The cross I wear around my neck each day is a relatively large wooden one made by young people living in the poorest and most dangerous areas of Colombia. It is one of hundreds of thousands that they made as part of a project supported by Development and Peace. The crosses were given as a special gift from St. John Paul II at the World Youth Day papal Mass in Toronto on July 28, 2002. 

I was troubled to hear my Ottawa colleague describe what she saw Dec. 8 on Parliament Hill. 

Christmas packages come in all sorts, shapes and sizes.

“The poor you will always have with you.” Prophetic words of Jesus 2,000 years ago. 

It’s difficult to equate dynamic evangelization with the reality of shrinking numbers of parishes, priests, parishioners and active churches. But evangelization is exactly what the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth hopes to achieve through a strategy called New Parishes: Stronger Together.

The world commemorated the United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17, but you could be forgiven for not noticing. 

Live simply so that others may simply live. These words haunt me. These words inspire me. 

More than 7,000 Honduran migrants including children have crossed the Guatemalan and Mexican borders and are marching toward the United States. Some people, including the American president, are describing them as murderers, rapists, “very bad criminals.” Helicopters are hovering over them, while the border patrol and the military have been alerted. There are calls to close the border.

Nobody goes there anymore … it’s too crowded.

The following is an abridged version of Bishop Barron’s recent presentation at the Synod of Bishops on young people: