European Politics

VATICAN CITY -- While acknowledging Vatican-mandated reforms in the handling of clerical sexual abuse, four U.N. special rapporteurs urged the Vatican to make it mandatory that church officials everywhere report abuse allegations to civil authorities.

To mark the 25th anniversary of National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada on June 21, the Canadian Conference Catholic Bishops (CCCB) have released a prayer titled “Prayer for Tolerance, Forgiveness, Reconciliation.”

I am a fifth-generation Irish descendent from Southern Ontario, and a third-generation teacher.

It’s been quite an extraordinary couple weeks for 16-year-old goaltender Taya Currie.

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) June 27 (Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43)

Death was not part of God’s plan, and God takes no delight in it. We need to hear that repeatedly, for fearsome and negative images of God have taken their toll over the centuries. God is the God of the living and the giver of life itself.

It is heartening to see Catholic clergy calling out the stream of inaccuracies and exaggerations around the Church’s responsibility for the residential schools debacle.

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller reached out to residential school survivors in an interview with an Indigenous news network, apologizing for how representatives of the Church “betrayed your trust.”

It has been a profoundly difficult few weeks to live in Treaty territory and the homeland of the Métis. To live in a land that welcomes people to safety but cannot guarantee it.

BRUSSELS -- The bishops of the European Union, while applauding a proposed EU report on expanding the access of all women to adequate health care, take strong issue with the report's characterization of abortion as a human right and its claim that "a total ban on abortion care or denial of abortion care is a form of gender-based violence."

While the work toward a formal apology from Pope Francis is ongoing, a clear majority of Canadians hold the Catholic Church primarily responsible for the damage done by residential schools, according to a Leger poll conducted June 4- 6.