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...
Rome’s announcement of a third Canadian-born saint answers the prayers of Blessed Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis’ community and friends. The Quebec-born founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family will join St. Marie-Marguerite d’Youville and St. Brother André Bessette as the only Canadian-born canonized saints, the Vatican said in late January. The Friends of Mother...
The St. Raphael Palliative Care Home and Day Centre in Montreal. The Archbishop of Montreal has launched a legal appeal of Quebec’s end-of-life law that forces palliative care hospices to offer “Medical Assistance in Dying.” (Google Street View image)
In what could prove to be a landmark case for religious and conscience rights in Canada, Montreal’s Archbishop Christian Lépine has taken on the Attorney General of Quebec. In an appeal for judicial review submitted to the Quebec Superior Court on Feb. 5, Archbishop Lépine asked for an immediate stay of the application of an...
The president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms hopes Canadians will be more vocal about their civil liberties following a Federal Court ruling that Ottawa’s use of the Emergencies Act was not justified. (CNS photo/Patrick Doyle, Reuters)
The president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms hopes Canadians will better protect their civil liberties if there is another global health emergency in the wake of the Federal Court of Canada’s ruling against the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act in 2022. John Carpay said that when a small number of people...
Archbishop Miller welcomed Ottawa’s Jan. 29 decision to delay expanding MAiD to include mental illness but was disappointed that the government plans to proceed at a later date. On Feb. 1, the government paused the expansion for three years. (Alberto Biscalchin photo)
Catholic and anti-euthanasia observers across Canada are welcoming the federal government’s decision to pause the introduction of assisted dying for individuals suffering from mental illness, but expressing dismay that it still intends to expand access in the future. Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller said he was disappointed by an announcement by federal Health Minister Mark...
The pro-life Centre for Bioethical Reform is advertising summer job opportunities, but efforts by abortion advocates have made it difficult. (Centre for Bioethical Reform Instagram)
It was Joyce Arthur and her Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) who convinced the Trudeau government to kick pro-life organizations out of the Canada Summer Jobs program seven years ago. Now, the British Columbia atheist-humanist is pressing to open MAiD eligibility further — and do away with “paternalistic, unethical” faith-based health care. Arthur’s Abortion...
Thousands of Catholics have passed through the Holy Door in the Sacred Heart Chapel of Québec City’s Notre-Dame du Québec Basilica to mark the jubilee year for the Archdiocese of Quebec’s 350th anniversary. (Photo by Samuel Tessier)
As the Archdiocese of Quebec embarks on a jubilee year to mark its 350th anniversary, it hopes to strike the right balance between celebrating the significant historical role played by the archdiocese while acknowledging the sober realities facing the modern Church. On Dec. 8, 2023, the Archdiocese inaugurated the jubilee year by opening the Holy...
These are the blueprints for St. Francis Xavier Church, which is set to be built to replace the church torched in 2021. (Photo courtesy Diocese of Hearst-Moosonee)
By Luke Mandato St. Francis Xavier Church in Attawapiskat, one of the churches destroyed in a rash of fires across the nation in 2021, is set to rise from the ashes. A new church is to be built in the northern Ontario community on the site of the previous church destroyed by a fire ruled...
Young people use mobile devices in isolation from each other at a mall. In their pastoral letter on social media, the Canadian bishops suggest fasting from screens once a week and taking a “Technology Sabbath.” (Paul Schratz photo)
Catholic institutions and media outlets must hold themselves to the highest standards, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a Jan. 24 pastoral letter that focuses on social media. As a communication tool, social media has great potential to “serve a fundamental human good: the building of bridges among people by the sharing of...
Nightfever invites guests to join in prayer. It originated at WYD 2005 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo from Nightfever)
By Luke Mandato The Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth is hosting the youth-driven initiative Nightfever Sunday evening at Halifax’s St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, offering passersby an invitation to join in prayer. Nightfever is aimed at young people 16-35 who are passing by who will be invited to spend some time in prayer inside the downtown cathedral. Those...
