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February 23, 2015
ROME - The Italian government is on high alert after threats from the Islamic State called Italy “the nation signed with the blood of the cross.”
NEW DELHI - A Jesuit priest kidnapped in Afghanistan and held for eight months told reporters "God has saved me," but he said he did not want to discuss details of his captivity.
ROME - The kidnapping of Jesuit Father Alexis Prem Kumar has made Jesuit Refugee Service reassess the way it operates in many high-risk countries, said an agency official.
WASHINGTON - A new report from the Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas, shows that incidents of "religious hostility" have more than doubled in the United States over the past three years.
February 24, 2015
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - The Coptic Christians of Toronto and their friends gathered in Mississauga Feb. 22 to answer the murder of 21 Egyptian Copts by Islamic State allies in Libya. They answered the Feb. 15 beheadings with Bible readings, prayers, songs, hope and forgiveness.
BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon - Many Lebanese have spent as much time as possible indoors this winter, protecting themselves from this year's unusually brutal cold season.
DOHUK, Iraq - Dozens of Assyrian Christians were abducted by Islamic State forces during a new offensive against a string of villages in northeastern Syria, aid and civil rights organizations reported.
OTTAWA - Ontario Catholic authorities believe Catholic teaching is protected in the province’s new sex education curriculum, though pro-family groups don’t share in that optimism.
Anti-terror legislation currently before Parliament needs thorough debate and close scrutiny to ensure civil liberties, including religious freedom, are fully protected, said the president of the Catholic Civil Rights League.
February 25, 2015
VATICAN CITY - A 10th-century Armenian monk has been named among the doctors of the Church.
ABUJA, Nigeria - Politicians should desist from hate speech and inciting Nigerians against each other during the campaign for general elections, said a Nigerian cardinal.
TORONTO - With a federal election scheduled for this year, Campaign Life Coalition has launched the #No2Trudeau campaign to foil the Liberal leader's victory plan.
WASHINGTON - Amid frequent reports of brutal killings and attacks by Islamic State militants, the director of an Islamic group in the United States strongly believes that people of faith must "collectively denounce" these actions of "stark evil" and "cruel barbarism."
Those who knew Fr. Henry McErlean remember the man for his strong will, his wit, wisdom and calming smile.
OTTAWA - McGill University ethicist Margaret Somerville has called for a Royal Commission on “physician-assisted death” as well as for the federal government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to trump the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the matter.
February 26, 2015
The paradox of technology has always intrigued me: it offers great benefits, but not without costs. This interest in the paradox goes back to high school when at Neil McNeil in Scarborough we studied science fiction books like 1984, Brave New World, The Last Western, Future Shock and others that predicted and exposed sinister sides of technology.
JERUSALEM - Where is it safe for Jews to live?
Third Sunday of Lent (Year B) March 8 (Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18, 22-25; John 2:13-25) The Ten Commandments are often viewed as obsolete and out of touch with the modern world. They are unfortunately treated as if they were the 10 suggestions rather than commandments. Even those who use them as weapons in the culture wars of our times are sometimes hard-pressed to name all of them.
I don’t suppose I will ever forget Friday the 13th of 2015. That was the day Sun News, where I hosted a nightly television show for almost four years, closed its doors. Quite a lot has been written in the past couple of weeks about all this but from a Catholic standpoint the end of the network was a particular loss. Two of the four prime time shows were hosted by Catholics — myself and Brian Lilley — and the station as a whole gave an informed and sympathetic hearing to Catholic news and subjects that is not replicated anywhere else on television and is not likely to be.
Today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings take place on two important biblical mountains — Mount Moriah and Mount Tabor. Both readings give us profound insights into our God and His Son, Jesus, our Saviour.