More than a hundred middle school and high school youth, along with their parish youth coordinators, gathered at a diocesan-wide Advent party in Ottawa on Dec. 16.

It’s that time of year again. For Christians, the time from Christmas day until the Baptism of the Lord is the true Christmas season. It is, however, also the time for New Year’s resolutions.

I just read about a priest in Italy who took down a crèche because he feared it would offend non-Christians. There was no indication he was forced to do it, but it seems he decided to be proactive just in case.

VATICAN CITY – While hope can often be viewed as the desire for things out of our reach, Pope Francis has said that the birth of Jesus offers us a new kind hope – one which, thanks to the Incarnation, is attainable and leads to a different goal.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – With the threat of snow in the air, groups of young men filled the pews at Our Lady of Sorrows Church on the city's east side. The men were seasonal farmworkers from Latin America attending a special Christmas celebration in their honour.

The Catholic Register's final special section of the year is our Christmas issue! Click here to read all of our holiday special features.

Every year St. Michael’s Cathedral fields an RCIA class of 20 to 30 for adult baptisms and confirmations. A lot of that success starts on Christmas Day, according to cathedral rector Fr. Michael Busch.

St. Michael’s Cathedral re-opened this fall in plenty of time for Christmas, but the rededication was just one milestone in the $128-million restoration of Toronto’s Catholic cathedral. The work continues.

If all you want for Christmas is to be more spiritual — pray more deeply, contemplate on a higher plain — there’s a 16th-century app for that.

You may have wondered, and rightly so, why the ox and the ass appear so often beside the Christ child in various images of the Nativity.

Two simple words are all the payment Carla Martella needs for helping the Good Shepherd Ministries provide a holiday meal to the homeless and those in need.

The Gospel stories about the birth of Jesus are not a simple retelling of the events that took place then, at the stable in Bethlehem.

Nativity of the Lord, Dec. 25 (Year A) Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-16

Jesus is God’s response to the prayers, yearnings and hopes of human beings in all times and places.

There are a million Catholic complaints about Christmas.

I found myself rushing through a grocery store on a busy Friday afternoon at the end of an arduous week. There was Christmas music blaring throughout the store, my stomach was grumbling and I was frantically picking my way through the produce section before I had to be at work.