Remembrance Day

An excerpt from Pope Francis’ Urbi et Orbi Message on Easter Sunday, 2024.

PROVERBS 28:13 ~“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses...”        

Confessionals: Our family called them “confession boxes.”

As a boy in the mid-1960s growing up along the Gaspé coast, I was intrigued by our Catholic church’s confession box. There were three entrances: the centre compartment for the priest to enter through an actual door, and two side compartments (one on each side of the priest’s compartment) for the penitents, but no actual doors for them. There were, however, ornate embroidered curtains covering both entrances, which deterred curious but innocuous parishioners (I mean, was the person confessing good fodder that could be passed along to a neighbour or two, or was it a lesser, venial-type, sin?). The heavy curtains also dulled sound and the penitents knew to speak in a hush audible only to the priest, and he reciprocated. The result in the pews: indistinguishable voices in English and French. 

St. Philip Neri once had a penitent confess to indulging in gossip. He advised the contrite soul to bring him a chicken, and to pluck its feathers as he walked the streets of Rome. When the man showed up with the chicken, his penance fulfilled, the great saint told him, “Now, brother, gather up all the feathers you’ve strewn about the city.”

“Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it,” wrote Norman Maclean in his classic novella, “A River Runs Through It.” The river “runs over the rocks of the basement of time…. Under the rocks are the words, and the words are theirs.” This leads to Maclean’s stark confession, “I am haunted by waters.”

The Ripples of Kindness Community Meal program might just be downtown Toronto’s best-kept charitable secret, with a combination of hot meals and hospitality offered each weekend to those who need it most. 

Ripples of Kindness (RoK) is an inter-faith meal program begun to combat social struggles such as homelessness, isolation and poverty. It began with two men seeing the obvious need during a walk in the heart of the city. 

Dr. Josephine Lombardi is orchestrating “A Great Symphony of Prayer” to help Catholics meaningfully observe the Year of Prayer leading up to the 2025 “Pilgrims of Hope” Jubilee declared by Pope Francis.

This Easter, about 500 men, women and children in the Archdiocese of Vancouver joined or entered into full Communion with the Catholic Church. Catechumens — individuals who are not yet baptized — receive the Church’s sacraments of initiation: baptism, confirmation and First Communion. Candidates who are already baptized will be received into full communion, receiving the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. 

In her journey towards the Catholic Church, cancer survivor, speaker and popular podcaster Tammy Peterson has endured her own cross of debilitating illness and loss. Four years ago, she was granted the miracle of healing from terminal cancer and received the grace of inner conversion.

Cemeteries are the front line of defence against our society’s increasing secularism and fear of death and suffering, says Vancouver Catholic Cemeteries director Peter Nobes.

In 2023, a company of cast and crew produced the musical passion play The Power of the Cross they hoped would uplift and unify the congregation of St. Padre Pio Parish in Kleinberg, Ont., following the long years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It proved a smashing success, as nearly 700 people attended the evening showing on Palm Sunday, and more than $30,000 was raised for the church.