ROME (World Jewish Congress) – A delegation of 15 Argentine Jewish leaders was hosted Thursday for an informal kosher lunch at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse by Pope Francis. Latin American Jewish Congress Executive Director Claudio Epelman, who organized the meeting together with Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, said it was an “extraordinary gesture by Pope ...read more

Who doesn’t know the familiar song by John Lennon? Toronto is hit by an ice storm, over 600.000 households without power, large branches cover the streets and live cables are hanging loose, but in our hearts we’re confident that power will be restored soon enough, and Christmas is still some days away; no reason to ...read more

Pope Francis’s appointment of Father Riesbeck as my auxiliary bishop brings me great joy! I am pleased that his many talents will assist me in serving the needs of our English-speaking, francophone and other linguistic and cultural parishes. His community, the Companions of the Cross, has a gift for evangelization so I know Bishop-elect Christian ...read more

First I want to express how deeply humbled I am at the trust and confidence the Lord has placed in me. I express my gratitude and devotion to Pope Francis who has chosen me for this role and to His Grace, Archbishop Prendergast for his constant support and encouragement. I feel that this is also ...read more

I don’t know about you, but I stopped making resolutions for the New Year, years ago. It’s not that I wasn’t keeping my resolutions (well… sometimes) but that it all seemed so arbitrary. We should always be trying to improve, no? So why only do it at the end of the year? It’s sort of ...read more

On December 31, 2013, Pope Francis prayed year-end Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica. Vespers began at 5 PM  with Pope Francis presiding over the prayers that constitute the Church’s official, public praise of God in the evening of the last day of the year, to be followed by the singing of the great hymn of ...read more

 Pope Francis offered New Year’s greetings of peace Wednesday to the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to recite with the Holy Father the Angelus prayer at the start of 2014. The Pope said his wishes for the new year are “those of the Church:” Christian wishes that put Jesus Christ ...read more

On this New Year’s Day of 2014, Pope Francis has published his first message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace, focusing on the theme of brotherhood. As President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada, I want to relay Pope Francis’s intervention to my fellow citizens by taking a look from ...read more

It’s Christmas and all our worries- the food, the dinner guests, our families, the presents- seem to be multiplied. Jesus’ birth is supposed to bring us peace, but instead, during this time of the year, it seems that what we have least of is peace. And we go to Christmas Eve Mass looking for a ...read more

Refugees and the Elderly Are The Outcasts of Society Pope Francis on Sunday turned his attention to the dramatic predicament of migrants and refugees who not always find a welcome, but often become victims of human trafficking and slave labour. Speaking to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus, the Pope ...read more