Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo’s elevation to Cardinal this week gives added cause for the celebration of Thanksgiving this weekend. 

“Every day is Thanksgiving. That’s what the Eucharist is for."

Remi De Roo named a bishop just as the Second Vatican Council opened in October 1962. He was 38 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. De Roo attended all four sessions of Vatican II, and the experience changed him for life. He gained a new understanding of the Church, one more inclusive than the hierarchical model he had learned in the seminary.

Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller’s letter to MPs in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, urging them to support legislation restricting young people’s access to sexually explicit online material. It follows an earlier letter written by Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo.

I suppose it is not a surprise to say that a writer loves words. Thinks words are powerful and important. Spends minutes and hours thinking up just the right way to express feelings and ideas with words. 

Peter Maurin, from the Catholic Worker movement, was known to proudly assert, “I am a peasant. I have roots.” Most would not share Peter’s pride. Thanks to the Middle Ages and Western pop culture’s treatment of it — the word is considered derogatory. That is something that needs to change. 

In 2013, I wrote a column for the National Post about Dr. Donald Low, a microbiologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital. He spoke about his cancer diagnosis, his fear of tremendous pain that might be looming and the loss of his dignity. He spoke without self-pity and urged Canada to make physician-assisted death legal. He died eight days later. 

People new to, or wishing to grow deeper in faith, often ask me to recommend good Catholic books. The height of understatement is to say coming up with such a list is a daunting challenge in a tradition that, beginning with the Holy Scriptures, has an almost inexhaustible treasury of books.

“As Democrats, Christians, Catholics, have an advantage on that score.” (The Catholic Register editorial Sept. 22, 2024.)

In the 12 months since Hamas murderers invaded Israel, the Holy Land tables have entirely turned on those behind the worst massacre of Jews after the Holocaust.