The small country parish of St. Michael’s Parish Corkery is a testament to the grit, hard work and pious devotion of early Irish settlers in Canada.

When Fred Lafontaine moved to Toronto in 1945, he had $19 in his pocket and was in search of a job. A builder by trade, he had left his family’s farm in La Sarre, Que., which had just been enveloped by more than a foot of snow the night before.

Josephine “Jo” Dellapenta’s father Geremino hailed from Campobasso, the capital city of the Italian region of Molise. Her mother, Alfonsina Cordileone, lived her first 11 years in a town not far away.

Winnipeg Archbishop Richard Gagnon said his 40 years of service to the Canadian Catholic Church, first as a priest and then as a bishop, “has gone by so quickly and is so full of events and people.”

The Diocese of Pembroke, spanning two provinces, with 60,000 Catholics within its borders, marked the 125th year since its establishment.

A humble Nazarene summarizes this papacy: ‘love, love, love, forgive’

BEIRUT -- A year after the catastrophic Beirut port blast, the wounds of the people in Lebanon are scarred by the memory of the tragedy, and cries for justice escalate. This year, Aug. 4 was declared a national day of mourning in Lebanon.

VANCOUVER -- This year’s Marriage Anniversary Mass in the Archdiocese of Vancouver smashed records as 356 couples celebrated milestone anniversaries together but remotely in a virtual live event.

Entering their 170th year of caring for the people of Toronto, the Sisters of St. Joseph want to celebrate their history, of course. But celebrating that ministry has to be about much more than history, said the Sisters of St. Joseph communications director Lisa Tabachnick.

The four nuns who arrived in Toronto (population 30,000) on Oct. 7, 1851 had a single task — to care for children orphaned by the typhus epidemic that had ravaged the Irish Catholic immigrant community.

Entering their 170th year of caring for the people of Toronto, the Sisters of St. Joseph want to celebrate their history, of course. But celebrating that ministry has to be about much more than history, said the Sisters of St. Joseph communications director Lisa Tabachnick.

When Margaret and Paul O’Connor first met in 1946, they were teenagers enjoying a Catholic youth night at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto. As they swayed to the sounds of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, little did they know that one day they would celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.

For 200 years, St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica has been a fixture in the heart of downtown Halifax.

There is a world of issues to worry about these days, playing havoc with our physical and spiritual well-being. So it’s good every once in a while to stop and, as the cliché goes, smell the roses.

Marriage seems to agree with George and Olive Heron. How else do you explain having stayed true to their vows for 71 years?