The first week of the Synod on the family has wrapped up in Rome. Participants have moved from general working sessions into small group sessions where they will go over the issues discussed “in aula” and work towards creating a unified document that can be presented to Pope Francis. While there has been unity among ...read more

We are days away from the opening of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishop on the Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the context of Evangelization, and the already things are heating up…most of that heat, however, is being generated by the media publishing interviews with prelates with opposing opinions on the same issues. There are ...read more

Most priests are not adequately prepared to deal with difficult pastoral situations, according to Vatican officials studying the pastoral challenges to the family. This was one of the topics included in the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, for the upcoming Synod on the family. The document was the result of a consultation process, which involved ...read more

This was my third “Canadian Christmas” since I started working at Salt and Light. I got to spent my Christmas time in Vancouver. Being far away from my family at Christmas time is never easy, but the wonders of technology make the distances short. I can always be with my family even from far away ...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

  By Sebastian Gomes It seems that no event or program of the Vatican or the Pope can occur without the question of continuity being raised.  With Tuesday’s release of the Preparatory Document for next October’s Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization, already there has ...read more

At a press conference in Rome this morning, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri formally presented the preparatory document for the upcoming Extraordinary Synod on Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization. Archbishop Baldisseri, the head of the Synod of Bishops, said the family is an area that the church will work on for the ...read more

Below you will find the official text for Breda O’Brien’s personal testimony, as delivered on Day 3 of the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. Good afternoon, everyone. When I was asked to speak at the Congress, I was both deeply honoured and deeply terrified. I have never missed a deadline for my Irish Times column, ...read more

Where do you draw the line on pornography? That’s the question Pedro asks this week on Perspectives Weekly. Joining him for the discussion is Robert Borys, Author of Love, Marriage and– Pornography? The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines pornography as an offense against chasity, under article 2354: Pornography consists in removing real or simulated ...read more

A couple of years ago, New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan commented that there isn’t a crisis in priestly vocations, but a crisis in marriage. If we work to create stability in marriage and the family, then vocations will naturally flow from that. Families fostering vocations to the religious and priestly life is one of the ...read more