Anna Farrow
Safe-injection site slated for former Catholic house
Benedict Labre House, a Montreal non-profit that was once a Catholic “house of hospitality,” is at the centre of controversy over plans to operate a novel form of supervised injection site (SIS) at its new centre meters from a day-care and elementary school.
Military’s ‘inclusive’ directive excludes God
A top-level directive ordering military chaplains to be gender-sensitive and include atheists in “spiritual reflections” on Remembrance Day is sparking unexpected emotional backlash, says Bishop Scott McCaig of the Military Ordinariate of Canada.
Newman chaplain answers ‘call within a call’
It is a long way from his native Igboland in Nigeria to the Newman Centre at McGill University, but Fr. Anthony Atansi finds himself as “at home” in one as the other.
Jerusalem Latin Patriarch’s words stand out
On the same day the Toronto Board of Rabbis pleaded with their co-religionists to show public solidarity, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, offered himself as one such sign.
Canada has strong presence at Synod
Relative to its population, Canada is punching above its weight at the Synod on Synodality, currently in its second week in Rome.
‘They were killed because they were Jewish’
My sister is a Shabbat-observing Orthodox Jew. When I saw the news trickling out of Israel on Saturday morning, I knew I wouldn’t be able to check in with her until that night. Her phone is off from Friday evening until Saturday sundown. Then I remembered that it was Simchat Torah, and that observant Jews in the U.S. wouldn’t be turning their phones back on until Sunday evening.
The p’tit pére’s little project that grew
In a little corner of the cavernous basement of Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in Montreal, Fr. Jean-Pierre Couturier has spent every Thursday of the last 25 years mending shoes.
These Sisters have a devout love for life
An enduring trope in the culture wars is that pro-life advocates care only for the fetus and nothing for the women and children at the centre of abortion debates. Critics point fingers, often literally, alleging that political pro-life wrangling always trumps the physical and spiritual care of women.
Hillbilly theology comes to McGill
Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP, Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, brought a lot of theology and a little bit of bluegrass to McGill University when he delivered the 2023 Birks Lectures.
Beauty matters
There’s a dynamism in engaging with the natural world, poet Maya Clubine believes.