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September 2017

September 5

More than 1,000 Catholics ask church to seek pardon for role in conflict

September 5, 2017

BOGOTA, Colombia – Lilia Yaya recalls being unwelcome in the Catholic Church. Her father, a communist political organizer and labor leader, was excommunicated from the church for his views and activism. Yaya was singled out as a troublemaker in her Catholic school for her father's political activities.

September 6

Catholic leaders sharply criticize Trump's decision to end DACA

September 6, 2017

WASHINGTON – Catholic church leaders, immigration officials and university presidents were swift and unanimous in their condemnation of President Donald Trump's Sept. 5 decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals known as DACA.

Flying to Colombia, Pope asks prayers for Venezuela

September 6, 2017

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO COLOMBIA – Flying to Colombia, with a flight plan changed to avoid Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean Sea, Pope Francis told reporters that Colombia and its neighbor, Venezuela, were in his prayers.

Villavicencio: Colombian city of 'victims and victimizers'

September 6, 2017

VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia (CNS) -- People in need in this city set in the heart of Colombia's cattle country line up outside the Pope Francis food bank, a warehouse built with a donation from the pontiff.

ShareLife cracks $14 million in fundraising

September 6, 2017

Whether you are nine or 90 years old, everyone needs a best friend.

September 7

Comment: Making sense of God ... the heartbreaker

September 7, 2017

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Listen Up! Listen Up!”

Euthanasia should not be available to mental health patients, says CMHA

September 7, 2017

Mental health patients should not be eligible for assisted suicide, says the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Trump backtracks a little on DACA after backlash

September 7, 2017

WASHINGTON - Hours after the Trump administration announced on Sept. 5 an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, the president seemed to backtrack, just a bit, by saying that if Congress can't find a legislative solution to legalize the program's 800,000 beneficiaries in six months, he might step in.

D&P has an offer that’s hard to refuse

September 7, 2017

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is offering something for nothing until Oct. 20 — membership in one of Canada’s biggest and oldest social justice organizations.

Pope arrives to help promote healing in Colombia, scarred by war

September 7, 2017

BOGOTA, Colombia - Pope Francis arrived in Colombia Sept. 6 for a five-day visit to promote reconciliation in a deeply Catholic country scarred and reticent to offer forgiveness after decades of war.

Rights league to intervene in religious freedom case

September 7, 2017

The Catholic Civil Rights League has become an unlikely ally of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation in a case coming before the Supreme Court.

Irma cuts deadly path in Caribbean as church officials prepare response

September 7, 2017

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Hurricane Irma cut a deadly path through the Caribbean, leveling entire islands as it moved toward Florida Sept. 7, while Haiti prepared for a potential disaster.

Colombia youths must teach elders to forgive, to move on, Pope says

September 7, 2017

BOGOTA, Colombia - As Colombia strives to build a lasting peace, the country's elders need the encouragement and insistence of young people, who believe with all their hearts that forgiveness is possible and grudges don't have to last for decades, Pope Francis said.

Pursue peace through social inclusion, Pope tells Colombian officials

September 7, 2017

BOGOTA, Colombia - Pope Francis urged Colombians to put aside prejudice and pursue peace through social inclusion, fighting inequality and paying attention to the plight of the country's most marginalized populations, such as campesinos, Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples.

Jim Hansen a champion for special needs children

September 7, 2017

Every September when the school year begins, new teachers at the Hamilton Catholic District School Board are shown a video with some powerful advice for the classroom: “Imagine you have 30 reflections of God sitting in front of you every day.”

Mary Dool blazed her own trail in social work

September 7, 2017

Mary Isabel Dool was never going to concede that only her brothers could have a vocation.

Pope urges bishops to contribute to peace as pastors, not politicians

September 7, 2017

VATICAN CITY - Quoting celebrated Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pope Francis told the country's bishops he knows "it is easier to begin a war than to end one" and that, to succeed, Colombia needs bishops who are pastors, not politicians.

September 8

Editorial: A test of compassion

September 8, 2017

As Montreal Auxiliary Bishop Alain Faubert quite rightly puts it, there is nothing complicated about how we should respond to a summer influx of asylum seekers at Quebec’s southern border.

Comment: Who are we to judge the ‘quality of life’?

September 8, 2017

The tragic case of a 77-year-old woman, known only as AB, who had been wracked with intolerable pain for more than three decades, was resolved in August through doctor-induced death. Or was it?

Vietnamese youth scream for Ice Cream Sundays

September 8, 2017

The idea began as a way for Fr. Joseph Tap Tran’s parishioners to beat the heat.