Religion

The Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., is shown in a 1989 file photo. The Archdiocese of Vancouver and a private Catholic school in British Columbia have denied any wrongdoing in claims of sexual abuse by former students and filed their own lawsuits against the alleged abusers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Vancouver archdiocese and private school deny wrongdoing, sue alleged abusers

Legal filings come after class action lawsuit certified alleging abuse at two Catholic schools

 

A phone sits on a paper sheet reading: “I believe in the human beings, today people judges you for the image that you have, they see only masks they don’t know even who you are” inside the Chicco community of L’Arche, an International charity that helps people with intellectual disabilities, in Ciampino, near Rome, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. The findings of expert reports commissioned by L’Arche itself reveal that their founder, Jean Vanier, perverted Catholic doctrine to justify his own sexual compulsions and abuse women and that the movement he created had at its core a secret, a mystical-sexual “sect” founded for the precise purpose of hiding the sect’s deviant activities from church authorities. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Shattered: Catholic community of L’Arche confronts its founder’s lies

Once-revered, Jean Vanier abused at least 25 women through a secret, mystical-sexual ‘sect’

 

Pope Francis and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon watch a traditional dance during the final public event of his papal visit across Canada as he prepares to leave Iqaluit, Nunavut on Friday, July 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Pope Francis’s tour came with a minimum $55-million price tag for Ottawa

‘Think of all the money that could have gone to survivors’

 

The Jesuits of Canada have released a list of priests they say were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over the past 70 years. The Jesuits logo is seen in this undated handout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

Jesuits of Canada releases list of 27 members ‘credibly’ accused of child sex abuse

Names the result of probe examining records dating back to the ’50s

The Jesuits of Canada have released a list of priests they say were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over the past 70 years. The Jesuits logo is seen in this undated handout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
(Black Press Media Creative)

Mormon church fined $5M for obscuring size of portfolio

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment arm…

(Black Press Media Creative)
A statue of Mother Earth sits at the front of an altar used by a Colombian shaman, healer and traditional medicine man who leads the Hummingbird Church ayahuasca ceremonies, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, in Hildale, Utah. Like many groups using psychedelics as sacraments, Hummingbird functioned underground for many years, hosting word of mouth ceremonies. But in Feb. 2021, they decided to go public. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Psychedelic churches in US pushing boundaries of religion

Growing numbers of people turning to ayahuasca in search of spiritual enlightenment

A statue of Mother Earth sits at the front of an altar used by a Colombian shaman, healer and traditional medicine man who leads the Hummingbird Church ayahuasca ceremonies, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, in Hildale, Utah. Like many groups using psychedelics as sacraments, Hummingbird functioned underground for many years, hosting word of mouth ceremonies. But in Feb. 2021, they decided to go public. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
(Pastor Arthur Lucier/Instagram)

Lawyer questions consitutional right for B.C. pastor to be denied COVID appeal

Arthur Lucier wants to challenge the ‘constitutionality’ of 2021 Public Health Orders and his freedoms

(Pastor Arthur Lucier/Instagram)
Tourists take pictures with a stuffed polar bear upon arriving to Longyearbyen airport, Norway, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Church helps Norwegian mining community evolve in dark, warming Arctic

Northern community navigating a drastic change in its identity

Tourists take pictures with a stuffed polar bear upon arriving to Longyearbyen airport, Norway, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Pope Francis touches the coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before it is carried away after a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Benedict died at 95 on Dec. 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Faithful mourn Benedict XVI at funeral presided over by pope

Heads of state, royalty, clergy from around the world, and thousands more attend ceremony

Pope Francis touches the coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before it is carried away after a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Benedict died at 95 on Dec. 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Nuns arrive at dawn to view the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as it lies in state in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict died on Dec. 31, 2022, aged 95, and that his funeral will be held on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope praises ‘gentle’ Benedict ahead of funeral

Nearly 160,000 people had passed through the basilica for former pope’s official viewing

Nuns arrive at dawn to view the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as it lies in state in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict died on Dec. 31, 2022, aged 95, and that his funeral will be held on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, third from left, meets with the winners of the 2022 Ratzinger Prize, Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler, left, and father Michel Fedou, partially hidden at right, at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican where Benedict XVI lives, in this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Second from left, is the foundation’s president Father Federico Lombardi, and fourth from left is Benedict XVI’s long-time personal secretary Bishop Georg Gänswein. (Fondazione Vaticana J.Ratzinger via AP)

