Two proposed bills, the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) and Bill C-367, have critics suggesting that if passed, they could threaten the freedom to express beliefs and convictions online and in the public square.

In the week that we looked into the online mirror and saw pornographic deep fakes of Taylor Swift staring back, Canada’s Catholic bishops published a compelling pastoral letter on Christian engagement with social media.

Spiritus York’s kick-off event of 2024 connected the dots between Narnia and Anime in modern-day evangelization.

Are we losing our ability to think deeply, purposefully?

Lots of people read Aquinas and ignore horror movies. Lots of people watch horror movies and ignore Aquinas. The opportunity we have is to bring these things together.

The media and the field of communications need to exercise more kindness and share the truth with charity, Pope Francis said.

Once in a blue moon someone asks me what we can do to shake our fellow citizens, including fellow Catholics, out of their apathy.

The Catholic Register’s popular Youth Speak News feature will evolve into a vibrant new online platform over the coming months to meet teenage and young adult Catholics where they live.

Technology always changes, and dealing with change can be daunting. But some transformations can be for the better.

The unprecedented meetings this week between Pope Francis and three Canadian delegations of Indigenous people in Rome are big news. Thirteen camera crews and dozens of journalists — Italian, American, British and Canadian — greeted Metis National Council president Cassidy Caron after the MNC delegation of nine came out to St. Peter’s Square after their hour-long encounter with the bishop of Rome.

There’s a saying in the Media Literacy Education community: “Media Literacy isn’t just teaching with media, it’s teaching about media.” I believe this could also apply to prayer and the media: “Let’s not just pray with media (e.g., praying with a prayer app), let’s pray about the entire world of media itself.”

I once sat in a room at a table with a small group of people doing homework. Except for myself, each person wore earbuds listening to music. I caught snippets of various styles: chords of some rock punk and the melody of a heartfelt ballad … my mind mused what it might be like as I imagined all of the music playing simultaneously without the earbuds. I pondered that everyone would likely be irritated and annoyed as they worked to turn down the music, perhaps allowing one reigning speaker to continue playing. 

Perhaps the oldest strategy of war is: “Divide and conquer”— which can take many forms. Physically divide a land mass into north and south. Encourage a portion of a country to secede. Partition. Physical divisions create smaller spaces and populations to overtake, can leave families separated and citizens stranded. But the most insidious division is spiritual, psychological, social. If planned from without and then wormed into a once-harmonious (even if not homogenous) group, division can be made to feel organic and even righteous through… you guessed it: fear-mongering.

When I give Media Literacy workshops to folks, I often ask: What’s the first thing you think of when you think of “the media”? The overwhelming majority think: the news.

On March 26, our popular culture evidently took one more step towards a state of depravity with the release of  “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X, a rapper known for his unorthodox rap/pop crossovers and his openly homosexual identity.