Category: Highlight

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Can Pope Leo XIV Be A Compassionate Pastor and a Hard-Nosed Administrator?

The Holy Spirit surprised us on May 8 by electing Robert Prevost, an Illinois native who is also a citizen of Peru. For Vatican observers, Pope Leo XIV is the biggest shock since the last conclave, when an Argentine Jesuit who was on (almost) nobody’s list became Pope Francis. How did this happen? Prior to...

Pope Francis Upheld the Spirit of Liberation Theology

More than torture and murder contained liberation theology. The Vatican, headed by Pope John Paul II, refuted its core beliefs. To portray Christ as “a political figure, a revolutionary,” the pope said in 1979, violates Church catechism. There are “social sins” that “cry to heaven,” John Paul said, but to preach to only the poor...

Muenster, Saskatchewan, Peter Novecosky and The Prairie Messenger

While long an admirer of the Prairie Messenger, based as it was in Muenster, SK, my direct acquaintance began on April Fools day, 1982 at 9 pm. My wife was out for the evening, leaving me with the sleeping children to do some reading related to my job with the Catholic Health Association of Canada...

Reverend Alerted World to Cambodian Atrocities

The Rev. François Ponchaud, a French Catholic priest whose book “Cambodia: Year Zero” alerted the world to the atrocities being committed by the communist Khmer Rouge that would take the lives of nearly two million people, died on Jan. 17 in Lauris, France. He was 85. His death was announced by the Paris Foreign Missions...

Cardinal Czerny Critical of USAID Cuts

The White House’s decision to eliminate almost all foreign aid has been condemned by the Canadian cardinal overseeing development and the Catholic Church’s humanitarian agency, Caritas Internationalis, as cruel, reckless and likely to have tragic consequences in the poorest countries. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that, after a six-week review, 83...

Rediscovering The Great Jesuit Missionary to China: Matteo Ricci

On Friday, Nov. 15, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome hosted an international conference on Matteo Ricci, the famous 16th-century Jesuit missionary to China and one of the university’s most famous alumni. The conference, titled “Matteo Ricci: A Heritage of Friendship, Dialogue and Peace,” not only looked back to the 16th century, revisiting the life...

‘He Loved Us’: Pope Francis’ New Encylical on The Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Encyclical Letter Dilexit nos, “He Loved Us” On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, published on 24 October 2024, was born out of the spiritual experience of Pope Francis, who senses the drama of the enormous suffering produced by wars and the many ongoing acts of violence, and wants...

McGill Admin Battles its Pro-Palestinian Students

The Harvard of the North has been the site of an increasingly intense battle linking Justin Trudeau, Roger Waters, a government handbook marginalizing Palestinians and a historic student strike for Palestine. The alma mater of the prime minister and a disproportionate share of Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is aggressively repressing a movement to divest from apartheid...

Experts Inquiry Needed in Ongoing Search for Indigenous Graves

No human remains were found in last month’s excavation of a Catholic church basement on Pine Creek First Nations lands in Manitoba, Canada, after the community asked a Brandon University archaeological team to conduct excavations in the search for any missing children who might have died decades ago in the community’s former residential school. In...

A Challenge As We Enter a Period of No Faith?

My final year studying theology at St. Andrew’s College, United Church of Canada, (UCC) Saskatoon (in the spring of 1965) I learned from Stats Canada (or what its title was at the time) that the total UCC population in all of Canada was 1.5 million adherents and members. Currently I see that the total population...