Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group, announced that a settlement it called historic has been reached with an Illinois hospital system over denying its employees a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

It’s unclear as to whether an Ontario nurse who received a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination based on Catholic faith will set a precedent for others arguing on similar grounds. 

In late February, an Ontario Superior Court ruled in the case of divorced parents who did not agree about vaccination for their two youngest kids, age 10 and 12. The facts in brief: a man and a woman separate after seven years of marriage. They have three kids and remain in the family court system some seven years later. The eldest lives with the father and is vaccinated. The younger two live with the mother and are unvaccinated. The father wants them to be vaccinated; the mother is hesitant.

A parishioner in Australia captured the moment when police interrupted Mass to demand that five people who were not wearing face masks comply with the law.

While the Freedom Convoy 2022 demonstration in the nation’s capital, led by thousands of Canadian truckers, dominated headlines by its sheer size, a Catholic dimension has emerged in ongoing protests against COVID-19 restrictions.

The people who work in Catholic schools don’t think there ought to be any uncertainty over whether or not the kids in classrooms are vaccinated.

We are living in a time of deep mistrust. It’s not the first time in history that has happened but it’s happening now, so we must deal with it or at least try to understand it. It is especially rampant under the cloud of COVID and the issues surrounding the vaccine.

Canada’s ban on travel from southern Africa and the failure of rich countries to effectively share COVID-19 vaccines with the rest of the world has Jesuit Fr. Charles Chilufya steaming mad.

Today, I phoned to book a haircut only to find that Pat, my stylist of the past two years, had died of the delta variant of COVID. When I last saw him in late August, he looked fit and healthy as ever. I phoned back a month later to set my next haircut appointment but was told Pat was off work because he was having back problems. He died shortly after that call.

Over 19 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, all 225 parishes of the Archdiocese of Toronto have deftly avoided being an outbreak zone for the virus.

While the vast majority of the public has been compliant with safety measures in dealing with the pandemic, resistance to vaccination mandates, mask rules and other requirements has been high among ultra-conservative Catholic and evangelical groups.

The union representing Ontario’s Catholic teachers is endorsing calls to authorize COVID vaccinations for kids between five and 11, a move that seems to have the support of the majority of Canadians as well.

The message across the country for parishioners, volunteers and staff at Catholic churches is clear: please get vaccinated.

VATICAN CITY -- Three members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard have hung up their halberds rather than be vaccinated against COVID-19, and three others were temporarily suspended in early October as they were completing the vaccination cycle, the spokesman for the guards told a Swiss newspaper.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel deeply uneasy about a minister of the Crown effectively usurping the role of a minister of the Church?