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June 2017

June 16

D&P hosts ecojustice forum for youth

June 16, 2017

Farmers, not corporations, must come first in the effort to promote ecological justice, a youth forum sponsored by Development and Peace Canada was told.

Homeless youth prime target for trafficking

June 16, 2017

Canada’s homeless youth population is younger and more diverse than their American counterparts, but they are just as vulnerable of becoming trafficking victims.

Pope's homily: God’s power saves us from weakness and sins

June 16, 2017

In order to be saved and healed by God we must recognize that are weak, vulnerable and sinful like earthen vessels, said ‎Pope Francis on Friday. And this will lead us to happiness, he said in ‎his homily at the morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta chapel in the Vatican. He was reflecting on the Second Letter to the Corinthians, where St. Paul speaking about the mystery of Christ, says we have this treasure of Christ in our fragility and vulnerability because we are vessels made of clay.

Mental health has a spiritual element, Holy See reminds UN

June 16, 2017

GENEVA, Switzerland – The Holy See's representative to the United Nations appealed Wednesday to the Human Rights Council to couple psychological treatment with spiritual care.

Italian police recover stolen relic of St. John Bosco

June 16, 2017

TURIN, Italy – Inside a copper teapot in a kitchen cupboard, Italian police found the relic of St. John Bosco that had been stolen two weeks earlier from the basilica erected at his birthplace.

Advocates for detained Chaldeans in race against time to halt deportation

June 16, 2017

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Advocates for Chaldean Christians detained by federal immigration enforcement are in a race against time to halt their deportation back to war-torn Iraq.

Vietnamese priests say police is letting gangs terrorize Catholics

June 16, 2017

HANOI, Vietnam – Police have looked the other way as groups of youths have terrorized a Catholic community in northeast Vietnam.

New child protection experts graduate from Rome's Jesuit university

June 16, 2017

VATICAN CITY – Before students were presented with their diplomas in safeguarding minors, they each received a logoed mug as a memento of their time in the Centre for Child Protection's intensive program at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Church offers counselling to help students cope with trauma of London fire

June 16, 2017

Church agencies are helping London Catholic school students cope with the trauma of the Grenfell Tower fire, including knowing that some of their fellow students are missing.

Priest who had spina bifida dies while on holiday

June 16, 2017

Just a year after his extraordinary ordination and while celebrating a friend’s ordination in British Columbia, Fr. Trevor Plug has died.

Indian court affirms priests’ right to property despite poverty oath

June 16, 2017

KOCHI, India – A high court in southern India has ruled that Christian priests and nuns are entitled to their right to property despite their vows of poverty, signalling an end to a centuries-old tradition that has left many in the clergy destitute.

Ontario conscience rights case now in judges’ hands

June 16, 2017

TORONTO – Three days and nearly two dozen lawyers arguing the broad principles and technical details of constitutional law before a three-judge has panel left Christian Medical and Dental Society executive director Deacon Larry Worthen “cautiously optimistic.”

June 17

Book: A compelling, critical look inside Canadian prisons

June 17, 2017

Down Inside: Thirty Years in Canada’s Prison Service by Robert Clark (Goose Lane Editions, soft cover, 265 pages, $22.95). Winston Churchill reminded us many years ago that the way we treat crime and criminals is a reliable test of the civilization of any country.

Nigerian priest shares harrowing story of being kidnapped

June 17, 2017

ISSELE-UKU, Nigeria – It was supposed to be a quiet retreat weekend last April for Fr. Sam Okwuidegbe, a Nigerian Jesuit priest and director of a local spirituality centre.

Norcia monks selling special edition beer to fundraise for earthquake rebuild

June 17, 2017

NORCIA, Italy – It was God and beer sales that helped sustain the Benedictine monks of Norcia, and it is God and beer sales that will help them rebuild.

Francis holds ‘ad limina’ visits a little differently than his predecessors

June 17, 2017

VATICAN CITY – The bishops' ad limina visits under Pope Francis has been a little different than under past pontiffs: there are no more speech exchanges and one additional meeting has been added to the schedule.

More than half of Iraqi, Syrian Christians have fled since 2011

June 17, 2017

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – A new report estimates that between 50 and 80 per cent of Christians have fled the countries of Iraq and Syria since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011.

Seventy years ago, Canada was consecrated to Mary during the Marian Congress

June 17, 2017

OTTAWA – Seventy years ago, Ottawa, a sleepy government town dominated by the logging industry, had never seen anything like the 1947 Marian Congress.

June 18

Former attorney professes first vows as cloistered Dominican nun

June 18, 2017

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Tara Clemens was an Anchorage, Alaska, attorney, and an evangelical Christian who joined the Catholic Church during her last months of law school.

At Loreto school, South Sudanese girls from diverse tribes live in peace

June 18, 2017

RUMBEK, South Sudan – In a country wracked by civil war and ethnic strife, Irish nuns have created a unique space where young women can dream of a better future and begin to acquire the skills that will help them construct it.