St. Michael's Choir School

Canada’s OFM Franciscans aren’t facing a vocations emergency, but they do have a problem — the same problem many dioceses and religious orders of priests face across Canada.

The global pandemic that threatens lives is also bad news for Church finances — with Toronto’s ShareLife and the national Share Lent campaigns thrown into uncertainty by school closures and Mass cancellations.

Greater love has no one than to lay their life down for their friends, said Jesus. 

EDMONTON -- At 85, most priests would be content to mark six decades of priesthood with quiet retirement. But not Fr. Don Stein.

VATICAN CITY -- Despite the COVID-19 pandemic that is causing public Mass cancellations worldwide, the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter can not be postponed or suspended, said the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The annual Good Friday procession through downtown Toronto streets is another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SYDNEY -- Catholic dioceses in Australia began canceling Masses as the government limited indoor gatherings to fewer than 100 people in mid-March in an effort to contain COVID-19.

VATICAN CITY -- In places particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and with severe limits on people leaving their homes, conditions may exist to grant general absolution without people personally confessing their sins first, the Vatican said.

As you read this we will be in the last few weeks of our Lenten promises. If you are like me you have probably slipped once or twice.

Society’s most vulnerable are often lost in the shuffle at the best of times, but with the world being blindsided by COVID-19 those operating programs for the homeless and marginalized are working to ensure these people are not forgotten.