European Politics

VATICAN CITY — Saying he was acting for the good of the unity of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has restored limits on the celebration of the Mass according to the Roman Missal in use before the Second Vatican Council, overturning or severely restricting permissions St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had given to celebrate the so-called Tridentine-rite Mass.

The tents in city parks, men and women gathered under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, lean-tos and sleeping bags scattered through ravines, camp fires among the alder trees near the beaches — none of this is new to Toronto. But it has become a lot more visible since COVID came to town.

Some may take Michael Crummey’s brilliant 2019 novel The Innocents as a piece of nostalgia for a lost way of life in Newfoundland’s outports. But The Innocents offers insights much greater than the nostalgic pacifier Make Newfoundland Great Again. It depicts an unrelenting struggle for survival by two children left orphaned when their parents and baby sister die within a matter of months.

The Calgary Catholic School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to change the name of Bishop Grandin High School in light of Bishop Vital Justin Grandin’s (1829-1902) key role in establishing residential schools in Canada’s west.

Nearly 7,600 Canadians chose to die via MAiD (medical assistance in dying) in 2020, an increase of 35 per cent over the previous year, the latest numbers released by Health Canada show.

Indigenous scholar and former Cowessess First Nation Chief Terry Pelletier is challenging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to ensure any Cree person can look up the full records of their family members who attended the Marieval Indian Residential School, where approximately 751 unmarked graves were found in June.

Over the last five years retired Ontario Superior Court Justice George Valin has asked three different Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ presidents why the bishops can’t simply, unanimously and open-heartedly invite Pope Francis to apologize on Canadian soil for the long, sad history of Catholic-run residential schools. He has yet to receive an answer.

In 2018, American Catholics experienced their “summer of shame” — first the revelations about Theodore McCarrick and then the Pennsylvania grand jury report on priestly sexual abuse. Given the media reach of the United States, the shame spread around the world. Soon Pope Francis announced a global summit on sexual abuse for February 2019. From that emerged some key reforms for episcopal accountability.

HAVANA -- The Conference of Catholic Religious in Cuba representing men and women religious in the Caribbean nation is supporting the "legitimate and universal right" of Cubans to express grievances with the government in an "orderly and peaceful way in public."

BONN, Germany -- In the coronavirus year 2020, fewer Christians left the church in Germany than in previous years, two church organizations reported on Wednesday.