At 10:30 am on the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Pope Francis celebrated mass in St. Peter’s Square and presided over the rite of canonization of Blesseds Maria Elisabetta Hesselblad (1870-1957) and Stanislaus Papczyński (1631-1701). Below you will find the homily given by Pope Francis following the Gospel of the day. Also included are two brief ...read more

Lisa Daniels lives with extreme, debilitating, chronic pain. She suffers greatly. Her suffering is irremediable. There is no cure. Many people who support the idea of medically assisted dying do so on the basis that some people, like Lisa, live with unbearable, intolerable pain. Can all pain be managed? How are we to respond to ...read more

I first heard of Mark Pickup, 10 years ago when we were working on Turning the Tide. At the time, it was not possible to interview Mark for the documentary. He would have been a great addition to the film. Mark was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age 30. He is one of Canada’s most ...read more

Recently, while in Edmonton during the Every Life Matters series, I overheard someone say that the Catholic Church had two preferential options. I had heard of the preferential option for the poor but had never heard of the preferential option for life. Life is the one inalienable right upon which all the other inalienable rights ...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

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

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

Watch the Press Conference LIVE on Friday, April 8th 2016 at 5:30am ET. Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation on the family will be published on April 8th 2016. It is called, “Amoris Laetitia” latin for “The Joy of Love”. ...read more

I have many memories of April 2, 2005, when St. John Paul II died after a lengthy illness and much suffering. I remember the succession of news reports the evening before his death,  people praying in St. Peter’s Square and the shared sense of concern and sadness that most people felt; this was not limited just ...read more

A video tribute to a great saint who walked among us on the 11th Anniversary of his death. ...read more