News the Vatican has banned the use of gluten-free hosts in the celebration of the Eucharist hit like a bombshell this weekend, but the rules re: gluten-free hosts go back at least to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVl) who in July 2003 declared gluten-free hosts “invalid.” In MarchRead More

David Wells, Conservative senator for Newfoundland and Labrador, has every right to his opinion that no change should be made to our national anthem. Wells is one of 20 senators who have tied up Bill C-210 — which would change the lyrics from “in all thy sons command” to the gender-neutralRead More

There is a camp at Beaver Cove, Beaver Cove. And there we always love to roam, love to roam. And spend our time mid laughter free Where we were happy as can be. B- e-a-v-e-r beaver, we will never want to leave her To our happy days we’ll never wantRead More

Today is Aboriginal Day in Canada so it is quite fitting that we tell the story of a group of happy pilgrims from Membertou First Nation who will be boarding a bus on Friday, June 23, having attended Mass at St. Ann’s Church at 8:30 a.m., to begin their annualRead More

Hunger and homelessness are urban problems being tackled in interesting ways in cities on both sides of the Atlantic. In Edinburgh, for example, “social entrepreneurs” Josh Littlejohn and Alice Thomson have launched Social Bite, a chain of soup and sandwich shops where customers can pay “for a coffee or a sandwichRead More

Back in March of this year, the United Way of Cape Breton, together with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, sponsored the Community Impact Summit at Centre 200, a coming together of “business, government and non-profit sector leaders…to commit to specific, positive actions to help citizens living in poverty,” or asRead More

What are your plans for the celebration of Canada’s 150th Birthday? Do you even have any plans? Well, here’s a wonderful idea. Why not attend the Cape Breton Chorale’s Salute to Canada Concert on Sunday, May 28th at Sydney’s Highland Arts Theatre? Directed by Rosemary McGhee with Paula Jane Francis asRead More

Folklorist Ian Brodie’s presentation last week at The Old Sydney Society on the locally produced CJCB program “Dishpan Parade” and its spin-off, the Cape Breton Songs Contest, brought back great memories of radio, especially its heyday locally in the ’40s and ’50s. CJCB was the only game in town then,Read More

It definitely wasn’t yesterday, but I vividly remember my mother guiding me through the door at the back of Holy Angels Convent and down the stairs to the gymnasium (a room larger than my six-year-old self had ever seen). Grade two was just across from the gym, and down theRead More

Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax, seems an amiable and reasonable (though serious) type of guy, who recently led the bishops of the Atlantic Canadian dioceses to the eternal city for an “ad lumina” visit with Pope Francis. The purpose of these visits—which, as Mancini told Steve Murphy of CTV AtlanticRead More