I want to focus on a single word, one that is loaded with enough meaning to sway life or death decisions.

Driving home after returning a second new dehumidifier that wouldn’t work in less than a week, I couldn’t help thinking about the so-called “good old days” when things were built to last.

It’s common for popes to search far and wide for their cardinals, but none has searched farther and wider than Pope Francis.

The death on May 31 of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, patriarch emeritus of Kyiv, former head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), resonated in Canada where, outside of Ukraine, the largest Ukrainian Catholic community is found.

One year, perhaps 2,000 deaths and several unresolved issues.

A few weeks ago the Sunday New York Times Magazine ran a lengthy feature about a Vancouver Island man who had chosen to die by euthanasia. John Shields, a former priest who later married, was suffering from a rare disease that caused proteins to build up in his heart and painful nerve damage in his arms and legs, the Times story said.

It’s been one year since terminally ill Canadians have been legally free to choose medical intervention to end their lives. In that time, some 1,400 people have chosen assisted suicide.

The Church, like the world, needs heroes. We call them saints, people of heroic virtue who walk humbly and faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus.

One Saturday night years ago, my mother won a trip to Monaco and the French Riviera in a raffle. The next morning, I remember her putting more money in the collection plate than usual.

In the May 21 issue of The Catholic Register Peter Stockland wrote a sincere Comment piece about the need for renewal within organizations. I agree with him on this point.