There was a headline on a story from a reputable Canadian website earlier this month that posed a rather startling question: “Will COVID-19 kill Christmas?”

The Archdiocese of Toronto has temporarily cancelled public Masses in Toronto and Peel Region in the wake of new restrictions announced Nov. 20 by the Ontario government to combat the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in those areas.

There were more than 30,000 people gathered around the National War Memorial in Ottawa for Remembrance Day ceremonies last year. This Nov. 11 — with COVID-19 restrictions — there will be no more than 100.

Let’s hop in a time machine back to 1999. It was a year that, among others, saw Tony Hawk skateboarding his way to the top of the cultural scene.

VATICAN CITY -- As COVID-19-related deaths in Italy reached their highest daily level since early May and Italy began enacting new restrictions to slow the spread, the Vatican decided it will once again close its museums to the public.

MANCHESTER, England -- Catholic leaders in England are appealing to the government to reverse its decision to ban public Mass during a second national lockdown.

“I knew I had to quit when my 15-year-old daughter would say, ‘Mom, don’t go to work and cry again.’ ”

It's been a unique start to post-secondary education for many students taking the next step on their educational path in this year of COVID-19.

In a wonderful essay written in 1919, “Das Unheimliche,” Sigmund Freud proposed a theory of the uncanny to explain the sense of unease and even terror that can arise when something presents itself to us as strangely familiar, but not quite.

You could be forgiven for cursing COVID-19 because it is robbing Toronto Catholics of yet another opportunity to gather and celebrate. But John Ecker doesn’t think that the pandemic forcing the annual Cardinal’s Dinner online Nov. 5 is so bad.

Paul Solarski admitted there were times this past summer when he wondered if physical education would even be offered in 2020-21 at Ontario schools due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

OTTAWA -- The COVID-19 pandemic may have forced the Catholic Church in Canada to significantly change the way it operates, but the far ranging impact of the global health crisis has reinforced and strengthened the Church’s commitment to its mission, said Archbishop Richard Gagnon.

Canadians are collectively holding their breath as they brace for the so-called “second wave” of COVID-19. As infection numbers inch up, speculation is rife as to whether we’re entering this next phase and how we’re going to deal with another round of the virus.

MONTREAL -- The Quebec government took religious leaders by surprise by announcing Sept. 20 that the maximum number of people allowed to participate in an event in a place of worship would be lowered from 250 to 50 in all regions of the province, starting Sept. 21.

With schools returning to semi-normal following the pandemic lockdown, traditional homeschooling families say they too are happy to resume teaching their children under some sense of normalcy.