Protesters gather in Calgary, AB, for the 1 Million March 4 Children rally, Sept. 20, 2023. (Quinton Amundson)
Canada’s Catholic bishops were urged by a Muslim Imam at their annual plenary assembly to speak out for “moral rights” — while also being counselled by a Cardinal to pursue reforms that make the Church “open to all.” Imam Abdul Hai Patel used brief remarks during a session on inter-religious dialogue to laud the “historic...
A woman reacts as protesters gather Sept. 20, 2023, near a government building in Yerevan, Armenia, following the launch a day earlier of a military operation by Azerbaijani forces in Nagorno-Karabakh. A ceasefire was declared Sept. 20 in the region, which is a historic Armenian enclave located in southwestern Azerbaijan and internationally recognized as part of that nation. (Photo: Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters/OSV News photo/The Catholic Register)
In the pre-dawn hours of yet another tranquil Ottawa morning — Sept. 19 — my cell phone buzzed. With a sense of foreboding and apprehension I speed-read the message that popped up. “Azerbaijan is hitting Artsakh (as Nagorno-Karabakh is known in Armenian). It’s war again. Artillery in the capital (Stepanakert). Calls for Armenia to join. If...
Bishop Jon Hanse (The Catholic Register file photo)
Bishop Jon Hansen spoke to an “essentially full” St. Patrick’s Co-Cathedral on Sept. 10, in front of Yellowknife Catholics eager to congregate after nearly a month of being deprived of their home and parish community due to the rampant wildfires. “It was wonderful to see everyone,” said Hansen, who returned to the Northwest Territories capital...
Facebook screen capture.
As Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, began restricting Canadians in August from accessing and sharing news content on its platforms in response to Bill C-18, The Online News Act, it wasn’t only news organizations feeling the effect. Whether the average Canadian understands or opposes Meta’s response to Bill C-18 — the new...
Bishop Francis Leo is installed as Archbishop of Toronto at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica in Toronto, March 25, 2023. (Michael Swan)
By Peter Stockland His Grace Francis Leo offered up gratitude to Christ as he was made Archbishop of Toronto at today’s Mass in a packed St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica that was equally filled with the spirit of the Annunciation. “The most important thing is gratefulness to Jesus Christ … gratitude for our salvation, for the...
A presentation to the Regis-St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology Graduate Pro-Seminar by Kyle Ferguson, a second-year PhD studentat the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto School of Theology, on March 1. My research involves questions related to conciliation between the Catholic Church and the Indigenous peoples in Canada. I use the word “conciliation” vs “reconciliation” as the...
This blogpost by Catherine Clifford, a theology professor at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, was originally posted to Go Rebuild My House. I will be the first to admit that when Pope Francis invited the whole of the Catholic Church to enter a process of sustained spiritual conversation and reflect together on how we experience and...
By Michael Swan Four letters and 26 promises from Canada’s bishops to Indigenous Canadians set an agenda for reconciliation that bishops like Calgary’s Bishop Bill McGrattan intend to act on before February turns into March. McGrattan has scheduled meetings with members of the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund committee in his diocese. The committee — there are...
By Michael Swan Canada’s Catholics are not done with reconciliation. Four pastoral letters from Canada’s bishops released today urge Indigenous and non-Indigenous Catholics to seek ways to journey together, build relationships, know and understand their history and end the two solitudes in the country and in the Church of Indigenous and settler societies. “We are called to...
Cardinal Collins retirement to be filled by Montreal’s Bishop Leo
On hearing that Montreal Bishop Frank Leo would succeed him as Archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Thomas Collins immediately thought of Toronto’s first bishop, Michael Power. At a parish feast day Mass in Our Lady of Lourdes, downtown Toronto, Collins reminded the congregation how Toronto’s first bishop also came from Montreal and was also, as a...