Mental Health

The timing could hardly be better for the Canadian arm of the Global Catholic Climate Movement when it officially launches in September.

As the director of a world-leading institute for studies in ecology and theology retires, it’s going to be all hands on deck at the University of St. Michael’s College to maintain the edge it has established over the last 28 years with the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology.

LAC STE. ANNE, Alberta -- As she battled the aching pains of stage 4 intestinal cancer, Evelyn Mercredi slowly lifted herself from her walker and stepped into the waters of Lac Ste. Anne expecting -- and receiving -- healing.

In June, for the first time ever, Canadians told pollsters their number one concern is the environment. This puts Canadians on the same page with Pope Francis, who has called on everybody — Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, even atheist — to face up to the reality of human-caused climate change in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’.

It was just a regular conversation between a bishop and a pastoral intern, sharing coffee and small talk between Masses. But when it was finished, the Halifax-Yarmouth archdiocese had set in motion its own unique project to pray for the renewal of the local Church.

Growing up, Rachel Wong had this image of what a Catholic woman looked like. 

A Catholic woman has a quiet and demure strength. She is sensitive, soft-spoken and wears a lace veil to church. Maybe she’s a homemaker, maybe she has her own career, but the Catholic woman Wong had in her mind was also a one-dimensional stereotype. 

EDMONTON -- With vocations to the priesthood declining — and a call to renew their mission in Canada — the Oblates of Mary Immaculate are leaving St. Charles Parish in north Edmonton.

The graves of some 300 School Sisters of Notre Dame in a cemetery on the order’s Watertown, Ont., convent property are expected to be moved to a Burlington Catholic cemetery in the near future as the sisters look to sell their long-time home.

VATICAN CITY -- With the recent appointments of Matteo Bruni as the new director of the Holy See Press Office and Cristiane Murray as vice director, the Vatican is taking another step forward in its continuing efforts to reform its communication structures.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis appointed Cristiane Murray, a Brazilian journalist with Vatican Radio-Vatican News, to serve as vice director of the Vatican press office.