The recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in the case of anti-gay advocate Bill Whatcott provided troubling answers to some questions concerning free speech but improved the language of a provincial human rights code and slightly raised the bar for future cases.

White smoke that billowed March 13 from the Sistine Chapel chimney heralded more than the election of Pope Francis.

Before we receive a new pope, it is worthwhile to consider the impact of the pontificate itself.

March, always a special month, is set to be one to remember this year. Forever a part of Lent and leading up to the holiest days of the year, March can also be a tease for Canadians: warm spring sunshine on the face one day followed by snow and sleet the next.

The past eight years gave proof that the College of Cardinals got it right in 2005 when they shrugged at Joseph Ratzinger’s birth certificate and made him Pope.

Cardinal Collins notes decision will be made for the good of the Church

The battle over legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Quebec just shifted to the side of the angels. On Feb. 19, a group of more than 300 courageous and very determined doctors took out attention-grabbing newspaper advertisements declaring bluntly that their role will never be to “kill” their patients. Calling themselves the Physicians’ Alliance for Total Refusal of Euthanasia, they issued a manifesto rejecting the whole ideology under which doctors would be complicit in administering lethal doses of drugs to patients.

Last week, we looked here at the complete novelty of Pope Benedict’s abdication, clarifying that such a thing has never been done in the entire history of the Church.

I sometimes think God is trying to get my attention in the strangest places. For instance, I’ve sensed his presence a number of times while in line at a check-out counter.

On hearing of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, my first thought was of some lines from the Tennyson poem “Morte D’Arthur,” which my father often quoted in unanticipated circumstances: