Brooks, Alta., author Ben Galeski’s splendid new novel, The Good Heart, chronicles a young Canadian infantryman who turns to God and his inner strength to survive the hellish crucible of the First World War.

This year, Remembrance Day takes on an extra special aura, as Nov. 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Close to 61,000 Canadians lost their lives in the conflict and another 172,000 were wounded. The Canadian Chaplaincy Service was a vital part of the war effort, with close to 450 clergy serving overseas. Among them were 90 Catholic priests who were never far from the front lines. The Catholic Register kept its readers informed with updates from the Chaplaincy Service. The following is the report in the Oct. 31, 1918 issue.

A hundred years on, the numbers remain chilling — more than 15 million dead, including 61,000 Canadians.

OTTAWA – The graves of at least a dozen Ukrainians who died while interned in a remote camp in Quebec during the First World War are slowly fading into the forest landscape.

Our dip into The Catholic Register archive lands on the Easter season of 100 years ago, when the world was still embroiled in the First World War. This Register editorial of April 4, 1918 looks athow Pope Benedict XV’s peace efforts were ignored and how the message of Easter might help heal the world.

An initiative that began at a London, Ont., high school saw one Hail Mary prayed for each Canadian soldier who has died in service since the First World War. 

TORONTO - From coast-to-coast 100 plaques were unveiled as a sign that the internment of more than 8,500 Ukrainian “enemy aliens” during the First World War is not a forgotten piece of Canadian history. 

Jesuit novices in Guelph in 1918 expected to wake early to prayers and devotions, then Mass, then breakfast. They did not expect to be woken by military police.

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.

Some called it “The Great War.” Others called it “The War to End All Wars.” History proves it was neither.

BERLIN - As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Germany's Catholic bishops urged efforts to overcome "destructive self- interest" and acknowledged the shared guilt of churches for the conflict, which left 16 million dead.

Half a world away from Europe, where the First World War erupted 100 years ago July 28, Washington National Cathedral will mark the occasion with a liturgy created especially for the anniversary.