Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
Michael is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register.
He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.
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National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: A day of hope and repentance, says Cardinal Collins
For Canada’s Catholics, the first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is “a day of penance and a day of hope,” Cardinal Thomas Collins said in a prayer service at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto.
CCCB remorse sets stage for papal apology
Graydon Nicholas accepts the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ apology for more than a century of wrongs by Canadian Catholics in residential schools and hopes it will lead to a papal apology on Canadian soil.
The Season of Creation ... a time for action
The Season of Creation, which began Sept. 1 and lasts through the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi Oct. 4, has always been a time for prayer, reflection and thanksgiving, a time to open our eyes and see the beauty of God’s creation. But this year our prayers are meant to spur action — concerted, global, political action.
Five ‘points of light’ at heart of program
If you think a retreat is just a day or two in the countryside spent praying and reading Scripture, the Star of the North Retreat House in St. Albert, Alta., wants you to think again. Beginning with an introductory session the Oct. 3 weekend, Star of the North wants to take a diverse range of people through a three-year process divided into nine modules called Aurora Living.
Understanding ‘synodality’
Church governance is not about command and control. It’s about who we are and who we aspire to be as a Christian community, as the body of Christ. Since 2013, Pope Francis has been teaching this lesson in all that he does and says. Lately he’s been saying synodality just about every time he opens his mouth.
Opera Atelier’s first film production evolves past a tragedy and a pandemic
There are no ugly angels. In the entire 10,000-year history of art, from the caves of Lescaux through the Mystical Nativity of Sandro Botticelli to Ms. Fleming’s Grade 3 art class, every single depiction of angels is a depiction of beauty. Opera Atelier co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski knows why.
Course seeks new relations with Indigenous
As students filter back onto campus, one small group of first-year students at the University of St. Michael’s College will be thrust into one of the most difficult, uncomfortable and important problems this nation faces.
Building a future from the past
Whether or not reconciliation with Indigenous people lies in the future, such a reconciliation is impossible without an unclouded view of our past, from first contact to the present, Indigenous and Jesuit scholars have told The Catholic Register.
Concerned Catholics seek healing path from sexual abuse
Ever since the world learned about priests and brothers abusing orphan boys at Mount Cashel, for 40 years Canada’s Catholics have lived with a public image of their Church as hypocritical and defensive. As more abuse scandals rumbled across headlines and through the courts, public contempt for the Catholic Church became commonplace. Add onto this mountain of shame all that we’ve learned lately about Indian residential schools.
Canada in ‘unique’ spot to aid world’s refugees
Canada’s Catholics have more and better opportunities than most to back up Pope Francis’ call for the Church to reach out and help the world’s 82.4 million forcibly displaced people, said Office for Refugees, Archdiocese of Toronto director Deacon Rudy Ovcjack.