By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When Cardinal-designate Beniamino Stella joins the College of Cardinals Feb. 22, he will bring with him decades of experience working in developing nations and handling highly-charged situations of conflict. Twenty years working as a papal nuncio and six years serving as head of the ...read more

A year ago, perhaps this was not the question most people asked themselves. But today we ask, where were you on February 11th, 2013, the day Pope Benedict made the historic announcement that he would be retiring? Today, a year later we seem to have gotten used to a new Pope. It seems that Pope ...read more

The incarnate Son of God did not remove illness and suffering from human experience but by taking them upon himself he transformed them and gave them new meaning. New meaning because they no longer have the last word which, instead, is new and abundant life; transformed them, because in union with Christ they need no ...read more

Today on Perspectives: Pope Francis knows the Santa Marta Masses have become a bit of a hot ticket in Rome, but says Mass it should not be, Mass is not a social event. Pope Francis also accepted an invitation to visit Sri Lanka. In Canada, Antigonish, Nova Scotia takes the next step in healing after ...read more

By Lise Alves Catholic News Service SAO PAULO (CNS) — Cardinal-designate Orani Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro said he was surprised that Pope Francis named him a cardinal, but friends and thousands of Brazilian Catholics saw it coming. At the end of World Youth Day in July in Rio de Janeiro, several Brazilian newspapers and ...read more

On Sunday March 16, 2014, The Toronto Police Service will commemorate its 50th annual Communion Breakfast. I’m fairly certain when a few Toronto police officers got together, in the winter of 1964, and decided to take their sons to Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral followed by breakfast at a local restaurant, they never envisioned this ...read more

This week Pope Francis released two special messages: his message for Lent, and a message for World Youth Day. Lent begins on March 5 this year and World Youth Day will be celebrated at the diocesan level on April 13, which is also Palm Sunday. The full text of the Pope’s Lenten message is published ...read more

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti said a parishioner told him he’d been named a cardinal by Pope Francis, and “my jaw dropped” when he found out it was true. The 71-year-old archbishop of Perugia-Citta della Pieve and president of the bishops’ conference of Umbria in central Italy ...read more

Message on 2014-02-05 from the Archbishop of Montreal, Christian Lépine, regarding Bill 52 which is to legalize euthanasia. For a few decades now, we have been preoccupied by questions concerning the accompaniment of people who are gravely ill and who are dying. Palliative care was developed to respond to suffering and pain without having recourse ...read more

Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – We publish below the full text of the message the Holy Father has sent to the young people preparing for the 29th World Youth Day 2014, which will take as its theme: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Dear Young Friends, ...read more