Features

At this pivotal moment in the conversation around anti-Black racism in North America and beyond, Jean Augustine is reminded of the Sankofa — a bird associated with a west African proverb used to express the importance of reaching back for knowledge gained from the past.

Fr. Mario Micallef recalls the general feeling of pride and excitement experienced within Toronto’s Maltese community on the morning of Nov. 28.

Fr. Ivan Camilleri’s moment has arrived — not that he was waiting for it or hoping for it or dreading it. But it’s here now and that’s fine with him.

For 65 years, Sr. Sue Mosteller has been a Sister of St. Joseph, but her relationship with St. Joseph himself reaches back even further. As a 17-year-old boarding student at the congregation’s Toronto girls’ school (up from the United States, and an Anglican to boot), Mosteller and her sister were called into the office and given a piece of devastating news — far away in Ohio, their father had died.

This unforgettable year, this annus horribilis, is mercifully drawing to the end, but the virus that has so consumed our lives is not.

The following is the Christmas message from Archbishop Richard Gagnon, president of Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of Winnipeg:

CLEVELAND -- A once-every-two-decade conjunction involving the solar system’s two gas giants will give earthbound observers a look at a so-called “Christmas Star” on the winter solstice.

A spruce tree donated by a retired Catholic teacher is helping to make Christmas in Kenora in northern Ontario a little merrier.

JERUSALEM -- Walk down St. Peter Street from the Old City’s New Gate, past some shuttered shops and the closed Knight’s Palace hotel, continue down through the winding stone-paved alleyway of the Christian Quarter and soon you will hit “Santa Lane.”