A crucifix that has hung on the wall of Montreal’s City Hall since 1937, reminding city officials to let God guide their decisions, will be taken down for a renovation project, never to be put back.

I’ve begun to call it the Gospel on the Green Line.

Few events in recent Canadian history have had a greater impact than the massacre at École Polytechnique in Montreal. The gunman, Marc Lepine, killed 14 women and injured 14 others in the Dec. 6, 1989 attack before killing himself. His suicide note revealed his hatred of feminists. In the wake of the tragedy, there were changes to gun laws and the creation of an annual national day of remembrance on Dec. 6 to recognize violence against women. Five days following the attack, a funeral Mass for nine of the women was held at Montreal’s Notre Dame Basilica, as reported in The Register:

Cardinal Paul-Emile Leger was Canada’s most prominent prelate in the 1950s and ‘60s. Surprisingly, he resigned Nov. 9, 1967 and for the next 24 years, until his death in 1991 at age 87, he dedicated himself to service in the Third World, though he returned to Montreal several times. Here is how he explained his departure in The Register issue of Nov. 18, 1967. 

Another Canadian Catholic institution has joined in the movement to sell off all carbon-based energy stocks and forbid portfolio managers from buying any more.

In response to the sexual abuse crisis embroiling the universal Church, Montreal’s archbishop has pledged that crimes committed in his diocese will never be covered up. 

It was 51 years ago, on April 28, that Expo 67 opened in Montreal, ushering in a summer of celebration for Canada’s 100th birthday. The World’s Fair featured pavilions from 60 nations showcasing “Man and His World.” More than 50 million visitors passed through the grounds over six months, including familiar faces like Queen Elizabeth, Jackie Kennedy and Bing Crosby. In this editorial from April 22, 1967, The Catholic Register put the expectations of Expo into perspective:

In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8, we look into The Catholic Register archive for a story of the first Canadian-born saint and founder of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, St. Marguerite d’Youville, born in Varennes, Que., in 1701. This story was published May 9, 1959, days after her beatification by Pope John XXIII. She was canonized in 1990.

MONTREAL - Fr. Gerald Pocock, who died Sept. 4 in Ottawa at age 92, was a gregarious Roman Catholic chaplain at Montreal’s St. Mary’s Hospital in 1969 when he befriended American jazz legend Duke Ellington.

As Montreal Auxiliary Bishop Alain Faubert quite rightly puts it, there is nothing complicated about how we should respond to a summer influx of asylum seekers at Quebec’s southern border.

OTTAWA – As waves of asylum seekers continue to cross illegally into Canada from Donald Trump’s America, Catholic dioceses in Quebec and eastern Ontario are mobilizing to provide the border crossers with food, shelter and pastoral support.

OTTAWA – Despite physical exhaustion, storms, rough waters, food shortages and waking up to slip into wet socks some mornings, Jesuit paddlers said an 850-km canoe pilgrimage fulfilled all their expectations and more.

Aid to the Church in Need set new fundraising records in Canada and internationally in 2016.

They call it the Summer of Sorrow.