As Americans learned how Washington was realigned by the Nov. 6 mid-term elections, the elder statesman of the American civil rights movement was in Toronto calling President Donald Trump “an icon of chaos” and urging Canadians to resist “plantation capitalism” being pushed by American nationalists.

News that Ontario’s provincial government had disbanded its roundtable of experts on violence against women has Catholic Family Services woman abuse specialist Shereen McFarlane worried.

Fifth Sunday of Lent, April 2 (Year A) Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

How can someone be dead and living at the same time?

All things considered, I believe that I grew up with a relatively healthy concept of God.

We cannot serve God well if we hunger after power and wealth. That was Pope Francis’ message as he reflected on the daily readings at his Santa Marta Mass on Tuesday morning.

Walking home from the grocery store, I heard a wild cry on the street behind me. A young man had ripped open his car door, slammed it again with a thundering metallic crash, then simply stood and roared like a lion. Seeing that no one was in danger, I walked on. Another roar came, with a richly voiced four-letter epithet, and another crash-slammed door. The counterpoint of raw emotion continued for a while — door-slamming, wordless roaring, life-searing oaths. Even at a distance, I felt it. Whatever that young man was expelling into the atmosphere, something in me resonated.

Saying Jesus' path is serving others, Pope Francis urged Christians on Tuesday to overcome the lure of worldliness and human ambition and warned against social climbers who are tempted to destroy the other in order to reach the top. His remarks came during his homily at the morning Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta residence. 

Power. Betrayal. Love. All the words that come to mind after having watched The Huntsman: Winter’s War. As simple as these words may sound, they are anything but that. These words continue to creep into our lives, especially when we least expect it, and challenge our character.

In the movie based upon Jane Austen’s classic novel Sense and Sensibility, there’s a very poignant scene where one of her young heroines, suffering from acute pneumonia, is lying in bed hovering between life and death. A young man, very much in love with her, is pacing back and forth, highly agitated, frustrated by his helplessness to do anything of use, and literally jumping out of his skin. Unable to contain his agitation any longer, he goes to the girl’s mother and asks what he might do to be helpful. She replies that there’s nothing he can do, the situation is beyond them. Unable to live with that response he says to her: “Give me some task to do, or I shall go mad!”

NEW YORK - Pope Francis has come to the powerful to demand limits on power. He came to open a session of the General Assembly of the United Nations Sept. 25, to speak to the world’s diplomatic elite and the powerful forces they represent on behalf of the “victims of power badly exercised.”

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis on June 19 criticized world powers for their failure to find a solution to the Syrian conflict, saying the country’s Christians had been united by “the blood of the martyrs” lost in war.

C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and their colleagues wanted to write fiction that would effectively “evangelize the imagination,” accustoming minds, especially of young people, to the Gospel. Accordingly, Tolkien’s Gandalf is a figure of Jesus the prophet and Lewis’ Aslan is a representation of Christ as both sacrificial victim and victorious king. Happily, the film versions of both The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia have been wildly popular all over the world.

This summer, power and responsibility are prominent themes on the silver screen. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker struggles between personal desire and greater responsibilities, while in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America, motivated by professional values, battles the corrupt forces in power.

TORONTO - The adage that seeing is believing is being questioned by recent science that suggests the opposite may also be true: believing is seeing.

VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church is no place for "climbers" who want to reach the heights of prestige, power and profit, Pope Francis said.