OTTAWA -- Two Ottawa-based faith leaders have joined together to offer comforting words to Canadians during the COVID-19 health crisis that has closed most places of worship across the country.

ROME -- While many churches in Italy remain open, visiting a church to pray is not a valid excuse for leaving one's home during Italy's COVID-19 lockdown, said a note from the Ministry for Internal Affairs.

In a crisis, hard decisions have to be made.

When there aren’t enough ventilators or Intensive Care Unit beds for everyone who needs one, it’s left to medical ethicists to provide guidance to clinicians faced with dire decisions about who lives and who dies.

Passion (Palm) Sunday, April 5 (Year A) Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Mathew 26:14-27:66

Every age calls forth prophets and teachers to guide and encourage humanity.

The needs of the thousands of people served by ShareLife agencies don’t go away in a time of crisis.

As Christians, we have been on our Lenten journey since Ash Wednesday. This year, it is a journey with unique challenges.

B. and Toby have been camping in a green tent on a strip of muddy ground between an on-ramp to the Don Valley Parkway and a fence near St. Paul’s Basilica in downtown Toronto for a couple of weeks. 

When Fr. Rico Passero celebrates Mass in these days of crisis, he does so with a full congregation joining him.

WASHINGTON -- When public Masses in the Archdiocese of Washington were suspended in efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Fr. Scott Holmer, pastor at St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Bowie, Md., got creative about bringing the sacraments to his local community.

VATICAN CITY -- The worldwide coronavirus pandemic is not God's judgment on humanity, but God's call on people to judge what is most important to them and resolve to act accordingly from now on, Pope Francis said.

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver priest Fr. Davide Lanzani compares Rome to a war zone.

OTTAWA -- There will be some sort of national March for Life event on May 14, but whether there will be an actual march through the streets of the nation’s capital and a rally of thousands of pro-life Canadians at Parliament Hill is still to be determined.

VATICAN CITY -- Neither Pope Francis nor any of his closest collaborators have the COVID-19 virus, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

In place of The Catholic Register’s editorial and letters from readers, this week we are turning over this page to reprint abridged versions from a sampling of messages from Canadian bishops to the people of their dioceses as they address the COVID-19 crisis.

Denying refugee claimants entry to Canada at the United States border during the COVID-19 pandemic is dangerous, immoral and legally dubious, says a Catholic law professor and other refugee advocates.