exclamation

Important notice: To continue serving our valued readers during the postal disruption, complete unrestricted access to the digital edition is available at no extra cost. This will ensure uninterrupted digital access to your copies. Click here to view the digital edition, or learn more.

Haven’t been to Confession for a while? One question: How can you stay away?!

All right, I know it can be very difficult to even find Confession offered beyond 30 to 45 minutes right before a Saturday evening Mass, or “by appointment.” But no matter what you must do, what hoops you must jump through, how many kilometres you must drive, Confession is totally worth it. You and I need frequent Confession because we are sinners. I will now try to shoot down some “excuses” for not going to Confession.

In Catholic tradition, November is both the last month of the faith year, and the month where we remember and celebrate all souls. We write in a book of remembrance the names of loved ones lost and light candles for them. We pray for and with those who have gone to eternity before us. The practices remind me of Ash Wednesday: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Does liberalism get the big questions right? The question was the subject of a Munk Debate on the evening of Nov. 3 in Toronto.

My short answer is yes. Better put, it gets more things right than competing philosophies. Capitalism, it has been said, is the worst economic system except for all the others. Liberalism is a better solution for our common lives than socialism or communism. Yet at the end of the night, the winning side of the debate were those who were opposed. How have we arrived at a point where so many appear to be questioning liberalism?

As Catholics, as people of faith, as pilgrims seeking peace, Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land is appalled by the editorial The Catholic Register printed on Oct. 19. 

The full text of the October Declaration published by leading British citizens and signed by 76,055 others to date.

The Catholic Register’s Oct. 29 editorial continues the paper’s uncomfortable lurch to the right.

Justin Trudeau spoke with clarity and prime ministerial authority to shocking recent violence in Montreal and to the swelling tide of anti-Semitism across Canada whipped up by the Hamas barbarism of Oct. 7.

Misericordia! I feel this word as a deep cry from my soul in response to these troubled times of unspeakable horror.

Pope Francis in addressing the National Confederation of the ‘Misericordie’ of Italy said, “This word misericordia — mercy — is a Latin word whose etymological meaning is ‘miseris cor dare,’ to ‘give the heart to the wretched,’ those in need, those who are suffering.”

The release of Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount’s 2023 report shows how food banks are the proverbial “canary in the coalmine” reflecting the state of our society’s socio-economic health.

The Toronto Star, which often seems to have sold its soul to the progressive deity Unthink, conveyed genuine wisdom in its coverage of demonstrations that snarled the city centre on Nov. 4

Yes, I believe you have to "Tell it like it really is." How did we get to this dreadful place in world history? Can we as Catholics do more to spread the light of Christ and His peace? Why were these young Hamas terrorists taught such hate and utter disrespect for Israelis? As Remembrance Day approaches we think of our relatives who served. How many lives are being lost in senseless wars? Wars will not solve the conflicts affecting so many countries. There must be a better way of solving our many disputes in the world.