The Wednesday General Audience this week offered a beautiful discourse on the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  In comments after the General Audience, Pope Benedict also acknowledged the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.  He prayed: May the memory of such events, in particular the tragedy of the Shoah that ...read more

This past Sunday, Pope Benedict visited Rome’s Great Synagogue. Pundits were predicting a less then cordial meeting, but the Pontiff was warmly received, and the meeting was considered a success by both Catholics and Jews. In this week’s Vatican Report from Catholic News Service, John Thavis and Cindy Wooden provide insight into the Holy Father’s ...read more

This month on Lectio Divina, Archbishop Thomas Collins reflects on the servants and the wedding feast as found in Matthew 22:1-14. This is the dramatic parable where the king prepares a marriage feast, and invites his servants, but they refuse to come.  The Archbishop also includes the portion from Matthew 24:45-5: the passage that speaks ...read more

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI met with members of the Jewish community at the Great Synagogue of Rome.  Pope John Paul II visited the Synagogue in 1986, the first visit by a Pope to a Synagogue in centuries! The Venerable Pontiff’s name came up a number of times as many ...read more

In 1986 Pope John Paul II became the first Pope to visit the Great Synagogue of Rome. Nearly 24 years later Pope Benedict XVI follows in his predecessor’s footsteps visiting Rome’s synagogue and meeting with leaders of Rome’s Jewish community and the Chief Rabbi of Italy. The Holy Father will also visit the Jewish Museum ...read more

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and Development and Peace are launching an emergency appeal to support humanitarian aid relief in Haiti. CCCB President Bishop Pierre Morissette noted in a letter released on Wednesday, that Pope Benedict made an appeal at his General Audience for the international community to be generous in assisting the suffering ...read more

Ite ad Joseph. That’s the inscription below the statue of Joseph in front of St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. Go to Joseph. It’s a famous instruction by Blessed Brother André Bessette, CSC, who’s feast day we celebrate today. Of his devotion to Joseph, Fr. H.P. Bergeron, CSC, one of the humble brother’s contemporaries, writes in ...read more

What kind of a year did Pope Benedict XVI have? And what can we expect in 2010? For a perspective on the year that has passed, we turn to Catholic News Service Rome bureau chief John Thavis and CNS Rome correspondent Carol Glatz with this report distributed by H2oNews: Obtenir le lecteur Flash pour voir ...read more

Today celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. A week after we have celebrated the birth of our Saviour, we recognize His mother — Theotokos, God-bearer! It’s also an appropriate time to celebrate this feast as we begin the new year. Pope Benedict XVI noted this in his homily on this day four ...read more

As this year draws to a close, and 2010 begins, Salt + Light Television is pleased to bring to you two Papal events. On New Year’s Eve, at St. Peter’s in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Vespers in thanksgiving for the year gone by. You can watch this live, without English translation, Thursday, December ...read more