[From the Thursday Papal arrival to the Sydney Harbour, here is Pope Benedict XVI’s Homily] Dear Young People, What a delight it is to greet you here at Barangaroo, on the shores of the magnificent Sydney harbour, with its famous bridge and Opera House. Many of you are local, from the outback or the dynamic ...read more

Pope Benedict XVI will be officially arriving at WYD on Thursday, but in the meantime he’s spending a few days relaxing at an Opus Dei retreat centre northwest of Sydney. In addition to spending time praying, enjoying music, wandering the 25-acre property, and celebrating Mass, the Holy Father took the opportunity to make a few ...read more

The blog comes from Marilena Berardinelli, a young Toronto based Catholic teacher and WYD08 participant. In the year of the Jubilee Pope John Paul II called the WYD pilgrims gathered in Rome “to be the saints of the new millennium.” In the company of over 2,000,000 other pilgrims, I listened to words of the Holy ...read more

At WYD, separation from your group is either an opportunity to make new friends or a dangerous precursor to getting lost, which in turn leads to things like hunger and death. I know rationally that it’s not so perilous, but I was still hesitant to leave my S+L colleagues and venture into the unknown. They were walking twelve blocks to the “Big Aussie BBQ” ...read more

During the Eucharistic Congress this past June, I had a blog entry called “Mabuhay!”. I was writing about the day we heard from the Filipino contingent at the Congress – they were all screaming “Mabuhay!” when Bishop Tagle from the Philippines came out to give his catechesis.Well, today, I bumped into a lively contingent during ...read more

Most of us would agree that in most Parishes ministry is divided into the following categories: sacramental ministry, ministry to families, to children, to adolescents and ministry to the elderly. But what about ministry to young adults? In this new episode of Catholic Focus we look at the challenges of ministering to young adults in ...read more

Though it’s already been a few weeks since the Eucharistic Congress, I couldn’t very well move on to thinking about World Youth Day without sharing my incredible and unique experience of the week in Québec. First, I should mention that I truly enjoyed the privilege of being part of the Salt + Light team in ...read more

Today we celebrate the memorial of a favourite blessed for those of us here at Salt + Light: Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. An exciting twist to the feast day this year is his involvement in Sydney’s World Youth Day. As many of you have probably read — or heard reported on Zoom — the body ...read more

Sigh…. well, some sad and disappointing news on Canada Day with the announcement of the appointment of Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada. Quick to respond to the news has been the Archdiocese of Toronto. Archbishop Thomas Collins has released a statement (click HERE for that) and the Archdiocesan website has also published a ...read more

With it being Canada Day, I couldn’t help but pull out my bible and read Psalm 72 (see below for full text). That’s the psalm that Canada takes it’s motto from – A Mari Usque Ad Mare — “From Sea to Sea” (72:8). From what I understand, the use of the word dominion in that ...read more