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Pope Francis greets Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, at the Vatican. Shevchuk is in Toronto in early October.

Chance to show solidarity with Ukrainian brethren

This week Toronto hosts the head of the largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). Within the UGCC, Shevchuk is referred to as the Patriarch of Kyiv, the common title for the head of an Eastern Catholic Church. Due to tensions with the Orthodox though, especially in Russia, the Holy See grants him the title of “major archbishop,” equivalent in all aspects to a patriarch.

Bob Brehl writes about the emotions of seeing his cousin go through a successful heart transplant.

Modern medical miracle brings family joy

Each year, there are more than 5,000 heart transplants around the world — that’s about 14 every single day.

September is Suicide Prevention Month and Peter Stockland writes about Canada's contradictory attempts try to both prevent suicide while also legalize assisted suicide.

Suicide fantasy

When Canada legalized assisted suicide earlier this year, the National Post’s coolly analytical Andrew Coyne wondered in a column whether we haven’t lost our way as a country. Barely two months after the legislation’s passage, a marker of how lost we are shows up in our insistence on going both ways at once.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edwin O’Connor.

Life is built on a foundation of love

When discussions about Catholic fiction arise certain names are always mentioned: J.R.R. Tolkien, Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Thomas Merton and so forth. Even C. S. Lewis comes up, even though he was a member of the Church of England.

Pope John Paul II greets Mother Teresa at the Vatican in an undated file photo. When Mother Teresa is canonized Sept. 4, she’ll join three other Teresas who are models for today’s Church.

Four Teresas: models for our time

For centuries there was only one Teresa, the Carmelite reformer who was canonized on March 12, 1622, in the single most impressive canonization in the history of the Church. Gregory XV crowned the Catholic Counter-Reformation that day, canonizing in one ceremony the great Teresa of Avila, along with St. Francis Xavier, St. Philip Neri and St. Ignatius Loyola.

Phyllis Zagano, a senior research associate in the religion department at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., is seen in her office Aug. 2. Zagano, who has written extensively on the subject of women deacons, is one of six women appointed by Pope Francis to a 13-person "Commission to Study the Women's Diaconate."

Diverse, diligent panel gets female deacons talks off on right foot

The swiftness of Pope Francis setting up a Vatican panel to study the question of women deacons clearly indicates His Holiness wants resolution to the prickly issue.

Charles Lewis says there is no gay conspiracy, we are all neighbours.

There’s no gay conspiracy: we are all neighbours

The world abounds in conspiracy theories. It was always thus.

World Youth Day pilgrims hold candles during eucharistic adoration with Pope Francis, July 30. The Pope told WYD pilgrims their mission cannot begin on the couch.

Mission begins beyond the couch

KRAKÓW, POLAND – The most impressive moment of World Youth Day had to be at the Saturday evening vigil, with Pope Francis leading more than a million young people in praying the Divine Mercy chaplet before the Blessed Sacrament. Not only was it a powerful witness of prayer, invoking mercy upon the Church and the world, but a confirmation of the marvellous ways of Providence.

Law enforcement personnel walk July 17 near the scene where police officers were shot in Baton Rouge, La. Three officers were killed.

America is reaping what it has sown

Earlier this month, we were driving to Minnesota to visit relatives on the night a black man was shot dead by police in a St. Paul suburb after being stopped for a broken tail light. That was a day after another black man was killed by police in Baton Rouge.

“We need more prayer.” That may seem like a sweet but naive idea in dark days, but it is a form of action that connects us to a truth that can’t be trumped.

In dark days, put prayer into action

In the midst of all the bad news over the past month, especially the legalization of euthanasia, it is easy to forget there is a world of the spirit and prayer that rises above the grime and connects us to our true home where truth shines bright.

Pope Francis greets retired Pope Benedict XVI prior to the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican in 2015.

Benedict XVI offers much encouragement to priests

It’s become something of a routine now. Pope Francis delivers a spontaneous lambasting of priests who do this or that which he disapproves of, and priests get in touch to ask what we should make of it all.

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