“Religion has played a central role in the development of Canada.”
So claimed John S. Moir, the late professor of religious history in Canada, in 1980.
But a lot has changed since then. Religious affiliation has declined precipitously in recent decades, and religious beliefs have been increasingly relegated from the public square in the same span of time.
Bjorn Rieder wasn’t raised in a religious home or around religious influences, and the last thing he expected was to become religious himself.
In fact, Rieder spent much of his younger life viewing faith with skepticism. He says he even studied religious philosophy at university mainly to argue against religion.
A new Justice Department report reveals that FBI personnel opened investigations into two Catholic priests, conducted surveillance tied to the Richmond Catholic Memo, and continued revising the memo after headquarters ordered it deleted.
The report reveals how an investigation into a violent extremist led to the surveillance of clergy affiliated with traditional Catholicism, though the FBI ultimately concluded the priests posed no national security threat. The report also sheds new light on internal disputes on the reliability of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate a weaponized bureaucracy that chills First Amendment activity,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on the report, compiled by the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group. He noted that the individuals who developed the Richmond Domain Perspective are no longer at the FBI.
A statue of the Virgin Mary believed to be Europe’s tallest has been formally unveiled in a small Polish village.
The 55.6-metre (182ft) concrete figure is roughly two double-decker buses longer than Rio de Janeiro’s smaller – if more prominently placed – Christ the Redeemer monument, though it still pales in comparison to a 98m Virgin Mary erected in the Philippines.
The ecclesiastical sculpture in rural Konotopie was consecrated by a local bishop in a ceremony on Saturday, a day chosen to coincide with the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Not sure any other Euro state would have allowed this out of fear they might anger their Muslim settlers.
Poland has kept the Muslims out for the most part.
In the United Kingdom, a contested 2025 report—whose methodology has since been seriously questioned—claims a fourfold increase in 18-34-year-olds attending church at least once a month, with 20% of young men under 34 regularly attending compared to just 4% six years ago.
Yet, it is still hard to deny an interest in Christianity and a—very quiet—revival. At Easter 2026, 21,000 adults and young people were baptised in France, a 20% increase compared to 2025, which already saw a 32% rise in baptisms compared to the year before. For comparison, in 2021 there were around 4,100 adult baptisms.
The French National Assembly has dropped the most controversial part of a child protection bill that would have lifted the seal of confession in cases of violence against minors.
The provision, which sought to challenge sacramental secrecy, was the focal point of heated debates over the past few days in the Assembly during examination of the legislation aimed at protecting children and combating violence in schools. The bill was finally adopted on June 1 without this measure.
Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world, and yet the greatest threat to the faith is arguably not external but internal: the woke infiltration of Christian churches by subversive clergy in sheep’s clothing.
Examples abound. Most recently, at Georgia’s Vinings Lake Church, which describes itself as a “progressive, fully inclusive, diverse,” “ever-evolving spiritual collective,” pastor Cody Deese declared in a sermon that he doesn’t believe Christ died for our sins, which is the central claim of the faith. He says people in the first century AD might have believed that, but we don’t live in that culture anymore. He casually dismissed accusations that he is a heretic.
SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company valued at $380 billion, can take its pick of Silicon Valley talent thanks to the success of its chatbot Claude. But last month, the start-up sought help from a group rarely consulted in tech circles: Christian religious leaders.
The company hosted about 15 Christian leaders from Catholic and Protestant churches, academia and the business world at its headquarters in late March for a two-day summit that included discussion sessions and a private dinner with senior Anthropic researchers, according to four participants who spoke with The Washington Post.
The collapse of Christendom has been rapid and dramatic.
trange days are these.
Trump is in the White House, but traitors are everywhere.
Crime rates are allegedly down, but that claim doesn’t “feel” right to many of us in many areas.
There is no doubt, however, that rates of idiocy, insanity and disingenuousness are at all-time highs.
The poll’s most striking finding is the ‘ambiguity’ about why Christmas is celebrated in the first place: as a major Christian holy day, or as a major modern civic winter holiday
There are two kinds of Canadians whose unusual views about the importance of Jesus in Christmas celebration place them in quirky but significant minorities, according to a new poll.
First, there’s the 10 per cent of Canadians who do not believe in God at all but nevertheless think it is important to remember Jesus at Christmastime.
The second group is the 18 per cent of Canadians who affirm a belief in a god but do not think it is important to remember Jesus at the festival of his birth.
“Christianophobia”—understood as hostility, discrimination, or violence directed against Christian people and symbols because they are Christian—is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly visible and serious across Europe. A report published by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) on December 1st highlights an often underestimated reality: the rise in anti-Christian hate crimes—physical, legal and social—profoundly affecting the religious freedom and daily lives of Christians on the continent.
The ECLJ and the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) have compiled data showing that no fewer than 2,211 anti-Christian crimes were committed in 2024, including 274 physical assaults, across a panel of 35 European countries studied.
Retired Army Chaplain Brad Lewis (Col.-R) got emotional this week when he heard War Sec. Pete Hegseth’s order to return the Chaplain Corps to religious ministry. Hegseth said the Chaplain Corps role has been “degraded” in recent decades, and he gave the example of the 2025 “Army Spiritual Fitness Guide” that mentions “God” once, but “playfulness” nine times in 112 pages. Although most people in the military, 82 percent, are religious according to the guide, God has been nearly replaced by secular humanism. Hegseth eliminated the use of the guide this week and announced he is simplifying the faith coding system.
As churches empty, mosques take their place across the West.
On certain Sunday mornings in America, you can still hear a church bell toll across an otherwise silent neighborhood. The sound is familiar, but the congregation it once summoned has vanished. Pews sit undisturbed, hymnals gather dust, and sanctuaries once filled with life now echo only with the footsteps of estate agents measuring out a future that will no longer be Christian. In much of the West, the bell remains — but its audience has gone.
Earlier this week, Bill 229, which proposes recognizing December as Christian Heritage Month, was introduced in the Manitoba legislature. The timing couldn’t be more appropriate.
Brought forward by PC MLA Carrie Hiebert, Bill 229 would formally acknowledge the historical and contemporary contributions that Christians have made to life in Manitoba. As Hiebert explained when introducing the bill: “This bill recognizes the significant contributions that Manitoba’s Christian community has made to the province’s spiritual, cultural and humanitarian landscape. By designating December as Christian Heritage Month, the Act encourages Manitobans to reflect on and appreciate the enduring contributions of Christianity throughout the province.”
May pass in Manitoba but I’m pretty sure Ford would consider this “far right”.
You have probably heard that something extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church in France. The French bishops’ conference announced in April that more than 10,000 adults were due to be baptised in 2025 – a 45 per cent increase on the year before.
It’s not just adult baptisms that are booming. A record 19,000 people, many young, attended this year’s Paris to Chartres pilgrimage. An unprecedented 13,500 high school students took part in the 2025 Lourdes FRAT pilgrimage, a major annual youth event.
