Everyday at the Synod of Bishops, journalists are offered but one opportunity to observe the participants when they’re gathered in Paul VI Hall.  Accredited media are told to arrive outside the aula at 8:30 AM.  Then we wait for twenty minutes before being herded upstairs into the auditorium. A reporter is left no time to ...

It’s a busy weekend for us here at Salt + Light. A group is heading down to Los Angeles to collect our Gabriel Award for Television Station of the Year. Check the blog next week for their thoughts on the experience. Meanwhile, in Rome, as the Synod of Bishops draws to a close Fr. Rosica ...

“You are ethically bound to help a drowning person, even if you can not swim.” Those were among the last words Irena Sendler’s father said to her as he lay on his death bed, suffering of Typhoid Fever. This was the same disease that brought many Jewish patients to seek his help, his door being ...

It’s hard to believe that many Catholics in Toronto are not aware of one of our greatest treasures: The St. Michael’s Choir School. I would say that the Choir School is not just a treasure of the Church, but a treasure of our city. Dating back to the early 1900s, with the St. Michael’s Parish ...

Tonight, October 21st, at 8pm ET, the season premiere of “The World I Know: Virtues in Action” airs. The target audience is elementary and high school students, and this has been a year in the making, so I’m excited to see this happen! The first episode is on the virtue of fairness, and I have ...

I don’t know when it was that I realized I love working with children. Maybe it was that year teaching kindergarten. Maybe it’s because that at some parties I go to, I end up playing games with the kids and leaving the adults to do all their talking! Regardless, I’ve been able to indulge in ...

In the midst of all the hard work and writing, an event of biblical proportions took place on Thursday evening. It took place not in the synod hall, but at a building known to us as “the Biblicum” in Rome’s Piazza della Pilotta, near the Trevi Fountain. It was a reunion and festive dinner at ...

Sadly for a lone tourist, much of Rome is either indecipherable or inaccessible.  Unlike Canada, where every hundred-year old building gets a commemorative plaque, even the magnificent churches typically lack explanations of their features. And the city is full of so many notable religious sites that a guide book would weigh more than a traveller ...

While I can’t always understand them, Rome is full of interesting characters. It’s for them that I’ve attempted to become an extrovert since I arrived nearly two weeks ago. Andre Koekenhoff (right) is the Thermovolt site manager for the solar panel project atop the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, where most of the Synod of Bishops ...

How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you find a word that means Maria? A flibbtijibbet! A will-o’-the-wisp! A clown! Singing yet? I would guess that 92% of this country (random calculation and not scientific) have some concept of The Sound of ...