Twice during our coverage of Pope Benedict’s trip to Spain this past weekend, S+L interviewed Carol Glatz from Catholic News Service. Glatz covered the papal visit as one of the Vatican Accredited Media Personnel (VAMP). She was among 61 reporters, photographers and cameramen who were privy to a much closer view of the Pope than ...read more

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A deadly militant siege of a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq, was a “savage” act of “absurd violence,” Pope Benedict XVI said. The pope urged international and national authorities and all people of good will to work together to end the “heinous episodes of violence ...read more

The annual meeting of the Canadian bishops has come to a close. And just in time—the bishops are leaving Cornwall, Ontario for nearby Montreal to celebrate the Mass of Thanksgiving for the canonization of Brother André. (S+L will broadcast the Mass live in French at 1:30 pm ET, repeating in English at 9:30 pm ET.) ...read more

When the Canadian bishops gather for their annual plenary assembly, it’s fair to say that they’re not overwhelmed with requests for media accreditation. The discussion topics, be they administrative or pastoral, rarely generate much buzz in the nation’s pews. Yet for the past two years, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) plenary has seen ...read more

Have you been following the Synod of Bishops? This year’s synod facilitates the unique overlap of two sacred centres, as the leaders of the Church in the Holy Land meet in the Vatican. To keep up with the developments, I check a few resources daily, such as Catholic News Service and the Vatican Information Service. ...read more

As we count down the hours until Cardinal Newman’s beatification in Birmingham, England, it’s time to take a crash course in just who the Church is honouring. After all, this is the first Mass of beatification that Benedict XVI will personally celebrate during his pontificate. (While canonizations are held in the Vatican, the recent norm ...read more

For many Catholics, their first encounter with Cardinal John Henry Newman is on a university campus. It’s a natural association, given Newman’s experience as a rector, which informed his volume of discourses The Idea of a University. Still, I was surprised to learn, while researching for Catholic Focus, that the first Newman Club was established ...read more

As the Pope landed in Scotland today, he might have said a prayer of thanksgiving that, on top of all the other issues he will deal with, the smoldering ashes of a Quran is not among them. At the local, diocesan and Vatican levels, Catholics loudly condemned the planned burning of the Muslim holy book ...read more

Who really is Cardinal John Henry Newman? Back when I was a student involved in the Newman Centre at Queen’s University, I confess that I knew nothing about the life and works of the centre’s namesake. Now, having spent the past few weeks researching him for Catholic Focus, I’ve learned that it’s not an easy ...read more

In a previous Catholic Focus, we looked at the little-known ministry of Canada’s military chaplains. While I learned much from preparing that program, particularly from Bishop Donald Thériault, the head of the Catholic military ordinariate, I don’t think I properly understood the dangers chaplains faced. That awareness came with the news that U.S. Army chaplain ...read more