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When Catholics begin using the new Roman Missal on the first Sunday of Advent, they will find an “awesomeness” to the new translation that maybe wasn’t as present in the previous incarnation, said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast.

The Roman Missal’s new translation will mark the shift from using current principles of “dynamic equivalence” to “formal equivalence” on the first Sunday of Advent. Its aim is an improvement of the liturgy, said the Ottawa archbishop.

“It’s a historic moment in the life of the Church and the English-speaking world,” said Prendergast.

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The new, more literal translation of the original Latin text will give particular attention to maintaining biblical references and avoid simplifying the words and phrases into contemporary terms. The current translation, in effect for almost half a century, was primarily concerned with how the translated text would be understood by the community for which it was being translated and was often simplified to reflect contemporary English usage.

TORONTO - Nadir Shirazi calls religion "the black sheep of the diversity family."

Getting corporate Canada to sit down and talk about accommodating religion at work is a tough sell compared to other diversity-in-employment seminars, said Skills For Change executive director Cheryl May.

"It's more of an edgy topic," she said.

Passchendaele, Vimy, the Somme, Hill 70 and Flanders Fields are all still there more than 90 years after they swallowed the lives of Canadian farm boys and office clerks. The once scarred and rutted fields of mud have been transformed by green grass, monuments, grave markers and crosses.

“It’s a vast memorial,” said writer Susan Evans Shaw.

Evans Shaw has produced a 350-page guidebook to the battlefields of the First World War called simply Canadians at War. The book is dramatically and amply illustrated with photographs by Jean Crankshaw.

The arrival of a newborn baby usually brings cheers, not a doomsday prediction for the world.

But that’s how Philippine-born Danica May Camacho, symbolically called the world’s seven billionth baby, was introduced by international media on Oct. 31. Her birth was used in news stories to indicate the UN’s concerns about global overpopulation.

Overpopulation theorists charge that there are not enough resources to feed and care for seven billion people. They advocate for “population control” like contraception and abortion especially for Third World countries.

The Niagara Catholic District School Board and King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario have signed a partnership agreement to promote the life-long process of Catholic education. 

The partnership reflects the Niagara Catholic board’s focus on “building a strong Catholic identity and community to nurture the distinctiveness of Catholic education,” said John Crocco, the NCDSB’s director of education.

Crocco said the agreement will provide faith formation for the adult faith community at King’s College and the Niagara Catholic board, including individuals at the diocesan level.

Thinking in catholic terms about a global economy ought to be natural. Catholic means global, universal, transcending boundaries. But a Catholic proposal for regulating the global economy has stirred a battle between left and right within the Church.

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s “note” — issued in advance of the G20 meeting that opened Nov. 3 in Cannes, France — proposed a gradual evolution toward global governance of finance and trade.

On the right the proposal has been dismissed as “rubbish, rubbish, rubbish” by American conservative George Weigel of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Centre. Weigel dismisses the Pontifical Council as “a rather small office in the Roman Curia” without much standing in relation to the teaching office of the Church.

LIMA, Peru - Most of the environmental battles Brother Paul McAuley fights seem endless, mainly conflicts between indigenous communities and loggers operating on their lands or oil companies that have spilled toxic substances into their waterways.

Sometimes, however, there's a victory. In mid-October, the Peruvian government overturned a law that would have allowed water from one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River to be diverted to irrigate export agriculture operations on Peru's desert coast, a measure critics called a political-patronage boondoggle.

TORONTO - The future of getting buried is all about choice, but the more choices you have to make the greater the need for planning.

“Pre-planning your estate and final burial options is important,” said Amy Profenna of Catholic Cemeteries, Archdiocese of Toronto.

“You’re taking a lot of important decisions out of an emotionally stressful time (for your family).”

The majority of Catholic Cemeteries funerals are still caskets buried in the ground. This may sound straight-forward, but there are still choices to be made, said Profenna.

There are very significant questions that Catholics must ask themselves at various times in their lives. Decisions that need to be made with long-term consequences. Among these, when a loved one passes from this life, should a Catholic cemetery be contacted for a burial place?

What are the reasons that we choose one cemetery over another? What distinguishes Catholic cemeteries from the other cemeteries in our area?

How do I want my estate money distributed at my death? Pose the question to yourself when you’re eating alone or taking a relaxed coffee break. How much to family? How much to charity? Any bequests to friends?

This little exercise will get you thinking... and maybe get you past any reluctance you now have about doing an official will. It might also lead to a revision of a will you already have in place.