JERUSALEM - I have been to Israel more than a dozen times — as a pilgrim, leading pilgrimages, with my family, on a private retreat, for Christmas, for Holy Week, for board meetings, for the papal visit of 2009 — but never for something quite like this. I was invited to be part of the official delegation accompanying Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his visit this week to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (West Bank).

It is never easy to hear the Church address the sinful litany of sexual abuse that has caused so much harm to so many people. The discussion is always painful, but it is necessary.

It was the night before Christmas and all through the church, many creatures were stirring . . . especially the restless children.

In choosing his first group of new cardinals, Pope Francis indicated changes for some parts of the world, but continuity for Canada.

In his inimitably colourful way, Pope Francis has challenged Catholic priests to be shepherds “living with the smell of the sheep.”

There is a deep vulnerability at the heart of education. Sometimes it looks like this:

A mother sits across from me sobbing, her shoulders heaving up and down as she surrenders to the anguish that she carries for her child. I move out from behind the barrier of my desk and sit beside her, offering a tissue.

Pope Francis seems determined to invigorate the Church so who could be surprised to see him give the College of Cardinals a bit of a shake?

The Christmas holidays tend to be a time to catch up on reading around our house, when the hustle and bustle is over and before we gear up to return to work or school.

In an elegant touch, Pope Francis announced his trip to the Holy Land on Jan. 5, the precise 50th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.

The Supreme Court ruling that lifted restrictions on prostitution has handed Parliament an opportunity to make ground-breaking social change by passing new laws to cripple this dehumanizing practice.