BOB MCKEON

Last week, I was part of a meeting of representatives from Edmonton area parishes and Catholic organizations concerned about the issues of homelessness and affordable housing. Everyone attending the meeting came with a strong personal commitment. I spoke with a couple of people from parishes in one corner of the city. They said that for years they had been regular participants in an ecumenical network in their area committed to do more about poverty and homelessness in their community.

God chose to make his First Covenant with one people, one nation. But after Pentecost, the apostles began fanning out to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The New Covenant is for all people in all times.

It is a sad commentary on our age that just when humanity has reached the pinnacle of scientific knowledge and technological progress, wisdom seems to be in short supply.

FAIRVIEW — The threeday Catholic Women’s League convention attracted 122 women from across Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

The hosting group for the 63rd annual convention for the CWL’s Alberta Mackenzie Provincial Council was the diocese of Grouard-McLennan. This year’s theme, for the second year, was Women of Peace and Hope.

Virtually every group I've been involved with or watched from a distance has struggled with conflict and division. Somebody wants to have his or her own way and someone else resists. The unity of the group is broken.

Throughout the history of the Church, there has, again and again, been a tension between an ordered "institutional Church" and the supposed charismatic Church or Church of the faithful. Whenever times get rocky for the bishops and pope – and when isn't it rocky? – many will proclaim that they want Church without the hierarchy.

TURIN, ITALY – The Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be Christ’s burial cloth, offers Christians a way to contemplate God’s face and reflect on the meaning of Christian suffering, said an expert on sacred art.

WETASKIWIN – It was as though Jesus put all the pieces in place so he could have his appointed spot in Sacred Heart School. Long before Maria Chrunik got the idea during her daily prayer time to have a tabernacle in the school, the school had built its own chapel.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO PORTUGAL — Pope Benedict said the priestly sex abuse scandal is a “terrifying” crisis that comes from inside the Church — not from an outside attack — and requires purification and penance to overcome.

EDMONTON - Family violence, homelessness, the economy and life issues are four important societal issues that are not getting enough secular media attention.