It’s easy to be convinced that current times call us to shout at each other, to disdain, to quarrel, to stage hit-and-run detraction ops against perceived foes.

Deacon Patrick Salah did portray a priest during playtime at home when he was very young, but the Halifax, N.S., product first truly felt the call to serve the Lord shortly after his first year of Bachelor of Music studies at Dalhousie University in 2011.

Kathy Irvin admits she takes her role in music ministry seriously.

“I’m like a crazy woman,” laughs Teresa Susi. “I go like a yo-yo.” But there’s a method to her madness, she goes on to say. And because of that, it’s the young people in the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board who benefit.

VATICAN CITY - Within the universal Christian vocation of serving God and serving others, God handcrafts a specific calling for each person, a vocation that fits his or her personality and abilities, Pope Francis said.

The vocation of serving vocations is little understood and rarely appreciated, but it’s something that appealed to Fr. Stephan Kappler like nothing else.

As lofty and august as the title superior general may sound, Basilian Fr. Kevin Storey has no illusions about his next four years leading 154 men who teach and preach in Basilian parishes, universities and high schools from Colombia to Canada. 

On the day of a priest’s ordination, he receives from his bishop the most important tool of his ministry: the chalice. 

You’d almost think it wasn’t a big deal to Anne and Dane MacCarthy, the Vatican honouring the Toronto couple for their years of service to the Church.

For cloistered communities like the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood, interaction with the outside world can be very limited. Yet, vocations in Canada are growing for the order. 

The Knights of Columbus on Canada’s west coast have been waiting 30 years for this moment.

“You are servants of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That’s who we are. That’s who the people expect their priests to be,” Cardinal Thomas Collins told his two new priests in his homily.

Stella Johnson is known in the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith as a ray of sunshine, which is significant when Yellowknife can get as little as four hours of daylight in the middle of winter.