A lovely, if often overlooked, element in preparation for the sacrament of marriage as a Catholic is the Rite of Betrothal offered by the Church. My fiancé and I were thrilled by the opportunity to participate in this rite in the midst of our engagement and wedding planning. If you are unfamiliar, the Rite of ...read more

For the last two weeks (part 1 and part 2) 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 ...read more

Last week 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. One of my favourite Broadway musicals is Les Miz. I never read the novel, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and wasn’t crazy about ...read more

I remember once, a Cuban friend who grew up in Cuba with no Christmas, telling me that she had never seen or heard of a Christmas tree before she left Cuba. But had Christ never been born, the implications would be much worse than not having Christmas trees. Just think of the music we’d be ...read more

Earlier this week I found myself listening to R.E.M.’s It’s the End of the World (although I much prefer the cover by Great Big Sea). It’s a good song and, while I’m not exactly sure what it’s about, I always think about it around this time of the year when all the Mass readings have ...read more

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Good journalism has to be creative and promote communication that focuses on dialogue, intelligence and helping build active communities, said the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication. Paolo Ruffini, the prefect, said the challenge of good journalism is to find new ways for a new kind of communication by “focusing ...read more