Catholic communities throughout Newfoundland are on the clock to save their parishes.

As the Catholic Church comes to grips with an appalling past that saw thousands of children and vulnerable people exposed to abuse at the hands of clergy around the world, Canadians can only turn back the clock to remember when the scourge dominated the headlines at home.

The Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland lost a vote at the May 11 Annual General Meeting of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc., but they won attention from the mining giant’s management.

ST. JOHN’S, NFLD. – There it was, on the front page of the St. John’s Telegram, a detailed discussion of the sacramental seal of the confessional, and rather fairly done too.

Newfoundland’s oldest standing wooden church has never had electricity but being unable to power-up a computer hasn’t deterred supporters from taking an ambitious fundraising campaign online.

In 1914 the Dominion of Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada, but as part of the British Empire it too was at war. On Monday evening, Aug. 4, St. John’s soaring Catholic cathedral, the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, will host an ecumenical service to remember the precise moment 100 years ago when Newfoundland Governor Walter Davidson received a telegram informing him that England was at war.

TORONTO - Sr. Alice Walsh was excited to accept the position of pastoral minister of Our Lady of Fatima parish in Piccadilly, a remote town in Newfoundland and Labrador. But a month into her new post, the priest who arrived to celebrate Mass asked her if she realized that she was the one in charge. No, she said, I’m not. Yes, you are, he replied, telling her to read the bishop’s letter. And he was right.