On the inevitable day when Heaven calls and historians gather to assess Pope Francis’ pontificate the metaphor of a roller coaster will surely be invoked by some.

Those with keen eyes for systemic abuses within the legal world might turn their gazes on a class action lawsuit that has left publicly hanging two Canadian Roman Catholic Cardinals.

The director of the B.C. Aboriginal Network on Disability Society perfectly summarized last week’s delay in extending doctor-delivered death to the mentally ill. “It’s not like a win or anything,” Neil Belanger told Register reporter Anna Farrow.

In the week that we looked into the online mirror and saw pornographic deep fakes of Taylor Swift staring back, Canada’s Catholic bishops published a compelling pastoral letter on Christian engagement with social media.

Jordan Peterson put a target on his own back several years ago by speaking clearly and simply against mandated use of “gendered” pronouns and proper names. More recently, his critics have mocked him mercilessly as a cartoonish poster boy for the conservative “anger-tainment” industry.

It’s hardly The Catholic Register’s place to editorially sermonize our separated fellow Christians in the United Church about their theology.

Pope Francis has called out Russia with full papal moral clarity for its invasion of Ukraine. It’s good to see the Canadian government also getting its own story straight. Better late than never.

In one of those glorious paradoxes ubiquitous in Christian faith, instantaneous argy-bargy over the Vatican’s pre-Christmas document on blessing “irregular” relationships served to recall the supremacy of Christ among us.

The Vatican’s surprise — some might say bombshell — declaration that “irregular” domestic partnerships can be blessed by Catholic clergy will be welcomed like a Christmas gift by advocates and beneficiaries.

Through the spring and fall of 2023, The Catholic Register and our partners at The B.C. Catholic, Catholic Conscience and the Religion & Journalism Project taught on-line classes in Catholic journalism.