BLOG: Canada
When one thinks of Prince Edward Island one tends to think of glowing sunsets over green fields, farms where animals roam free, small towns where everyone knows everyone else, and quaint green-gabled homes. One would not immediately think of the province as a place where 37 percent of people use the services of food banks ...read more
In Abu Dabi in 1993, there was one Catholic Church. The work week in the Arab Emirate was Sunday to Thursday. For Jacqueline Nogier and her husband – both Catholic teachers who were working in Abu Dabi- that meant going to church after work on Sundays. This was Nogier’s life for two years. It taught ...read more
The Vatican received a who’s-who of international leaders, each one bringing their own agenda and a unique assortment of gifts. In the span of three days, leaders from Argentina, Russia, and Canada came to visit, with a delegation of bishops from Latvia and Estonia squeezing in for an Ad Limina visit. Russian leader Vladamir Putin ...read more
Here is what’s been happening across Canada this week: The federal government presented the budget this week, after some delay. Somehow the budget is balanced. What does it say about the financial year ahead? The Archdiocese of Vancouver announced on Friday that Archbishop Emeritus Raymond Roussin has passed away. Roussin was diagnosed with clinical depression ...read more
Freedom of religion, it is something that generally speaking, Canadians take for granted. You can wake-up on Sunday mornings, and drive/walk/ride to the local parish. The music plays, the congregation prays, the priest offers the sacrifice of the mass. For most, the conversation ends right there, freedom of religion delivered, your social contract with the ...read more
By Thomas Cardinal Collins, February 10, 2015 “For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.” Psalm 31 In our days, as in the days of the psalmist, so many years ago, people can suffer grievously during their journey through ...read more
Statement on Physician-Assisted Suicide by the Most Reverend Paul-André Durocher, Archbishop of Gatineau and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Catholics are called by their faith to assist all those in need, particularly the poor, the suffering and the dying. Comforting the dying and accompanying them in love and solidarity has been considered by the Church since ...read more
Sister Marilyn von Zuben was a missionary in Japan (1963-1976) and in Cameroon (1992-2010). Since she came back to Canada, she has been interested in the re-entry process of returning missionaries. She is starting a support group to help religious who, like her, are struggling with the difficulties of coming back to Canada after years ...read more
In the heart of Montreal, there is a very special house with a lovely name communauté Vita-Joie (Live Your Joy). In 2009, the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame moved into this house to welcome two new candidates, Andrée Maheu and Violaine Paradis. When the sisters were received as novices, the house became a novitiate. ...read more
I am a sister of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (CND). On April 1, 2013, I left Japan on a one-year assignment to be a member of the International Community located in the Mother House in Montreal. First, let me briefly introduce the history of the CND in Japan. It was in 1932 that five French ...read more