The April 1 funeral for Fr. Robert Assaly at  Montreal’s St. Thomas More Catholic Church featured a rare sight: front pews filled by his large family with his wife Nancy, their children and spouses.

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- Deacon Drake McCalister, a former Pentecostal minister, has been given approval by the Vatican to be ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Steubenville.

VATICAN CITY -- While highlighting the gift of celibacy and the need for celibate priests in the Amazon region, the final document of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon has urged Pope Francis to allow the priestly ordination of married deacons to serve in remote areas.

MONTREAL -- When newly ordained Fr. Robert Assaly refers to seeking help from “Mother,” the term is just as likely to refer to his wife Nancy as it is to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

QUITO, Ecuador -- One of the challenges for bishops at the Amazon synod will be finding ways to meet the spiritual needs of the region’s people.

When bishops start talking this fall about ordaining married men to serve as priests in their own, remote, Indigenous communities in the Amazon, bishops in northern Canada will be listening closely.

VATICAN CITY – While Pope Francis' recent comments on the subject of married priests made headlines around the world, his response falls clearly in line with the thinking of his predecessors.

Pope Francis’ apparent openness to a discussion about ordaining married men to serve as priests in remote communities has heartened and encouraged at least one Canadian bishop.

The Pope’s recent musings about the possibility of older, married men someday being ordained as priests is all about math, not theology, doctrine or politics.