There is a perception, which has widened in the last 40 years, that Catholic higher education is no longer compatible with the modern university. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education charged denominational colleges and universities should be refused accreditation for “systematically undermining… skeptical and unfettered inquiry” and “the primacy of reason.”
TORONTO - If you get up close, within centimetres of Br. Emmaus O’Herlihy’s monumental painting of Christ the King, you may see a tear descending from Jesus’ left eye. Or you might not.
OTTAWA - Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has joined several other prominent cardinals who have stated that the Church teaching on marriage and divorce cannot be changed.
Dr. Mona-Lee Feehan, author of the recently released marriage preparation book What God Has Joined: Preparing for Marriage in the Catholic Church, published by Novalis, is a faculty member at St. Stephen’s College in Edmonton. With marriage to be such an important topic at the Synod on the family, she was recently interviewed about her ministry and offered advice for new couples.
In advance of the Synod on the Family, four Canadian bishops spoke at the recent bishops’ plenary meeting in Beaupré, Que., about marriage and family challenges in their respective dioceses. Using the Synod’s working document Instrumentum Laboris as their guide, they provided an insightful look at how the issue takes many shapes in the Canadian Church. Below are snapshots of their comments.
Communion for divorced Catholics: the Church experts agree to disagree
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
There’s not a lot of wiggle room in what Jesus had to say about divorce in the Gospel of Mark.
The Church is gathering many of the world’s bishops in October to start talking about how the Christian life is really lived. They will meet in the Vatican at an extraordinary Synod of Bishops convened by Pope Francis to start to address the pastoral challenges of family life.
TORONTO - It’s hard to argue when Krystyna Dix says there’s something special about St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School.
To meet Ministry of Education deadlines for implementation of full-day kindergarten, the Toronto Catholic school board has resorted to creating makeshift classrooms in gymnasiums and libraries for many of its youngest students.
Grade 12 student Ramy Elsayed has been master of ceremonies at school events, plays saxophone in the school band and is looking forward to joining his school’s work-placement program. In many respects, he is a typical student at St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Toronto. But Elsayed, 18, has autism.
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L'Arche has been with us for 50 years. A half century ago, in a very different world, Jean Vanier started something in the French countryside that has made the whole world think about what it means to be human, what we owe to our humanity and how we care for the broken and fragile among us. Fifty years of kindness and care, hope and humanity is worth celebrating.
There’s a fork in the road on Manger Street in Bethlehem, just before you reach the separation wall and the main Israeli checkpoint. Down the road that runs parallel to the wall you find Ma’an lil-Hayat, a L’Arche project. The Arabic name means “Human Life.”
Today’s L’Arche finds itself challenged at both ends of life.
Despite reports in August that about half of the candidates for Ontario's school board trustee positions were running uncontested, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association isn't worried about the election's integrity.