Thirty-five years ago this month, Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit Canada. The impact of those 12 days in September hasn’t been forgotten.

Canadians can’t extinguish the thousands of forest fires raging across the Amazon region but the devastation should become a call for Catholics to forge an alliance with the Indigenous people of the Amazon, says the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.

Sixty years ago, 13-year-old Clara Creglia’s homeroom teacher, Sr. Elaine, instructed the new Grade 9 class to pair up and choose their locker partners. Creglia didn’t really know anyone at Toronto’s Loretto College School on Brunswick Ave. so she decided to try her luck with the girl that sat behind her. 

EDMONTON -- Whether she’s bringing a beehive or a squid into her classroom, Tonya Byrne believes that teaching is all about engaging the students.

The students at St. Mother Teresa Catholic Academy in Toronto didn’t grow up on a reserve or have Indigenous roots, but after a semester learning Grade 11 Indigenous Studies English, they knew they could still be allies to their native brothers and sisters. 

At 18, Joshua Bujold is about to return to high school. It’s been a few years since he’s been surrounded by classmates and he hopes this time things will be different when he attends Toronto’s Msgr. Fraser High School.

A familiar face that has greeted visitors entering St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica since the late-1980s is getting a facelift.

A decision by the Ontario government to force high school students to earn four credits through online courses has put Catholic schools on notice. 

BANGKOK, Thailand -- It’s not Joshua’s fault. He was born into statelessness more than three years ago in Bangkok and immediately suffered a stroke that left him seriously brain damaged. But Joshua scares the rest of his family daily.

In June, for the first time ever, Canadians told pollsters their number one concern is the environment. This puts Canadians on the same page with Pope Francis, who has called on everybody — Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, even atheist — to face up to the reality of human-caused climate change in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’.