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Russian occupation authorities have banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and other Catholic ministries in occupied areas of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, according to the church's main communications office in Kyiv.

Second Sunday of Advent  (Year B) Dec. 10 (Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8 )

What would “comfort” and “good tidings” sound like in 2023? To whom would they be directed? To be at all meaningful, the message cannot be only for believers and churchgoers. Although originally given to the people of Israel in Babylonian exile, our own times call for a more universal application.

After having for years helped to deliver daily nourishment to those in need, St. Francis Table is now offering free health services to that same clientele.

The Oct. 7 killing of about 1,200 people in Israel by armed Hamas militants represented the biggest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. It also started the war that has killed nearly 16,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run health ministry, followed by massive pro-Palestinian protests around the globe. What it also did was spark unprecedented instances of anti-Semitism.

Recently, I have been thinking about indifference, which seems to me to be the defining attitude of our times. At least, I thought of indifference as an attitude. Then I was asked to reflect on a statement by St. Teresa of Kolkata which included these words: “The greatest evil in the world is the lack of love, the terrible indifference towards one’s neighbour.”

You might be a Modernist and not even know it. I was. Well, a quasi-Modernist at least. I’m talking here about the official heresy of Modernism, not the cultural and artistic movement. There is also the “Modern Era” (lasting roughly from 1500 to 1945). We are in the Postmodern or Post-Postmodern Era now, philosophically speaking.

Advent is the time of waiting and preparation for the coming of Jesus. This Avent I await the Prince of Peace. I roll the words over my tongue and in my mind daily — the Prince of Peace. How we long for you in these days! 

Is our freedom absolute? If God is perfectly free, and we bear His image and likeness, are we not then perfectly free?

For the fourth year running, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is spiritually accompanying Catholics during Advent with short video reflections, inspired by the Gospel readings, published to its YouTube channel and website.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission insists it has never called Christmas racist.