{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga urged Catholics to support a campaign to get the Canadian government to appoint an ombudsperson that would scrutinize domestic mining operations overseas.

At a press conference held at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress June 20, the cardinal/archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, thanked the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace for conducting the campaign.

I have many good friends in the United Church, and they always seem very respectful toward Catholic teachings and practices, even if they disagree with them. Yet it seems lately that every protest by disaffected Catholics takes place in a United Church. Perhaps I exaggerate, but a little incident here in Quebec reinforces that impression.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his regards and blessings Wednesday, June 18, to the 12,000 or so pilgrims gathered here in Quebec City for the International Eucharistic Congress. Below is the text of his message from the Vatican Information Service.

News is flowing like a river, as they say, from the International Eucharistic Congress here in a very wet Quebec City (it stopped raining long enough yesterday just to dry up the sidewalks for the next deluge). And much of that news is flowing to the TV world via Canada's Salt+Light TV.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Cardinal John Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, has urged a group of North American members of one of the Catholic Church’s oldest chivalric orders to be generous in their help to the inhabitants of the Holy Land.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A firestorm of protest continues to sweep across Canada in the wake of a July 1 announcement that abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler would receive the Order of Canada.

Catholic bishops from coast to coast joined numerous pro-life groups in condemning the decision by Governor General  Michaëlle Jean to give the country’s highest honour to the man whose name is most widely associated with the fact that Canada, almost alone among civilized nations, has no legal restrictions on abortion.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Saint Paul University is ending its 73-year history with Novalis by selling Canada's largest Catholic book publisher to a company connected with multinational corporation Bayard Presse.

Stung by losing one of his own MPs, controversial priest Fr. Raymond Gravel, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has attacked the Conservatives for having a Montreal-area candidate who is a member of Opus Dei.

The Catholic Church may no longer tell the flock whom to vote for, but there certainly is a Catholic way to vote. In numerous statements and documents over the years, Catholic bishops around the world have offered principles to guide voters on how to align their decision on the ballot with their faith.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Forty years after the release of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, Canada’s bishops are working on a new document on marriage and family that will try to bring together the Catholic Church’s teaching in this area.