The recent days in the American journey towards health care reform have been revealing. With the final vote rumored to take place over the weekend, before President Obama leaves for Indonesia, many religious groups are publicly staking out their territory, some of them thrusting their flags in surprising ground. One such group was the Leadership ...read more

Let’s face it: sex is sometimes a divisive issue both in and outside the Roman Catholic Church. And I’m not talking about the conjugal act (that’s a whole different issue in its entirety).While God created us as men and women, the full human being made in God’s likeness isn’t limited to what’s between a person’s ...read more

It is day six of the Paralympics in Whistler, B.C. and the Canadian athletes are holding there own, ranking in third place with a total count of two gold medals, three silvers and two bronze. The stories coming out of these games are inspiring accounts of individuals who overcome tremendous adversity to accomplish more than ...read more

Christopher West left a jarring first impression when I listened to him in 2002. Gathered in a Vancouver living room, we were a dozen Catholic men watching one of his DVD presentations about John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Our group consisted of good friends, but we suddenly became a little uncomfortable in each ...read more

It’s hard to believe but World Youth Day is celebrating its silver anniversary! Twenty-five years ago Venerable John Paul II launched the annual meeting for young people and Pope Benedict XVI reflected on this milestone in his annual World Youth Day message which was released on Monday. Apart from the international World Youth Day gatherings, ...read more

There are two words foreigners learn almost immediately upon setting foot in Italian territory: “c’è sciopero.” That means “there’s a strike” For most North Americans this phrase causes instant terror. It certainly makes me think of the two month transit strike of 2001 in Vancouver, or the summer long garbage strike in Toronto in 2009. ...read more

Many of our viewers and blog readers will have probably heard us quote from the Vatican Newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. On this week’s Catholic News Service Vatican Report, Carol Glatz and John Thavis take a look at the newspaper, and the shift that has occurred there in the last five years. To download Flash Player please ...read more

The Christian Churches in the Holy Land are often characterized as intractably, scandalously divided. The impression is not without reason, as evidenced by the embarrassing 2008 skirmishes between Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox monks in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre—the church recognized as the site of Calvary and Jesus’ empty tomb. It would be wrong, however, to ...read more

Last week we posted the question: “Does prayer require effort?” As is the case every week, we anticipated uniformity in our answers but were surprised at the diversity (and thoughtfulness) in the responses. One such thoughtful answer came to us from Haiku Hamu who asks: “Is there ever any genuine value in the things that ...read more

On Monday, the S+L blog published an unofficial transcript of Cardinal William Levada’s address on the Vatican’s outreach to Anglicans. His talk attracted a great deal of attention due to the rarity of a visit to Canada by this high-ranking Curial Cardinal. However, the speech was particularly significant given that the office he charges, the ...read more