As Donald Trump takes the reins of the United States’ presidency, Canadian scholars and politicians are wondering how faith and politics will get along in a world where right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-trade policies appear to be on the rise.

VATICAN CITY – nice theory, but must be actively pursued with concrete policies aimed at promoting the common good and the dignity of the human person.

VATICAN CITY – In a world filled with frustration and fear, seeking the common good is more important than ever, Pope Francis told French politicians.

NEW YORK – The campaign of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced Sept. 22 that it has formed a group of Catholic leaders to advise him "on those issues and policies important to Catholics and other people of faith in America."

Most American churchgoers are hearing politics from the pulpits of their churches during this presidential election season, according to a new survey.

MEXICO CITY – Mexicans turned out in droves to oust the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in June 5 regional elections. Exit polls showed voters citing crime and corruption for removing the party of increasingly unpopular President Enrique Pena Nieto in seven of the 12 states holding gubernatorial elections.

OTTAWA – Several opposition amendments intended to inject safeguards into the federal government's assisted-suicide legislation, including a proposal to explicitly limit doctor-assisted death to the terminally ill, were defeated as Liberal-dominated committee hearings began.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – War rhetoric from South African political leaders could incite election violence and civil war, a South African bishop warned.

VATICAN CITY – U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said attending a Vatican conference on Catholic social teaching did not represent a political endorsement of his run for higher office.

More than 50 conservative Catholic activists and political leaders have come out in support of Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz in an effort to shore up Catholic backing for Cruz as an alternative to Donald Trump.

To be a Christian in Cuba means being subjected to state surveillance, discrimination, harassment and sometimes arrest. It also means being a casualty of the punishing U.S. trade embargo that inflicts unjust suffering on all Cubans.

“I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor!”   
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel)

BETHLEHEM - Catholic priests in the Palestinian Territories want Pope Francis to press Israel to allow greater freedom of movement, especially access to holy sites in Jerusalem, and they expect the issue to be addressed when the Pope meets with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on May 26.

If there's anything religion is not, it is most certainly not a refuge from politics. Pope Francis is still several days from arriving in the Holy Land, but the politics of his visit are already raging.

These are trying times to be a politically hopeful citizen. At almost every turn, politicians at all levels of public life are exhibiting scandalous behaviour and dishonouring what should be the honourable profession of advancing the common good.