Since it is World Youth Day month, I’d like to share a little something about my first World Youth Day experience, which was last year in Australia! In particular, I’d like to talk about one of the patron saints of WYD 2008 — Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint (well, technically she’s Blessed Mary MacKillop, a ...read more

July is World Youth Day month! I wasn’t in Toronto for World Youth Day 2002, but I still see three things around the city that are “remains” of those glorious days: first, I work at Salt + Light Television, the station that was born “on the wings of WYD 2002” and where the WYD spirit ...read more

…and that is one of the powers of media – I’m thinking of film specifically. I want to let you know about a wonderful new film by MPower Pictures that’s coming out here in Canada this weekend: The Stoning of Soraya M. The film is about a woman who is accused of adultery in Iran ...read more

Monday’s news story of a car bomb exploding in front of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Baghdad brought two things to mind. The first thing was a story I wrote for CNS approximately two years ago about the killing of a priest and three deacons in front of the Church of the ...read more

It has been one year since those glorious Australian sun-filled days when the streets of Sydney overflowed with faithful pilgrims from around the world. These pilgrims arrived with hearts full of anticipation for the largest event Australia has ever hosted- World Youth Day 2008 (WYD08). Thousands of pilgrims came to Sydney and with their faith ...read more

Children presented Pope Benedict XVI with flowers as he arrived at Introd, a town in the Aosta Valley region of north western Italy, to begin his summer vacation. He’ll spend 16 days in Les Combes of Introd. As the Vatican Information Service shared: As he did in 2005 and 2006, the Pope will stay in ...read more

It’s rare that I talk about movies. The last one was Slumdog Millionaire, and this time it’s the Pixar computer-animated comedy-adventure movie distributed by Disney — Up. All I knew of the movie before seeing it was that a cranky old man lifts his house up with balloons and is accompanied on his airborne journey ...read more

During the Pauline year, Salt + Light Television offered viewers the opportunity experience the writings of St. Paul through Lectio Divina with Archbishop Thomas Collins: A Year with St. Paul. Though the Pauline year has come to a close and Archbishop Collins’ monthly gatherings are on a summer hiatus, we are pleased to present a ...read more

In the third chapter of Caritas in Veritate, which addresses moral considerations of the economy, the Holy Father evaluates the mixed record of globalization. He cautions that “blind opposition would be a mistaken and prejudiced attitude” that would lead to the neglect of “many opportunities for development” (42). Yet, the faithful should keep in mind ...read more

If there was ever a poor choice for speed-reading, it’s Caritas in Veritate. Yet, like a few of my colleagues and most Catholic journalists the world over, I was furiously attempting to plough through a very dense embargoed text to prepare notes on the sections pertaining to the economic matters. Doing so felt akin to ...read more