Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

Deborah Waters Gyapong has been a journalist and novelist for more than 20 years. She has worked in print, radio and television, including 12 years as a producer for CBC TV's news and current affairs programming. She currently covers religion and politics primarily for Catholic and Evangelical newspapers.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - The decision to deny parole to Robert Latimer, who murdered his 12-year-old disabled daughter Tracey in 1993, has prompted an outpouring of sympathy for the Saskatchewan farmer.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet and babyOTTAWA - A popular Quebec columnist said he hopes Cardinal Marc Ouellet will die after a long, painful illness because he called abortion a moral crime even in cases of rape.

“Why should we push a woman who has been the victim of a crime to commit one of her own,” Ouellet told a pro-life conference in Quebec City May 15, prompting a province-wide backlash.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Pope Benedict XVI has chosen a new bishop for the Nelson diocese who finds as much joy waiting on tables in a restaurant for the poor as he did serving at the highest levels of his Capuchin religious order.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Cardinal Marc Ouellet returned to Canada from Rome Nov. 29 with no final answer on whether Pope Benedict XVI will attend the 2008 International Eucharistic Congress next June in Quebec City.

Cardinal Marc OuelletOTTAWA (CCN) — Cardinal Marc Ouellet has vowed not to be silenced on the “crime” of abortion and has answered his critics by demanding federal government funding to assist pregnant women.

In an interview on May 23 and at a press conference May 27, Ouellet expressed surprise at harsh political and media reaction to his recent  comments in which he stated that abortion is a moral crime even in cases of rape. He was vilified in the media and one popular La Presse columnist called him an ayatollah and extremist and wished the cardinal would die from a slow, painful illness.  

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Refugee rights advocates launched a campaign Nov. 29 to ensure that humanitarian workers do not get charged with laws aimed at human traffickers.

“I am proud to aid and abet refugees,” said refugee advocates from charities and NGOs from across Canada. They stood, one by one. Then nearly all of the more than 300 delegates to the The Canadian Council for Refugees fall consultation in Ottawa were standing.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Remembering the Children: the Aboriginal and Church Leaders’ Tour kicked off in Ottawa March 2 to raise awareness of the upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian residential schools.

OTTAWA - Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight sees her election last June as a “historical moment” for the worldwide confederation of Catholic development agencies.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Catholic Insight magazine has paid $6,000 in legal fees fighting a human rights “hate” complaint, yet no hearing date is in sight.

For a small circulation (3,500 subscribers) conservative specialty magazine, “it has cost us quite a bit,” said the magazine’s editor, Basilian Father Alphonse de Valk.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Catholic groups say Canada’s international reputation is jeopardized because the federal government has done nothing to ensure mining and oil and gas companies operate responsibly in developing countries.