Churches respond to affordable housing crisis: "We want to find new ways for our building to live."

 

One thing all federal party leaders agreed on during this election is that Canada faces an affordable housing crisis. And here in Winnipeg, the provincial and local governments are trying to address the challenge of homelessness. It’s a big challenge. What can be done? 

Earlier this year, I had a chance to talk with some Lutheran church leaders in Ontario who are taking the challenge into their own hands by turning their buildings into housing—including one that turned its education wing into affordable housing, and another that sold the entire building and land. 

Read about it in my column in the Free Press.

Popes, religion and the media, or back to normal after the conclave

 

The death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV brought an estimated 7,000 reporters to Rome — swamping the Vatican press corps, which has about 100 permanent accredited journalists. 

For a few weeks in April and May, they reported everything there was possible to know about the two men. 

And then all the reporters went home.

And now reporting about Catholicism by the mainstream media goes back to normal. If that Church makes the news, it will likely be due to scandal or conflict at most media outlets. But not at the Free Press, the only daily newspaper in Canada that still has a faith beat. We will keep covering that church, and other religious groups, too.

As a veteran Vatican reporter said about the importance of covering religion: “If you look at the current world situation only through political and sociological glasses and leave religion out of consideration, you miss something very essential.”

You can read my column about popes, religion and the importance of religion coverage in the Free Press. 

Photo above: Media scrum in St. Peter's Square in 2022 when the Indigenous delegation from Canada was there to visit Pope Francis. I am barely visible on the left side (just the top of my head).  

For some people of faith, like Colts tackle Braden Smith, religious scrupulosity an OCD disorder that disrupts their lives

Religious scrupulosity — that’s something I had never heard about until I read a story about Indianapolis Colts offensive tackle Braden Smith and his struggle with it.

Religious scrupulosity is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder associated with faith. In particular, it causes those suffering from it to worry about committing sins that will cause God to punish them and send them to hell.

“It’s like every wrong move you make, it’s like smacking (a) ruler against (your) hand,” Smith said of the condemning and judgmental God that loomed large in his mind. “Another bad move like that and you’re out of here.”

Read more about this disorder that afflicts some people of faith, together with comments from a Winnipeg psychologist who has treated people with religious scrupulosity, in my recent Free Press column.

Veteran Vatican reporter shares inside information about the conclave to choose the next pope

What’s really going to happen as the conclave begins Wednesday in Vatican City to decide the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church? 

Nobody knows for sure, of course. But Hendro Munsterman, a veteran Vatican correspondent for Nederlands Dagblad, a Christian newspaper in The Netherlands, has some inside information. 

I met Munsterman last October at the Vatican press office when I was in Rome to cover the Roman Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality. 

In his conversations with cardinals who will vote to select the next leader to represent 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, he has heard nothing but support for who Pope Francis was a person. 

But privately, some suggested Francis went too fast with his reforms, especially in his efforts to involve the laity in making decisions about the church—and may want to choose someone as pope who might slow things down, as happened following the death of Pope John XXIII during Vatican 2. 

Read my column in the Free Press.

Catholic women respond to death of Pope Francis: “The exclusion of women must be dismantled for the Church to become truly synodal"

It’s been two weeks since Pope Francis died. Accolades and appreciation have been expressed for his 12 years as leader of the Roman Catholic Church — all of them well deserved. When he died, it felt like we all lost a friend, even if we weren’t Catholic or even Christians. 

Among those who felt great sadness at his passing were Catholic women’s groups. They expressed appreciation for what he did for them in the Church — but also wished he could have done more. 

Read about how some Catholic women’s organizations responded to the death of Pope Francis in my recent Free Press column.