It’s a mysterious and intriguing relic widely believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. It has fascinated Christians for centuries and created controversy and debate among scientists and scholars alike in their attempts to prove and disprove its authenticity. Fact or fiction, the Holy Shroud of Turin, is a historical and scientific phenomenon. ...read more

I think that we can all say with certainty that the recent defeat of Bill C-384 is a great victory for Canadians. I say “Canadians” because even though there may be some who think euthanasia is necessary (even if a necessary evil), there’s no doubt that as long as we live in a world where ...read more

Last week Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the fifth year of his pontificate. What does the future hold? Catholic News Service’s Carol Glatz and John Thavis look ahead in this week’s Vatican Report. To download Flash Player please click here ...read more

Monday, April 26th, I was dispatched to Turin, Italy to do some preview work for our coverage of Holy Father’s upcoming trip, and to write an article or two for Catholic News Service. Let’s skip the part about missing the train by two seconds, and fast forward to when I actually got to Turin. It ...read more

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re one of the 1.166 billion Catholics in the world. 1.166 billion! According to the Vatican Publishing House that is the world Catholic population. The numbers have been published in the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, and the data is based on the time period between the years 2000 ...read more

Over the weekend, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the participants of a national conference in Rome entitled “Digital Witnesses: Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age”. This is not the first time that the Holy Father has addressed the double-edged sword nature of the internet and social networking. The Holy Father urged his listeners to overcome ...read more

The United States Bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations launched a new website yesterday promoting vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.  Appropriately, the launch came on on Good Shepherd Sunday, which is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. ForYourVocation.org has two goals: To help individuals hear and respond to the call ...read more

This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday.  As Fr. Rosica explained in this week’s Biblical Reflection, all three liturgical cycles for the Fourth Sunday of Easter offer “a passage from John’s Gospel about the Good Shepherd.”  Traditionally the Church has also identified this Sunday as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  Pope Benedict XVI’s message ...read more

At this week’s general audience Pope Benedict XVI discussed his Apostolic Journey to Malta.  The Holy Father recounted the events he participated in over the two-days, including his moving meeting with abuse victims: “I shared with them their suffering and, overwhelmed, I prayed with them, assuring them of the Church’s action.” He also highlighted the ...read more

The latest encounter of Nothing More Beautiful focused on the theme of “Jesus Christ: Crucified and Risen Lord.” Vancouver’s Archbishop Michael Miller provides the catechesis talk.  Ordained to the priesthood by Pope Paul VI in 1975, he became the Archbishop of Vancouver in January 2009.  In addition to working in Rome in the area of ...read more