St. Peter’s Square – October 11, 2012 Below is Pope Benedict’s Homily from the inaugral mass for the Year of Faith and celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Dear Brother Bishops, Dear brothers and sisters! Today, fifty years from the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, we begin with great ...read more

Vatican Radio – At the conclusion of the Mass to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople addressed Pope Benedict XVI and the Bishops and Faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. In his remarks, Patriarch Bartholomew – the “primus inter pares”, the “first among ...read more

Retired US bishop William McNaughton arrives for Mass at St. Peter’s Square. Bishop McNaughton attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Recalling the original procession in 1962 he told Catholic News Service “Because television cameras from all over the world were taking pictures, all the lights were on in the basilica. I thought ...read more

Castel Gandolfo, on the Feast of Saint Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli – August 2, 2012 Benedictus PP. XVI Source: http://www.osservatoreromano.va/ Fifty years ago, on October 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in St Peter’s Basilica It was a splendid day on 11 October 1962 when the Second Vatican Council opened with the ...read more

On Wednesday, October 10 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams addressed the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. He was invited to the Synod by Pope Benedict XVI. Below is the full text of Archbishop Williams’ address. Your Holiness, Reverend Fathers, brothers and sisters in Christ – dear Friends 1. I am deeply honoured ...read more

St. Peter’s Square – October 7, 2012 HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI OPENING OF THE 13TH ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS ON THE NEW EVANGELIZATION Dear Brother Bishops, Dear brothers and sisters, With this solemn concelebration we open the thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme The New Evangelization ...read more

UPDATED: Tonight’s new episode of Perspectives: The Weekly Edition is now streaming online above. There’s a food crisis in Africa right now, but odds are you probably don’t know about it. The Sahel region of West Africa is suffering the consequences of a drought that devastated farmers’ crops. Many communities have used up all their ...read more

Below you will find the homily that Archbishop Richard Smith, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, gave this morning during the Plenary Assembly’s morning mass. Like many of you I have succumbed to the temptation to use a mobile device for communications. Mine has a feature called “auto-correction”. When I am composing emails or ...read more

Photo: Archbishop Richard Smith, President of the CCCB (left) and Archbishop Paul-André Durocher, Vice-President of the CCCB (center) stand and applaud Beatitude Shevchuk at the conclusion of his address at the 2012 Plenary Assembly. On Tuesday morning at the Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Bishops, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic ...read more

Salt + Light Television will be providing live daily coverage of the 2012 Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) Plenary Assembly in Sainte-Adèle, Quebec from September 24-28. The Plenary Assembly brings together Catholic bishops from across Canada — some 80 in number — to review pastoral initiatives, receive annual reports as well as share their ...read more