Without a doubt we have all heard the news concerning Costa Concordia, a cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Giglio, Italy on Jan. 13. At the latest count, 11 people have been confirmed dead and another 21 passengers, including an American Catholic couple en route to Rome, are still missing. Following the ...read more

Today is very exciting day at Salt + Light: the Chinese language edition of Perspectives goes on air for the first time. The five minute show will air throughout the week at the start of the Chinese programming segment for the day. Like its English and French language siblings, the Chinese edition brings viewers stories ...read more

Back in September of 2010 when Pope Benedict XVI made his pastoral visit to England and Scotland to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, we introduced you to a unique group of youth Catholics known as “Catholic Voices”. The pope’s visit to Britain provokes not a little controversy, with many Britons insisting their tax dollars should ...read more

When I was a kid, I’d ask my mom a million questions. Stuff like, how long is a centipede? Why does the sun rise in the morning, and why does Fr. Ballmeier wear a ‘scarf’ (chasuble) during mass? Everyone knows at least one child like me who is insatiably curious. And we’ve all been on ...read more

Archbishops Richard Smith of Edmonton and Paul-Andre Durocher, President and Vice-President respectively for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, have released a letter to Canadian bishops, outlining their recent solidarity mission to Haiti from Dec. 14 – 21, 2011. Furthermore, the CCCB has compiled a complete report titled, “Challenges and Opportunities in the Reconstruction of ...read more

Every year bishops representing North America and Europe make a special visit to the Holy Land to meet with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Known as the Holy Land Coordination, the bishops spend the week visiting Christians in and around Jerusalem. They get to see how the average parish works, how Christians live alongside Jews ...read more

With last week’s Epiphany announcement that the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins would become a cardinal, Canada is rejoicing. Although his face and name are associated with the Archdiocese of Toronto he was previously the Archbishop of Edmonton. This week the Western Catholic Reporter published this story offering insight into what kind of impact he ...read more

Do you think it’s possible to have 30,000 people welcoming the year in prayer? What if the majority of that group are youth? Does that seem possible? That is exactly what happened this year in Berlin at the European meeting of the Taize community. The meeting actually begun on December 28 and ran until January ...read more

If we were to step back for a moment and look at the extent to which traditionally Christian societies have become secular in recent history, we might conclude (quite reasonably) that by all appearances the Faith is dying, if not dead already.  So dangerous is the perception of this cultural shift away from God, that ...read more

Every year for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord the Holy Father takes part in a special tradition: he celebrates Mass in the Sistine Chapel with the Vatican workers who have had babies in the last year and baptizes the little ones. The tradition began with John Paul II in the first year ...read more