As we begin a new liturgical year and also the season of Advent, here is a short quiz:

At Bethlehem University education is not about personal fulfillment. It’s the only way to transform a society that has been locked in conflict with Israel for 70 years, where unemployment runs at nearly one-third of the working age population (32.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, according to the World Bank) and a quarter of the population lives on less than $5.50 per day.

It’s difficult to equate dynamic evangelization with the reality of shrinking numbers of parishes, priests, parishioners and active churches. But evangelization is exactly what the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth hopes to achieve through a strategy called New Parishes: Stronger Together.

OTTAWA – Canada is being urged to give asylum to Asia Bibi and her family after Pakistan’s Supreme Court cleared her of blasphemy charges, resulting in widespread rioting by Islamic extremists.

VATICAN – Christians and Hindus are bound by their belief in human dignity and share a responsibility to help those in need, said the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

“I have been half in love with easeful Death.” So wrote poet John Keats two centuries ago. For him it was sorrowful, yet his succinct sentence could well describe our current perspective in this country. 

Leaving Christianity:Changing Allegiances in Canada since 1945 by Brian Clarke and Stuart Macdonald (McGill-Queen’s University Press, softcover, 304 pages, $35.00)

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VATICAN – The Catholic Church must find a way to look at secularization as an opportunity to find new ways to proclaim the Gospel, the Jesuit superior general told the Synod of Bishops.

VATICAN – Speaking to the Synod of Bishops on behalf of Belgium's bishops' conference, a bishop said he was sure some young married men would become priests if they were asked.

At 90, Jean Vanier is something more than an eminent man of great accomplishment, more than a national treasure who belongs to the Order of Canada, the Order of Quebec, France’s Legion of Honour and holds the 2015 Templeton Prize. 

The State of Alabama has had a controversial relationship with the Ten Commandments. Not so much its teachings but its physical representation.

WASHINGTON – Debate continues about whether the Vatican's provisional agreement with China will improve relations between the Chinese state and members of religious groups, which have had a long history of conflict.

It’s harvest time across Canada, and the back-breaking labour on some farms will be supporting people around the world with emergency food supplies and long-term food security.

VATICAN – Pope Francis said many Catholics share his initial thoughts about the worship of charismatic Christians – "that more than prayer meetings they seem to be samba schools" – but he is convinced God wants Catholics and Pentecostals to learn from each other.

VATICAN – The recent Vatican-China agreement on the nomination of bishops seeks the true good of the church, the promotion of preaching the Gospel in China and the re-establishment of the church's full and visible unity, Pope Francis said in a message to Catholics in China and worldwide.