There’s no question the strain of the pandemic is hitting every area of Canadians’ lives as the year draws to a close.

VATICAN CITY -- Two top Vatican officials -- Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello -- have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, Italian media reported, and a Vatican source confirmed.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's doctrinal office said that when alternative vaccines are not available, it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines developed or tested using cell lines originating from aborted fetuses.

Canada, with 37.6 million people, has agreements to purchase 194 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with options to buy another 220 million. If all these vaccines pan out, we could vaccinate Canada’s entire population almost six times over.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican health service will begin vaccinating employees and Vatican citizens against COVID-19 using the Pfizer vaccine, the director of the Vatican health service told Vatican News.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked faith communities for helping Canadians struggle through nine long months of COVID-induced uncertainty and isolation, he also urged a group of 250 clergy and faith leaders from a wide range of religions to do more over the home stretch while vaccinations roll out. 

Not just a vaccine but a cheap, ethical, Canadian vaccine is on its way before 2022, and it’s not just a solution for COVID-19, says the new chief operating officer at Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics.

VATICAN CITY - Even though the world is facing a pandemic that may limit many people's ability to celebrate the sacraments, particularly those people who are in isolation, quarantining or hospitalized with COVID-19, confession by phone is still most likely invalid, said Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

EDMONTON -- When a vaccine is available to treat or prevent COVID-19, the bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories have given their blessing to Catholics to be inoculated.

Science, medicine and economics are going to all play important roles in the global post-pandemic recovery, but from the Church’s point of view there needs to be a moral recovery first, Cardinal Michael Czerny explained in a Nov. 27 address at Tokyo’s Sophia University.

ROME -- As rumblings and grumblings grew in the press and on social media, the permanent council of the Italian bishops' conference met to discuss the problem of Christmas "midnight Mass" when the government has imposed a 10 p.m. curfew as part of its measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has certainly not been kind to churches across Canada, with British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario public health agencies restricting in-person services for a second time due to the unrelenting second wave.

The second wave of COVID-19 has hit many Canadian Catholics where it hurts most — the shutting down of public Masses. Churches from coast to coast are feeling the impact, with the suspension of public Masses in and around Canada’s most populous city, Toronto, as well as those in Halifax, N.S., and the provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba.

Tracking the troubling daily news brought on by COVID-19 in the pandemic’s early months inspired Athena and Briana Zhong to conceive an altruistic sister act.

As Canada goes over 11,000 COVID deaths and 300,000 cases — with medical professionals calling for “circuit breaker” shut-downs and Canada’s largest archdiocese having to cancel public Masses in "lockdown" areas — the Church has to respond with unflinching concern for the common good, said Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Richard Gagnon.