Jubilee Year 2025

I recently read an article reporting the reduced incidence of live births of Down syndrome across multiple European countries, attributed to increased pre-natal screening. My youngest son was born with Down syndrome in 2015, so you may imagine this kind of statistic is difficult for someone like me to learn about.

It’s been dubbed “the slap heard around the world.” During the March 27 Academy Awards ceremony, Will Smith went on stage and struck comedian Chris Rock in the face after Rock made a joke referring to Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.

St. Mary’s University in Calgary is situated on a sprawling 35-acre property adjacent to Fish Creek Park, the largest urban provincial park in Canada. As a result, our campus is often teaming with wildlife, and here I don’t just mean student parties.

At the conclusion of the Lenten journey of Indigenous representatives to the Vatican, Pope Francis gave the delegation a laetare moment, a time to rejoice. The Pope’s poignant apology for the harm “members of the Catholic Church” did to Indigenous children in residential schools and his promise to visit Canada this summer is a major step toward healing a broken relationship.

Two members of a group called Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising said April 5 that five fetuses taken by the police a week earlier from the Capitol Hill residence of one of the activists were "proof of illegal abortions" being performed at a Washington abortion clinic.

Never was a single sentence more longed for. In 40 years since survivors began to speak out, 16 years since the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and seven years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada delivered its final report, nations and peoples have waited for a Pope to speak.

Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller says Pope Francis has set in motion a “pilgrimage of closeness” between the Catholic Church and Canada’s First Nation, Metis and Inuit peoples with his historic apology.

Read the full text of Pope Francis' April 1 final audience with the Canadian Indigenous delegation that travelled to the Vatican.

With pandemic restrictions almost fully lifted, churches and shopkeepers alike are hopeful that the streets of Jerusalem will fill up once again as Easter, Passover and Ramadan converge.

Every year, just before Easter, we take a week to meditate on Christ’s Passion. We contemplate Jesus’ sacrificial death for us.