“Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a despot whose shooting and shelling of his own people cannot be defended,” wrote the Catholic Register in a recent editorial, “yet he may be the last line of defence for Syria’s Catholics.” The editorial captures the paradox of a country where, despite a UN-estimated death toll of 7500 civilians, ...read more

The following post was contributed by Fr. James Mallon, founder and director of the John Paul II Media Institute. Fr. James hosts the new series “Dogmatic Theology“, which airs on S+L on Wednesdays at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT. The program repeats Thursdays at 1:00 pm ET and Fridays at 9:00 am ET. ...read more

Lent! Ahhh yes… the sweet smell of suffering! If you are fully embracing our great Catholic tradition of penance, I have a suggestion for a different kind of “fast” this year, one very appropriate for our age – A fast from media! “But Mark, we don’t want to put you (or S+L) out of a ...read more

Lent is a period of reflection and prayer, of looking for the meaning of our prayers. One community is intimately connected with this search is the Taize Community. The Taize community is an ecumenical society of more than 100 brothers who take vows and commit themselves to the apostolate of reconciliation. It began in 1940 ...read more

Tune in to Salt + Light as Canada welcomes home its newest Cardinal, His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, with a special Mass of Thanksgiving on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 10:30am ET / 7:30am PT LIVE from St. Michael’s Cathedral. In addition to the expected 1,000 well-wishers, dignitaries and friends that are expected to attend, ...read more

The divorce process is always painful because you are ending a life with someone with whom you shared everything. How does the Church support those who are going through such a difficult time? On this episode of Perspectives: The Weekly Edition, Pedro and his guests Lisa Duffy, author of the book Divorced Catholics: Now What? ...read more

  This post comes to us from Fr. James Phalan, CSC, director of Family Rosary International. He wrote this during a recent visit to Africa. Saturday afternoon in a farming village outside of Jinja, Uganda: our host was pleading with his wife to give up her ancestor worship and sacrifices to evil spirits so as ...read more

Tonight on Perspectives: Patriarch Fouad Twal asks Catholics to fast for peace in the Middle East this lent. The Catholic Pontifical University of Peru has to change its statutes in order to keep it’s Catholic university status, and today people around the world mark Shrove Tuesday. ...read more

The time has finally come! After countless interviews and extensive coverage, Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto was formally inducted into the College of Cardinals at a public consistory earlier today. Collins is now the 16th Cardinal in Canadian history. As you can see in the video above, Archbishop Collins was called forward by Pope Benedict ...read more

This morning in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict created 22 new Cardinals at an Ordinary Public Consistory. Included among them was the Archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Thomas Collins. During his address, the Holy Father told the new Cardinals that the scarlet colour of their robes and birettas is a symbol of martyrdom. Like Christ, and ...read more