The massacre of 17 innocents at a Parkland, Fla., high school is not fading out of the news as quickly as other similar tragedies that have plagued the United States.

It’s a sneaky way to make a government look progressive, a religion look regressive, and to divide a congregation.

Last May, my wife, daughters and I stayed at a resort on a First Nations reserve on Vancouver Island to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. The last night we were there, my mother-in-law moved into town, and my wife and I slept in the yurt where she had stayed.

On Valentine’s Day, there was yet another U.S. massacre when a shooter killed 17 Florida high school students and wounded a score more.

Since his stunning decision five years ago to renounce the papacy, Pope Emeritus Benedict has been spent his time praying, reading, strolling, enjoying music and welcoming friends. He has stayed far from the Vatican limelight and, as he promised, clear of any words or deeds that might suggest even an inkling of interference in the work of his successor.

For the most part, social conservatives had lost faith in Patrick Brown before the sudden fall of the Progressive Conservative Party leader. 

Few dossiers that cross the Pope’s desk are more challenging than the thick, sad file on sexual abuse. It’s a file Pope Francis inherited from his two predecessors and one he pledged to handle with urgency, compassion and transparency.

The disciplines of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — are an exercise in conscience formation. Lent is much more than conscience formation, but it is that.
It’s always fun to pick up a book and have trouble putting it down because the story grips you.
About a week after Ontario’s new minimum wage kicked in, I grabbed a sandwich at a well-known coffee shop.