BLOG: Jenna Murphy
A “very intense” meeting with eight Maltese victims of sex abuse led one victim to say that he had “made his peace with the Church” and reported that the meeting left the Holy Father with “tears in his eyes” . This highly-anticipated meeting which took place at the nunciature in Rabat, Malta, today, had not ...read more
Below is the Holy Father’s homily from this morning at the Granaries in Floriana, Malta. The italicized text in brackets was translated from the original Maltese. APOSTOLIC VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI TO MALTA Mass at the Floriana Granaries 18 April 2010 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, [My dear sons and ...read more
This evening in Malta, a well-rested Pope Benedict XVI was greeted World Youth Day-style in Rabat, Malta by thousands of cheering faithful, the majority of whom were young people. “In our hearts we already know who you are: you are our Head Shepherd representing the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst”, said Archbishop Paul Cremona, ...read more
The Holy Father received the warmest of welcomes from Maltese dignitaries upon disembarking the Alitalia flight this evening in Malta. Despite concerns that the flight would not take place due to residual hovering ash clouds from Iceland’s volcano eruption this past Thursday, The Holy Father’s plane landed right on schedule with dozens of journalists, Vatican ...read more
As if the lovely Sisters of Life retreat weren’t enough, when all of the other retreatants boarded trains to go home, the Salt + Light “retreat team” began ironing our Sunday best in preparation for a visit to the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut. “I don’t know how to ask ...read more
This week our Perspectives question of the week was: “What is a real man?” I had significant hesitations with taking this question to the streets not only because I knew men wouldn’t be thrilled to reveal the innermost secrets of their masculine heart on a corner in downtown Toronto (and to a woman, no less), ...read more
There is a reason why this week is called Holy Week. As a kid, these words directly translated to daily, long bouts of sitting in the pews of St. Ambrose Cathedral in a tiny ocean town in southwestern Nova Scotia. I recall looking forward to this time of the year as it was typically marked ...read more
With the approach of Holy Week, Christians are seeking out ways to more fully enter into the solemn commemoration of Christ’s last days on earth before His death. Many Catholics, out of devotion to the person of Christ, have sought to imitate the sacred Seder Meal (Passover) that Christ celebrated with His disciples on the ...read more
In this month’s edition of Lectio Divina, Toronto’s Archbishop suggests that “we don’t have lots of time.”  Instead of making us panic though, Archbishop Thomas Collins says that the shortness of this life should be a source of joy, not fear. “The return of the master is not long off for many of us,” he ...read more
The recent days in the American journey towards health care reform have been revealing. With the final vote rumored to take place over the weekend, before President Obama leaves for Indonesia, many religious groups are publicly staking out their territory, some of them thrusting their flags in surprising ground. One such group was the Leadership ...read more