On Sunday, April 24, 2016, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of Young People. Read below for the full text of his Homily: St. Peter’s Square – Sunday April 24, 2016 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”  Dear young friends, what an enormous ...read more

In exploring the issues of end of life and medically assisted dying, we’ve looked at what the law says and at palliative care. But we can’t ignore the question of freedom and human rights since one of the basic arguments for euthanasia and assisted suicide is that of autonomy: “it’s my body; my choice.” In ...read more

Canada is facing the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia and for many people, Catholics especially, this raises very serious concerns: About our respect for the principle of the sanctity of human life; what will this mean for the protection of our vulnerable people? How will this affect our healthcare professionals who may be forced to participate in these practices against ...read more

This post originally appeared on Bishop Tim Thornton’s blog.  Timothy Thornton was born in Leeds, England and educated at Devonport High School for Boys. He took an honours degree in Theology at Southampton University and trained for the priesthood at Oxford, later working in London, Wakefield and Cardiff. Timothy was Bishop of Sherborne for seven ...read more

Last week I wrote about the law as it stands in Canada and what the changes to allow for physician assisted dying may be. Since then, the Government has tabled a bill which is now going through the proper channels on its way to approval before June 7th, 2016. You can read the proposed bill: ...read more

In this special Jubilee Year, we are invited to remember the corporal works of mercy. One of them is to feed the hungry. Every day, all over the world, people have been doing this and the Church has been doing it for 2000 years. In Toronto, Sr. Margaret Patterson of the Congregation of Notre Dame ...read more

Pedro J. de Rezende and Ketty A. Rezende of the University of Campinas, Brazil were lay auditors at the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family.  In that capacity they had the opportunity to address the Synod and participate in the small language groups which laid the foundation for the Final Relatio that was approved and given ...read more

You may know that I am currently in Edmonton taking part in the Every Life Matters series. This is an initiative by Archbishop Richard Smith to begin conversations on an important topic that is bound to touch all of us at some point in time. What precipitated the series is the fact that our legal landscape ...read more

I’ve always been interested in matters of science and of faith. Growing up, it never occured to me that there would be a conflict between faith and science or faith and reason, but as a young adult, these conversations became more and more common – and the consensus among some of my friends was that ...read more

Pope Francis’ long awaited post-synodal exhortation on the family was made public today. As he has made clear over the past two years, there was no doctrinal change announced in this document. The document covers a wide range of topics, from the thorny to the common sense. As is his way, Pope Francis includes some frank ...read more