Here’s a reflection I wrote on August 26, 2008 on the catechesis given by Cardinal Mario Bergoglio (now, Pope Francis) at the 2008 International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City. Seems incredible that he is now the Pope! To read Cardinal Bergoglio’s Catechesis text, visit the Vatican website. This may come out sounding a bit complicated, ...read more

The Most Reverend Richard Smith, Archbishop of Edmonton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), has sent an immediate letter of congratulations to Pope Francis on the day of his election as pastor of the Universal Church. Below find the full text of his letter: His Holiness Pope Francis Vatican City Most ...read more

Pope Francis: What does this mean for the Catholic Church in Canada and beyond? We have first reactions from Ottawa’s own Archbishop Terrence Prendergast — who, like Francis, is a Jesuit — plus Bishop William McGrattan and Dr. Moira McQueen. Don’t miss this edition of “Perspectives Conclave Special” with Kris Dmytrenko. ...read more

A few weeks ago, during a homily, I suggested that we should take the opportunity of this Year of Faith to do what the Holy Father has proposed: That we learn about our Faith; that we live our Faith and that we share our Faith. Soon after, I thought, ‘why don’t we make this a ...read more

For the last two days I’ve been trying to imagine what our world would be like had Jesus never been born. It’s easy to say that The Church would not exist or that we would have no Pope. There would be no priests, deacons, religious sisters or brothers, nor there would be church buildings. But ...read more

Yesterday I was imagining a world without Christmas. That would mean no Christmas music and no Christmas movies.  But a world without Jesus would mean much more to our popular culture. I also just came from watching the screen adaptation of Les Miserables (isn’t Anne Hathaway fabulous as Fantine?). I couldn’t help but thinking that ...read more

While I dislike having to listen to Christmas music as early as November 25th, I do like that once a year radio stations all over don’t seem to have a problem playing music that mentions the name of Jesus or that glorifies God. This year, listening to Christmas music early in December I found myself ...read more

By Mark Matthews, Salt + Light Radio’s Hollywood Undercover Missionary You’ve heard from me often about what’s good in Hollywood. Today I thought I’d write about what’s bad in Boston! “The Celtics? The St. Paddy’s day parade? C’mon, why you hatin on the Bostonians?” I recently visited Boston and while there I made a pilgrimage ...read more

The feast of the Epiphany is celebrated in the Christmas season and through Matthew’s Gospel we become aware of the visit of the wise men or Magi who come in search of the Christ child so that they might present their gifts. It is interesting that in the homily of an early saint and bishop ...read more

In the Jubilee Year of 2000, John Paul II made a very insightful statement.  He said: “Our Christian witness would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated the face of the Lord.”  The same might be said of our fully entering into the Christmas season. Christmas is a time in which we ...read more