Thank you to Winnipeg’s Archbishop Richard Gagnon, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, for daring to state that that a malaise is affecting the Church in this country because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sometimes, even the obvious does not become real until it is named, and Archbishop Gagnon has done that in comments published in last week’s Catholic Register.

Ladies, you’re being lied to. You can’t have it all. (And while we’re at it, all what?) No one can or does “have it all.”

It has been 794 years since St. Francis of Assisi left this Earth, but you can find his fingerprints all over the Pope’s latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti .

Dictionaries offer two definitions for the word beatify. The first is “to make supremely happy.” The second is “a declaration of blessedness” and, for Catholics, this is the step before canonization.

It is 3 o’clock in the morning and my thoughts are too busy for sleep, so I pick up my pen.

This autumn brings a trifecta of anniversaries for those of us devoted to St. John Henry Newman.

Holy time

As a liturgical musician for more than 50 years,  I feel obliged to comment on the Sept. 13 article “Musical dilemma over abuse claims.”

Canada joined an exclusive international club last month, but there is no reason to brag.

I gave a talk some years ago to the Thomas More Lawyers’ Guild of Toronto. It was about the media and religion but because it was the hot issue of the day I spoke in part about the need for the Catholic Church as an institution to do more to combat the then proposed legalization of euthanasia.

We all want to be known for something. In moments of self-doubt and weakness we look back on our lives and ask ourselves, “Did my life have meaning to anyone? What will people remember me for?” Pastoral care is the ability to walk with others and to assist them in uncovering within themselves the Gospel that they have written through their lives.