Discussions of family size have increased in political and religious discourse as North American birth rates hit historic lows. Catherine Pakaluk, an economist and associate professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., recently authored Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth.

Yet another media story slides by portending discouragement of the Faith in a political atmosphere that sometimes seems concocted to deny breath to religious belief.

Statement of Dublin Archbishop Dermot Farrell prior to the votes on Ireland’s constitution that rejected proposed changes to marriage and family life.

St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland falls into the category of beloved mythology — unless you happen to be a snake, in which case you might have a lower estimate of it.

The Irish prime minister, known as the Taoiseach, has conceded that his government was defeated "comprehensively" when voters rejected amendments to the constitution that the country's bishops warned would have weakened supports for marriage and undermined motherhood.

Saying the family is the basic building block of society was once a “motherhood and apple pie” sentiment. Motherhood and apple pie, being, of course, a cliché alluding to all that is both normal and good. We need a new cliché. Today motherhood itself is no longer “motherhood and apple pie.” 

A pro-family campaign group has warned that a proposed March referendum in Ireland to amend the country's constitution would be a "further downgrading of the importance of marriage to society."

Every summer, I wait and hope for our plans to cooperate with the weather and give us a day or two on the lake with my parents’ beautiful boat. We need the sunshine to keep us warm enough and the wind to stay mild enough that we can pull the tube behind the boat. The driver and the wind work together to make waves, and the riders delight at the efforts to stay on or fall in. On these rare and perfect days, I might be the biggest kid of all.

Starting a family and having children has become a kind of herculean task when instead it should be valued and supported by everyone, Pope Francis said at a meeting in Rome on Italy's severe decline in population growth.

Sixty per cent of Canadian children are being raised in homes with married parents, a new study has found, a number that has stayed steady since 2016 after years of decline.

Receiving the gift is the last stage of Advent becoming Christmas. Jesus arrives and we receive the One we have awaited. The seasons and feast days of church calendars exist not only to change the colours and routines of faith life, but also change the way we live our whole lives. We learn to practice waiting — in joyful hope — for Jesus to arrive. And this practice waiting and receiving is meant to help us get better at waiting and receiving in the rest of our lives too.

When my husband recently went on a work trip for four days, our daughter started to act out more at the same time. Or perhaps she was just being her regular three-year-old self and I noticed it more. I called a friend through tears.

Mainstream outlets and social media players had kittens last week over remarks attributed to Pope Francis about the “selfishness” of people keeping pets in place of raising children.

As the story goes … a doctor asked a patient if anyone in his family suffered from insanity. “No,” he replied. “We all seem to enjoy it.”

Imperfection and I have had a rocky relationship. For years, I pretended she didn’t even exist. When she showed up unexpectedly, I dressed her up in different clothes and tried to pass her off as someone else. I recognized, eventually, that she was actually a roommate I despised. And in more recent years, I’ve been trying to be reconciled to my sister. Imperfection has gifts I need, and she has been much more gracious with me than I deserve.