Making something out of nothing. When somebody pulls that off, it tends to evoke wonder and admiration.

It was interesting to monitor the shock expressed around the world to recent news that Iceland has almost eradicated the birth of Down syndrome babies by prenatal tests and abortion.

Of all the media coverage following the despicable white supremacist display in Charlottesville and the bumbling reactions from a president, one column in The Globe and Mail really stood out.

Pope Francis seldom misses an opportunity to explain the meaning of mercy. A Toronto cop recently demonstrated what it looks like.

There is one perfect minimalist moment in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk that forms an all-encompassing metaphor for our times.

It would be grand to believe the CBC is for everyone. It is, after all, a national broadcaster that we all support with our tax dollars, whether we want to or not.

Regardless of where you stand on the nasty public spat involving the president of the University of St. Michael’s College and some school faculty, it seems fundamentally obvious that a Catholic institution of higher education should promote a visible and distinctly Catholic identity.

The other day, I got into a discussion about singularity and artificial intelligence with a computer science student. He’s young, smart and full of optimism. I’m older, debatably wiser and certainly more skeptical about the benefits of AI.

In the 16 months between the Supreme Court decision and the passage of federal legislation regulating medically assisted death, I was intensely involved in discussions and debates within the medical profession, among Catholic health care providers, ethicists and clergy, and with national and provincial government bodies. I was trying to mitigate the harms of the decision, particularly in the protection of the vulnerable, and in defending the right of conscientious objection for physicians and faith-based organizations.

Rome in June is notoriously hot. But Rome in June wearing a wedding veil is even hotter.