Raniero Mancinelli has been an ecclesiastical tailor for more than 40 years. He owns a shop at Borgo Pio, one of the famous Roman streets leading straight to the Vatican gate of Porta Sant’Anna.

Eighteen years after the death of St. John Paul II April 2, 2005, his native Poland remembered him with vigils and marches.

The bishops of Poland March 14 announced they will create a commission of experts to investigate cases of abuse of minors by clergy from the past in the country -- an investigation that would cover the era that St. John Paul II governed the Archdiocese of Krakow as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla.

The fact that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla -- the future Pope John Paul II -- knew about abuse when he was an archbishop of Krakow, Poland, is neither new nor surprising, experts say.

It������Ƶapp 20 years to the (give or take) day since Pope John Paul II visited Canada, and Canada is once again graced with another papal visit.

The recent announcement (April 23) that Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski will be beatified in September brings to mind his dramatic final days in May 1981.

May 1 will mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Pope John Paul II������Ƶapp landmark encyclical Centesimus Annus. The document������Ƶapp name suggests that it was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Pope Leo XIII������Ƶapp encyclical Rerum Novarum, the first papal encyclical which addressed social issues of work, labour unions and economic justice. To an extent, that is true. However, the greater inspiration for the content of the document was the fall of Eastern European communism in 1989.

Since the Daughters of St. Paul have always printed papal encyclicals and works of the popes, we naturally collected and published John Paul II������Ƶapp extraordinary “Theology of the Body” — a series of catechetical talks he delivered in the early 1980s.

The acceptance of serious allegations swallowed up without proof is an age-old problem. It is also dangerous.

Ray Temmerman������Ƶapp been a committed Catholic all his life. He������Ƶapp a former president of the National Council of Development and Peace. He������Ƶapp taken time out from his career in automotive technology and human resources to study theology at the University of Winnipeg, earning a Masters in Sacred Theology.