Catholic Register Editorial Canada’s Catholic bishops deserve full credit for sticking with their commitment to, as Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith has framed it, walk the whole long path of Indigenous reconciliation. They have, in their wisdom, clearly adopted the approach, individually or collectively, of refraining from being drawn into responding to every jump and shout...
Author: Catholic Register
Invaluable Group of Seven works lost in church blaze
The only church to feature artwork by members of the famed Group of Seven Canadian artists burned to the ground, taking with it the stunning murals on its walls and dome. St. Anne’s Anglican Church in downtown Toronto’s Little Portugal neighbourhood was destroyed by a Sunday morning fire June 9. Fire officials are investigating how...
Redemptorist Brehl named new Bishop of Pembroke
Fr. Michael Brehl, leader of the Canadian Redemptorists, has been named new bishop for the Diocese of Pembroke. The Toronto-born, 69-year-old Brehl will assume the seat at the head of the Ontario diocese vacated by Bishop Guy Desrochers when he was named Archbishop of Moncton in July 2023. Bishop-elect Brehl brings a wealth of leadership...
Toronto denied hard drug decriminalization
As British Columbia throws in the towel on its experiment of decriminalizing hard drugs, admitting defeat in liberalizing its drug laws, the country’s largest city has had its desire to ignore B.C.s evidence and move down the same path quashed by the federal government. On May 17, the federal government rejected a request from Toronto’s...
Chaplain General pauses ban on Remembrance Day service religious language
Canada’s military ordinariate is pleased that the Chaplain General has put a temporary pause on the new Public Reflection Policy that would have prohibited overtly religious language by chaplains at Remembrance Day ceremonies. The Epoch Times reported Oct. 31 that Chaplain General Guy Belisle has at least temporarily backed down on the prohibition in order...
Endowment to research Ukraine Catholics closed
The University of Alberta has closed an endowment fund and returned its donation to the family of a man who fought with a Nazi unit during the Second World War. The university’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies is returning the $30,000 to the family of Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old man at the centre of a...
Catholics must help combat ‘anti-faith’ forces, imam tells bishops as plenary opens
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...
Artsakh burns while Western leaders fiddle
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...
Normal slowly returns as NWT bishop celebrates Mass again
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...
Development and Peace derailed by Facebook’s news ban
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...