It’s a developmental disorder more common now than Down’s Syndrome and Multiple Sclerosis, and one in about 165 individuals have it. It’s autism. The topic of autism has intrigued me ever since I was young. I admit that I never thought twice about the students in the Special Education program in my elementary school, but ...read more

On Thursday, December 6th, from 11:30 am to 3 pm ET, a Salt and Light colleague (Kris Dmytrenko) and I had the great honour of attending a day of celebration with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Themed Faith and Character Development: A Celebration, the event took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It ...read more

Last night, November 27th, at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board’s Catholic Education Centre, in Mississauga, Ontario, The World I Know: Virtues in Action DVD series (a co-production between Salt + Light TV and the Dufferin-Peel CDSB) had its official launch! There were close to 125 invited guests – representatives (both teachers and students) from ...read more

As close as all the Salt + Light producers are to each other, I have to admit that we don’t often get a chance to sit down and find out intricate details about everyone else’s shows or projects.  We do find time, however, to pray together and hang out once in a while. Recently I ...read more

When I was a teenager, my parents would take me to a charismatic prayer group, where once in a while, there’d be laying on of hands where people fall to the ground and are ‘slain in the spirit’. I always thought this was a little bit strange, and I was doubtful about the strong faith ...read more

When I was in high school, I wasn’t into my faith at all. Religion was just another credit and going to church on Sundays was just part of a family tradition. And I’m being honest – organized meetings of faithful young people, like the Steubenville conferences, would have been THE farthest thing on my mind ...read more

Canada is one of the more prosperous countries of the world, and yet everyday we come across people who can’t earn enough money to live on and who crowd into homeless shelters. For the first time in 2001 Canada took a census of homeless people living in shelters – the total: a little over 14,000. ...read more

On June 4th, I had the privilege of watching a short video produced by St. Marguerite d’Youville Secondary School on CBC. The piece was actually from an assignment in D’Youville’s Grade 11 Communications Technology course. The short segment, “Nothing Isn’t Always Nothing”, won the Making the Grade 2 Video Contest sponsored by CBC Television. I ...read more

I have been fascinated by butterflies recently. My growing fascination with butterflies “metamorphosed” into an adventurous excursion to the Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory in Cambridge, Ontario. There were over 40 species of butterflies, and thousands of them fluttered around me at the conservatory. One of my favourites is pictured above… … and the picture ...read more

My Catholic Focus – Once Upon a Blog – airs tonight, March 1st at 7pm ET (with a Sunday 7pm ET repeat as well). I’ve had the sincerest pleasure of seeing a Catholic Focus that includes Rocco Palmo (author of Whispers in the Loggia), Cardinal Sean O’Malley (one of the premier blogging US Cardinals in ...read more