During his visit to Cuba last week Pope Benedict XVI met with Cuban President Raul Castro. During that visit the Holy Father made one request: that Good Friday be considered a public holiday in that country. A communique from Cuba’s state-run news service Granma published on Saturday, said Raul Castro had informed Pope Benedict his request ...read more

The fruits of a papal visit are often not noticeable until after the banners and altars have come down.  In Cuba it didn’t take long to see the gifts of the papal visit. Catholic News Service reported this week on the impact the Pope’s overnight stay in El Cobre. The preparations alone meant that infrastructure ...read more

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – Pope Benedict XVI’s former office – announced today it is putting it’s major documents on-line. The documents will be accessible through the Vatican website. Catholic News Service’s Rome Bureau has more details about the new site in this article. ...read more

At first impact the phrase “the Cuban Church” sounds like an oxymoron, or a misnomer and thoughts of an underground catholic presence might spring to mind. That might have been true at some point. However, Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to the Island nation later this month shows that is not the case today, and ...read more

We are about halfway through lent already, the point at which many people begin to think “why did give up chocolate?” or “why did I decide to get up earlier to pray before I start my day?” It’s also the point when many people feel the need for more spiritual nourishment in order to get ...read more

March 8th is International Women’s day. In Canada not many people know what this day is, or remember to say “happy women’s day” to the women in their lives. When I lived in Italy and Spain this day usually arrived accompanied by Mimosas or other flowers. The Vatican news portal news.va published this reflection on ...read more

Our friends at Catholic News Service recently released this video about the theologian of the papal household. The footage was courtesy of Kindly Light, the media production division of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. ...read more

Yesterday, Wednesday February 29, Cardinal Thomas Collins celebrated his recent elevation to the cardinalate with a Mass of Thanksgiving at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral.  Toronto is a large archdiocese and, naturally, not everyone who wanted to attend could make it to the Mass. In order to include all of Toronto’s faithful in this joyful moment ...read more

Today Pope Benedict XVI led a Lenten station procession and celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass. The Lenten stations are a Roman tradition dating back to the fifth century. The Bishop of Rome would visit specific churches at specific times during the year. While that practice has fallen away somewhat, what remains is a fixed schedule of ...read more

The eleven cardinals who oversee the Vatican’s economic affairs are pleased with the budget forecast for 2012 but concerned about the ongoing economic crisis. The Council of Cardinals for the study of Organizational and Economic problems of the Holy See met this week at the Vatican to review the budget forecast for 2012 and start ...read more