On Friday, March 13, 2015, during the penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father announced an extraordinary Jubilee dedicated to Divine Mercy. Below, please find Vatican Radio’s English translation of the Pope Francis’s homily, in which he made the announcement. This year as last, as we head into of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, ...read more

In St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis announced today, March 13, 2015, the celebration of an “extraordinary Holy Year.” This “Jubilee of Mercy” will commence with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 2015, and will conclude on November 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Our Lord ...read more

(Vatican Radio)  Migration and drug trafficking, the reform of the Curia, the challenges of the Synod for the Family and the need to make the Church a safe home for all children and vulnerable adults. In a wide-ranging interview with Valentina Alazraki, from the Mexican broadcaster Televisa, Pope Francis has marked the second year of his ...read more

Today it’s not uncommon to hear some form of the following statement regarding the pontificate of Pope Francis: “I can’t believe he’s only been pope for two years, it feels like he’s been around a lot longer!” This intuition surfaces around anniversaries when people tend to reflect on what Francis has accomplished. Most would agree ...read more

Welcome to S+L’s Weekly News Round-Up. As the Director of Marketing and Communications here at S+L, many interesting Catholic news stories and articles come across my desk on a daily basis. Some of them we’ll cover on our different television programs and others I’d like to share with you on this blog. This blog column ...read more

On Friday March 6, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario issued a press release confirming that they had dispensed with the conscience rights of their members in the province. Of course, it would be very difficult to initially conclude that, given the PR friendly title of the release: “College Council approves new policy ...read more

Now that in part 1 we’ve taken care of questions regarding fasting and abstinence, let’s focus on the meaning of Lent. We all know that Lent is the 40 days leading us to Easter. But what really is Lent?  Why are penance and suffering associated with Lent? What is the value of suffering? Let me tell ...read more

  Join us in prayer for the intentions entrusted to us by Pope Francis. For March 2015, we join the Holy Father in praying for: Scientists. That those involved in scientific research may serve the well-being of the whole human person. Contribution of Women. That the unique contribution of women to the life of the Church may ...read more

Point of View: Interpreting the Francis Effect is a S+L series that goes deeper into the important questions surrounding the person and pontificate of Pope Francis.  The series consists of a selection of the full interviews from S+L’s original documentary The Francis Effect. This week: Cardinal Donald Wuerl On the evening of February 28th, 2013, the world watched ...read more

A reflection by Deacon Pedro on the meaning of Lent, in order to help us understand fasting and abstinence, and about what we can do and can’t do. ...read more