TORONTO - Bishop Samuel Ruiz made the Vatican nervous, he made the government of Mexico nervous and he made indigenous people around the world proud. Ruiz was bishop of the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern Mexican province for more than 40 years. He was memorialized in an ecumenical prayer service in Toronto Feb. 23 by veteran human rights campaigners and Church activists.

“His legacy is alive and well and is needed in Mexico today,” Jesuit Father José Avilés told about 100 people who gathered for the prayer service and a conference that followed.

TORONTO - Like the prophet Jonah, Catholics need to become “boldly engaged” in a society that at times can seem “distant and antagonistic” to our faith, Cardinal Thomas Collins urged at a Pontifical Mass of thanksgiving in honour of his recent elevation to the College of Cardinals.

“We need engagement. Bold engagement,” said Collins, adding we can all learn from Jonah, “the reluctant prophet” sent by God to preach to the ancient pagan city of Nineveh.

TORONTO - In the Bible, there are many women reaching out and evangelizing, says Catholic writer Dorothy Pilarski.

To encourage the same kind of leadership today, Pilarksi is holding the third annual Dynamic Women of Faith conference on March 24.

“I want to introduce women that have a lively faith so others can be inspired by these leaders,” said Pilarski, author of the provocative book Motherhood Matters.

OTTAWA - As a battle over Canada’s prostitution laws wends its way through the courts, some Christian groups are campaigning to abolish prostitution.

Last year, an Ontario judge struck down Canada’s prostitution laws as unconstitutional, agreeing with the prostitutes who brought the case that the present laws endanger their security of person, forcing them to work on the streets or unable to seek help from police. The decision is under appeal.

The Iraqi family sponsored by Cardinal Thomas Collins is in the final stretch of its long road to refuge. The Iraqi Christian refugees should be in Canada before the end of April thanks to an offer of sponsorship by Collins.

Members of the archdiocese of Toronto administrative staff have raised the money, drawn up a 15-page settlement plan and gathered together a hope chest to make sure the family will find a warm welcome in Toronto.

The office workers have come together to take full responsibility for the refugees, said Martin Mark, executive director of the archdiocese of Toronto’s Office for Refugees.

OTTAWA - The violence plaguing Syria has forced the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) to put many of its projects there on hold, even though Christians so far do not seem to have been specifically targeted.

But support for Iraqi Christians who fled to Iraq, many of whom struggle to survive in the slums of Damascus, is still ongoing, said CNEWA Canada national director Carl Hétu.

Former parishioners of Corpus Christi and St. Rita's parishes in North Bay, Ont., are taking their case against closing their churches to the highest court in the Church.

The Corpus Christi-St. Rita's group will appeal to the Apostolic Signatura to have the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie maintain the two buildings for some form of sacred use. Last year the group asked the Congregation for the Clergy to rule that their churches had been improperly reduced to profane use to facilitate their sale. The Congregation for the Clergy ruled against the North Bay group in February.

OTTAWA - The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is urging the federal government to make families, compassion and charities priorities in its upcoming 2012 budget.

Though the national association for Evangelical Christians does not usually engage in pre-budget consultations, it stressed that “a budget is fundamentally a moral document.” In a budget, political leaders “decide what is ‘right and wrong’ for public expenditure, and as such biblical principles are relevant to the budgeting process.”

The budget should shore up the key building blocks of Canada, it said.

Mississauga, Ont. - Wrapping your head around a number like 13 million can be a daunting task to say the least. But one history teacher from St. Marcellinus Secondary School is trying to make such a figure a reality for students while at the same time teaching them about the Holocaust.

It’s been three years since Susan Carey initiated The Penny Project, which aims to collect and roll one penny for each of the lives lost in the Holocaust.  The money, all $130,000, will be used to fund genocide education programs.

OTTAWA - Shannen Koostachin had a dream for “safe and comfy” culturally sensitive schools for First Nations children like herself.

On Feb. 27, a vote in the House of Commons brought that dream closer to reality.

The House of Commons voted unanimously to “adopt Shannen’s Dream” by declaring First Nations children’s “equal right to high-quality, culturally relevant education” and to provide the necessary policy changes, consultation and funding support to make a First Nations’ education system “at a minimum” equal in quality to provincial systems.