truth of the Mass of the ages. And yes, unfortunately Pope Francis is causing far more division than the Latin Mass ever could.

The images are still so fresh in our memories, the feelings still so easily recalled, that it is incredible to realize that 20 years have passed since the events of a day that will always be known as 9/11.

OTTAWA -- Faith groups that for years have warned that unless climate change is addressed the future enjoyment of God’s creation is bleak are encouraged the issue is at the forefront as Canadians get set to vote Sept. 20.

Canada’s commitment to take in 20,000 new Afghan refugees looks pretty generous compared to Great Britain’s (population 66 million) pledge to take in 20,000 over five years or the United States’ (population 328 million) promise to welcome 30,000. But what happens to them once they get here?

VATICAN CITY -- The chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan was due in part to a lack of foreseeing all possible eventualities, Pope Francis said in a new interview.