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Your Catholic Channel of Hope Nigeria weepsJanuary 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Over Christmas we were stunned by images of bloody attacks on Christians in Nigeria. This past week more attacks were carried out in the North of Nigeria by a radical Islamist group. However, this time most of the victims were Muslims. Catholic News Service’s Carol Glatz filed this report. Pastoral care on the high seasJanuary 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Following the disaster, news began to surface that a Catholic priest on board who served as Chaplain, Fr Raffaele Malena, played an instrumental role in aiding the evacuation and providing comfort and solace to distraught passengers. So what exactly is the role of a chaplain aboard a cruise ship, you might ask? Fr. Giacomo Martino, director of maritime ministry for the Church in Italy, had a very solid answer. In a recent interview with Zenit, Fr. Martino said that a Chaplain onboard acts as a man of God, without making distinctions between the passengers and crew, even if most of his time is devoted to working with the crew. He added that these workers count on the presence of a chaplain, even if they are of other religious confessions. In the case of the Costa Concordia, the Chaplain wasn’t the only point of pastoral care for those on board. Parishioners at a Catholic Church on the tiny island of Giglio had their own role to play in the disaster. At Mass on Jan. 15, inside Giglio’s main Church, evacuees and parishioners came together to celebrate the source and summit of our Catholic faith, the Eucharist – Holy Mass. During Mass, altar servers brought to the altar a life vest, rescue helmet, role, plastic tarp and bread. Perspectives Weekly – Christian UnityJanuary 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment Tonight on Perspectives: The Weekly Edition, Pedro speaks with Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, and Fr. Damian MacPherson, SA, director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs of the Archdiocese of Toronto, to discuss the sticking points and the intrinsic opportunities of ecumenical dialogue. Perspectives Chinese EditionJanuary 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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 about what’s happening in Universal Church, with a special focus on stories of interest to Chinese-Canadian audiences. Bosco Chan, the host of this new edition of Perspectives, says he is excited to be getting into a new area of media ministry, not just telling stories of hope but also informing the Chinese Catholic audience what’s going on in the church and fostering a connection to the Universal Church. S+L’s English speaking viewers might remember Bosco from the Christmas series “The 12 Days of Christmas”. He shared his memories of a Christmas Eve in Hong Kong as a young altar server, waiting for midnight with his fellow servers. If you understand Chinese and want to hear what’s going on in the Universal Church and your community, tune in today at 2:30pm or Saturday at 6:00pm (all times ET). Catholic Voices around the worldJanuary 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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 not be spent hosting the pontiff given that “his” values did not mesh with their own. Two men deeply involved in the Church in England and outside England, two friends, got to thinking “what if someone actually bothered to explain why the Pope is coming to England? Why the Church teaches what she does? Why the pope doesn’t discriminate against anyone?” They set out to find 25, young, faithful, normal Catholics from all walks of life. Calling on their friends inside and outside Church the two men, Jack Valero – an Opus Dei numerary who responsible for Public Relations for Opus Dei in England, and Austen Ivereigh – a seasoned Catholic Journalist who has written for publications around the world, gave these 25 young Catholics training in both church doctrine and broadcast journalism. The Catholic Voices took Britain by storm in the six months leading up to the Pope’s visit. During the visit itself they were regular faces on the BBC and SkyNews. Their youthful, normal appearance and their calm, articulate manner of fielding even the most aggressive questions won over critics and the media. By the end of the pope’s visit headlines revealed the nation’s love for the grandfatherly pontiff. Now Catholic Voices has been called to help do the same in Mexico. This February the creators of Catholic Voices UK will travel to Mexico to help train the Mexican “Voices” in the lead up to the pope’s March 23 – 25 visit to that country. Salt + Light will bring you full coverage of that Apostolic Journey. Stay tuned to our website for broadcast details. Perspectives Daily – Wednesday, Jan. 18January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment Tonight on Perspecitves: Pope Benedict explains exactly what the week for Christian Unity is all about, a Vatican official calls for the release of Chinese bishops and priests who have been detained and imprisoned, and although vocations are up in the U.S., nobody really knows why. That they may all be oneJanuary 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
As Christians our faith is centered on Christ; His word and His teachings are what Catholics believe and where we get the inspiration for our faith. Not only Catholics are inspired by Him. All other Christian confessions believe in the word of Christ. It is those words, those teachings that unite us. Christian unity means being conscious that everyone who believes in Christ is walking together along the same path. We are committed to that unity and so we announce the presence of Christ in our midst. We’ve probably all already heard the word ecumenism, which in its Greek origin means the whole inhabited world; this word is used to describe all the efforts to unite the Christians churches. In fact, ecumenism is normally represented by the symbol of a boat at sea, on top of a wave, with a cross in the place of the sail. It is a way to show that it is Christ who gives us direction. We have to make an effort to live ecumenism and look to our brothers and sisters from other Christian confessions as companions on the same path. However, we also have to live spiritual ecumenism – which means being united in the intimate relationship we all have with God. What is more intimate than prayer? This is why we have a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which takes place this week. The theme for this year’s week is “We will all be Changed” (1 Cor 15, 51-58), and that is why in every corner of the world people of different Christian confessions are gathering to pray together. In a week when the Church asks us to pray for unity between all Christians, Pedro invited Rev. Karen Hamilton, General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, and Fr. Damian MacPherson, SA, director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs of the Archdiocese of Toronto, to speak about ecumenism and to clarify what exactly is Christian unity. Watch Perspectives Weekly this Friday to learn more. Perspectives Daily – Tuesday, Jan. 17January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment Tonight on Perspectives: The Diocese of Antigonish rebuilds, the Vatican welcomes some unusual pilgrims, and we look at what’s happening across Canada. 25 Questions About the Pope – Answered.January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Everyone knows at least one child like me who is insatiably curious. And we’ve all been on the receiving end of questions that can leave us stumped for an answer. Some questions are not easily explained, but others like why priests wear chasubles, or why Pope Benedict is called the Vicar of Christ are much easier to answer. I recently came across a series of books I think are just fabulous. They’re by Les Miller and are called 25 Questions and published by Novalis. Each booklet in the series deals with a different topic ranging from questions About the Mass, to questions About Catholic Saints and Heroes or About What We See in a Catholic Church. I’ve been reading 25 Questions About The Pope, which is a snazzy 55 pager about Popes. It answers questions big and small. Such as what sort of qualifications do you need to be pope, why the pope has his own flag or what a pope does in a normal day. And to add to that, there are lots of interesting trivia like did you know that during the pontificate of Pope John Paul he traveled to no less than 129 countries (talk about racking up airmiles). [Read more...] |
