St. Michael's Choir School

HONG KONG -- The Chinese respiratory coronavirus has spread to almost every province in mainland China, which extended its Spring Festival holiday by three days to delay travel by up to 500 million people.

“Simple trust in the provident hand of God,” will be the key to Christian unity, Cardinal Thomas Collins told more than 300 people who gathered for the final liturgy of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in Toronto Jan. 26.

CALABASAS, Calif. -- As the world mourned the loss of basketball great Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others killed in a tragic helicopter crash Jan. 26, many recalled how Bryant gave much credit to his Catholic faith for seeing him through the bad times and strengthening his marriage and family.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has approved the election of Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as dean of the College of Cardinals and of Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri as the subdean.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis said remembering the millions of men, women and children who perished in the Holocaust is a call for the world today to reflect and commit to not repeating the atrocities of the past.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis met with Iraq's president for private talks underlining the need for promoting stability, reconstruction, national sovereignty and dialogue in the country as well as guaranteeing security for Christians.

For the first time in a half-century, Development and Peace will appeal for funds during Lent without an explicit letter of support from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

Presentation of the Lord (Year A) Feb. 2, Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 24; Hebrews 2:10-22, 13b-18; Luke 2:22-40

Saints and ascetics have often achieved great feats of self-denial and mortification. But there is a spiritual practice that is far more difficult although not as showy, and it is reserved for spiritually mature individuals. This is the art/skill of waiting — but only with the correct frame of mind. 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- As Christmas approached and the year came to a close, the Monastery of St. Clare, home to the Poor Clare contemplative nuns for 87 years in Tennessee, quietly closed.

Celebrating 60 years of priesthood, Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha, who migrated to Toronto after his retirement in Pakistan, has taken up the cause of supporting persecuted Pakistani Christians who seek asylum in Canada.