Pope Leo XIV released his first papal encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on May 25, a roughly 42,000-word document outlining a Catholic response to recent developments in AI. I had been eagerly anticipating this encyclical and spent much of the release day poring over the text. While there have been other Christian efforts to release statements about…
As of January 28, the new Archbishop of Canterbury is the Reverend Sarah Mullally. She is the first woman to lead the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion, as is her charge. Anglicanism has often served as an ecumenical bridge between Catholicism and the Reformed tradition, as it has for my wife, Brenda,…
The 2025 election of Pope Leo XIV has renewed audience interest in the recent film Conclave. When the film was released in late 2024, the last papal conclave had happened twenty years earlier and wasn’t the result of a papal death. The exteriors shot in Rome, the detailed costuming and the strong performances give Conclave a vivid sense…
Late this summer I went to Mass in small-town Ontario, after being warned that the service at the local Christian Reformed Church (CRC) would probably be long due to a baptism. It turned out that the Catholic church had a baptism that day as well. The coincidence gave me food for thought. Baptism is, after…
For Peter Noteboom, General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), the election of Pope Leo XIV suggests the Roman Catholic Church intends to continue in the way of his predecessor, Pope Francis. “He has indicated that he wants to continue Pope Francis’ teaching on synodality, human rights, concerns about globalization and of the…
Pope Francis has been Pope longer than I have been Catholic. I remember how impressed I was with what I heard of him before I became Catholic at the Easter Vigil in 2016; especially with his desire to maintain a simple lifestyle and live the concerns of the Gospel. When I became Catholic, I discovered…
Catholic church order will never be the same. After tens of thousands of listening sessions at the parish and diocesan levels on every continent, and two month-long gatherings of bishops and lay people in Rome in 2023 and 2024, the Roman Catholic Church says it is ready to be a synodal church – a church…
This month, from October 2 to October 27, the Roman Catholic church will hold a synod in Rome, the conclusion of a church-wide consultation effort that spanned three years. It is an important, perhaps a defining moment of Pope Francis’s pontificate, which has now lasted more than 11 years and is likely to be nearing…
“Aren’t you ever afraid of sleep?” my little sister asked once. “Anyone could break in and you wouldn’t know.” She’s right. There’s a surrender in becoming insensible to the world around you. Sleep scares us because it’s a dress rehearsal for death. “Lazarus is sleeping,” Jesus tells his disciples. “Lazarus is dead.” Death is the…
When you read this, I will be within 100 km of the end of a pilgrimage for the second time. Together with my husband and three children, I’ll be spending this Easter walking the Camino de Santiago. For my children, it will be a first. My husband and I were pilgrims in 2005 before our…
There is a labyrinth in the cathedral of Chartres in France. The centre of the labyrinth is reached by walking (or going on your knees) on a deceptively long path. Look up, and you will see a mirror copy in the great West Rose of stained glass above. The centre of the West Rose is…
On July 26, 1942, a young Nazi nurse administered a lethal injection to a patient in the Dachau hospital. The patient was a Dutch clergyman named Titus Brandsma; he passed out of this life within 10 minutes. That moment doubtless seemed of little consequence. The clergyman had been in poor health and unrepentant of his…
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