A year ago I visited Bethlehem, where residents can claim to celebrate Christmas every day. For those who have never traveled to the region, the city holds a number of surprises. For one, Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity (believed to be the place where Jesus was born) and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (containing the ...read more

Yesterday morning, one of my colleagues came looking for advice from the S+L producers. As a parent facilitating a children’s catechism class, she wanted to know how to get kids excited about the spiritual meaning of Christmas. Soon, we were able to extract the root problem: she wasn’t feeling very enthusiastic about it herself. I ...read more

At 9pm ET / 6pm PT this evening, S+L will premiere the full-length version of Within Your Gates: A Pilgrim Guide to the Holy Land. The film originally aired in May to coincide with the first anniversary of Pope Benedict’s trip to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Tonight’s broadcast includes scenes from the city ...read more

If you travel here, you will feel it all, the brightest and the darkest. The lyrics of “Traveler’s Song” by Future of Forestry were not written with the Holy Land in mind, but few places in the world are saturated with such extremes of joy and pain. Jerusalem, in particular, is a sacred, resplendent city ...read more

The tone of S+L’s latest documentary is set by a lone organ. Playing the instrument is Joe Zambon, a folk singer-songwriter originally from the rural town of Iroquois, Ontario, but now residing in Toronto. A guitar joins the organ moments later, and then the hushed lyrics, “In the darkest night of my soul, God Himself ...read more

Though “Light of the World” was officially released on Tuesday, many Catholics are still waiting to get their hands on this new book-length interview with Pope Benedict. I informally surveyed Catholic bookstores in the Greater Toronto Area and found that only one retailer has received its first (sold out) shipment. Other retailers expect theirs to ...read more

A few pages into “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times”, Peter Seewald disappeared. The German journalist had secured one of the world’s most elusive interviews—a one-on-one with the Pope. Since the start of his pontificate, Benedict XVI had until now given only a couple of interviews, apart ...read more

There are few better stewards of tradition than the Catholic Church. Even in matters unrelated to faith, morals or liturgy, precedence isn’t taken lightly. One example has been the practice of electing a president of the national bishops’ conference. These elections rarely garner much press because, following tradition, it is assumed that the vice-president will ...read more

Two years ago, the bishops of the world drafted a list of 55 recommendations about the Word of God. Pope Benedict XVI has now issued his long-awaited response: Verbum Domini (“The Word of the Lord”). The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation represents the final outcome of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, which convened ...read more

Last month on Perspectives, S+L reported from the annual plenary assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Of particular interest to pro-life and social justice advocates, the agenda included a report by the bishops’ Ad Hoc committee on Development and Peace (CCODP). CCODP is the official international development agency of the Catholic Church in ...read more