The historic Fort Chipewyan Catholic Church, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was destroyed by fire in 2022. The Catholic Civil Rights League has documented at least 85 Catholic churches set ablaze or vandalized since the unproven discovery in 2021 of 215 suspected unmarked graves near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. (Catholic Civil Rights League)
According to the Catholic Civil Rights League’s (CCRL) Church Attacks Database, at least 85 Catholic churches have been set ablaze or vandalized since the unproven discovery on May 27, 2021, of 215 suspected unmarked graves near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Police are investigating the latest victimized house of worship, St. Gabriel Catholic Mission...
Fire damage is seen to Blessed Sacrament Parish in downtown Regina, SK. A suspected arsonist attacked the parish Feb. 9, 2024.Photo courtesy ArchdiocesePhoto courtesy Fr. James Hentges of Grouard-McLennan
A call to condemn the most recent arson attack on a Christian church — Feb. 9 at Blessed Sacrament Church in downtown Regina — failed to gain unanimous approval in the House of Commons. On Feb. 12, Conservative MP Corey Tochor called for unanimous consent to condemn the arson at Blessed Sacrament. Members of the...
Rabbi Jonathan Infeld and Archbishop J. Michael Miller shake hands at a recent talk by the rabbi to Archdiocese of Vancouver employees. The rabbi expressed appreciation to the Archdiocese and Vancouver Police for their support of the Jewish community. (Arleen D Souza photos)
Anti-Semitic rhetoric has become so intense amid pro-Palestinian sentiment in Canada that a Vancouver rabbi is more concerned about the safety of his oldest son, currently on a Montreal university campus working to stop anti-Semitism, than about his middle child, who is currently living in Israel. Speaking to Archdiocese of Vancouver employees at the John...
Clara Lum and her husband Brian Hunt had an obvious reason for attending a recent workshop on old age, as inspired by Pope Francis’ homilies and teachings. They’re part of a growing number of Catholics who believe that a cultural response is needed to Canada’s euthanasia crisis, irrespective of whether a political solution presents itself....
Emma Venusio skates through a Team USA defender as a member of Team Canada. The student at Toronto’s Bishop Allen Academy captained Team Canada to a bronze medal at the recent World U-18 championships in Switzerland.Photo courtesy Hockey Canada
The Bishop Allen Academy cafeteria buzzed with an energy and enthusiasm earlier this month that went well beyond usual teenage boisterousness. Students and staff at this Catholic secondary school in Toronto fervently cheered as they watched one of their own, twelfth-grader Emma Venusio, captain Team Canada to bronze at the 2024 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World...
Protester holds up a sign in preparation for the Feb. 27 rally on Parliament Hill calling for a halt to expanding MAiD to the mentally ill.
Speakers at a rally on Parliament Hill demanded the federal government provide more life-saving supports for those deeply suffering from mental illness rather than giving them access to medical assistance in dying (MAiD). Expanding MAiD to people solely on the basis of mental illness was to begin March 17, but Bill C-62 is calling for...
Deacon Larry Worthen speaking at “What Wrong with MAiD?,” a February 8 event in Sherwood Park.
Nohl Macdonald is still in high school, but that hasn’t prevented him and many others in the Edmonton Archdiocese from speaking out against the expansion of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada. Macdonald was amongst the crowd of more than 500 people (in person and online) who attended a Feb. 8 public lecture to equip Catholics and...
A wooden church damaged by a rocket attack during the Russian invasion of the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine in 2022. On the second anniversary of the invasion, Canadian Christians have written a pastoral letter calling for prayers and an immediate end to the war, (OSV News photo/Viacheslav Ratynskyi, Reuters)
Canada’s Catholic bishops have joined Christian counterparts in marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with an invitation for all to join in praying for peace. In a pastoral letter released Feb. 21, three days before the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia’s full-scale attack on its neighbour, national representatives of the Catholic, Orthodox,...
Archbishop Guy Desrochers, (Diocese of Pembroke photo)
Benefitting from over seven months of hindsight, Archbishop Guy Desrochers considers it auspicious that the first liturgical reading he heard in late June upon accepting his appointment to the Archdiocese of Moncton was God calling Abram — later Abraham — to set forth to a new land bravely. Saying goodbye is, of course, challenging. The...
Hilary Swank as Louisville, Ken., hairdresser Sharon Stevens in Ordinary Angels, a faith-based movie filmed in Winnipeg for its climactic snowstorm sequence. The film is from Vancouver-founded studio Lionsgate. (Lionsgate)
To create the climactic snowstorm sequence so central to the upcoming faith-based film Ordinary Angels, Director Jon Gunn and his team turned to Winnipeg. He told Canadian Catholic News that accurately depicting Louisville covered in snow like it was on Jan. 17, 1994, during the North American cold wave was logistically challenging. “There was a...