Benedict XVI, first pope to resign in 600 years, dies at 95

German theologian tried to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, third from left, meets with the winners of the 2022 Ratzinger Prize, Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler, left, and father Michel Fedou, partially hidden at right, at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican where Benedict XVI lives, in this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Second from left, is the foundation’s president Father Federico Lombardi, and fourth from left is Benedict XVI’s long-time personal secretary Bishop Georg Gänswein. (Fondazione Vaticana J.Ratzinger via AP)
The Knights of Columbus annual nativity scene atop Terrace City Hall on Dec. 14, 2021. (Ben Bogstie/Terrace Standard)

Nativity scene banned from B.C. town’s city hall after decades-long run

Volunteer group hoping to get Terrace to change its mind after annual tradition rejected

The Knights of Columbus annual nativity scene atop Terrace City Hall on Dec. 14, 2021. (Ben Bogstie/Terrace Standard)
Rev. John Koopman of Free Reformed Church in Chilliwack who was found guilty of violating COVID-19 orders on religious gatherings. (Screenshot www.sermonaudio.com)

Fraser Valley pastor found guilty of hosting church service in violation of COVID rules

Rev. John Koopman’s lawyer to make Charter argument that prohibition violated freedom of religion

Rev. John Koopman of Free Reformed Church in Chilliwack who was found guilty of violating COVID-19 orders on religious gatherings. (Screenshot www.sermonaudio.com)
The Knights of Columbus annual nativity scene atop Terrace City Hall on Dec. 14, 2021. (Ben Bogstie/Terrace Standard)

Northern B.C. officials ban nativity scene from Terrace city hall roof

The move reflects a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada decision

The Knights of Columbus annual nativity scene atop Terrace City Hall on Dec. 14, 2021. (Ben Bogstie/Terrace Standard)
St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Nanaimo. (Chris Bush/News Bulletin)

B.C. is Canada’s least religious province, has country’s 6 least religious metro areas

For the first time, non-religious people outnumber religious people in British Columbia

St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Nanaimo. (Chris Bush/News Bulletin)
A woman walks through an abandoned church in Thunder Bay, Ont., Friday, March 4, 2016. Statistics Canada says 34.6 per cent of people in this country have no religious affiliation — more than ever before. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

More Canadians than ever have no religious affiliation, census shows

Growth in the non-religious population, decline in people reporting as Christian linked

A woman walks through an abandoned church in Thunder Bay, Ont., Friday, March 4, 2016. Statistics Canada says 34.6 per cent of people in this country have no religious affiliation — more than ever before. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
The Cloverdale Catholic School student choir provided music for a special 75th anniversary celebratory Mass held at Precious Blood Catholic Church Oct. 14. (Photo submitted: Nick Elbers)

Cloverdale’s Precious Blood Catholic parish turns 75

Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller attended parish celebration

  • Oct 20, 2022
The Cloverdale Catholic School student choir provided music for a special 75th anniversary celebratory Mass held at Precious Blood Catholic Church Oct. 14. (Photo submitted: Nick Elbers)
TEASER PHOTO ONLY

Surrey church jazzes up Sunday services with return of Vespers in the Valley concerts

‘We had not opened at all with the jazz music during COVID, two and a half years’

TEASER PHOTO ONLY
Justice Murray Sinclair, who was Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge, led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and served as a senator, stands in the ballroom at Rideau Hall after being invested as a companion of the Order of Canada and receiving a Meritorious Service Decoration (Civil Division), in Ottawa, on Thursday, May 26, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

TRC head questions why Catholic Church didn’t sell property to compensate victims

Murray Sinclair: Catholic entities released of their remaining financial obligations

Justice Murray Sinclair, who was Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge, led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and served as a senator, stands in the ballroom at Rideau Hall after being invested as a companion of the Order of Canada and receiving a Meritorious Service Decoration (Civil Division), in Ottawa, on Thursday, May 26, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
A woman prays on the steps outside St. Casimir Church in Toronto on Friday May 1, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Fatigue, burnout hit spiritual leaders on the front lines of faith during pandemic

People assume religious leaders are ‘superhuman,’ one Canadian sociologist says

A woman prays on the steps outside St. Casimir Church in Toronto on Friday May 1, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
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