{mosimage}OTTAWA - An Alberta Human Rights Commission panel has ordered a former Christian youth pastor to apologize in the pages of the Red Deer Advocate for a strongly worded 2002 letter to the editor he wrote opposing the homosexual activist agenda.

In a May 30 “decision on remedy,” commission panelist Lori Andreachuk also ordered Stephen Boissoin, 41, to request the newspaper publish her judgment against him. She has also imposed a lifetime ban on ever speaking or writing “disparagingly” about homosexuals again: in the media, on the Internet, in public speaking engagements or in e-mails. She has also ordered him to take down any “disparaging” remarks from his web site.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The founding executive director of Project Ploughshares — one of Canada’s leading Christian voices for peace — wants Canadian troops to stay in Afghanistan, for now.

Following 10 days interviewing Afghanis and Canadians in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, Project Ploughshares senior researcher Ernie Regehr concludes Canadian troops are not creating the peace and stability necessary for economic and social development in Kandahar province. However, the soldiers are still necessary to prevent an all-out civil war.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - The Pope may wish to see all parishes have a Tridentine Latin Mass among their weekend liturgies, but at the moment Cardinal Marc Ouellet is happy with one in the archdiocese of Quebec.

“I think the intention of the Holy Father is to allow the practice of the extraordinary rite where there is a need and a request,” the cardinal said at a June 18 press conference at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress here.

OTTAWA - The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) has launched a postcard campaign to fight a proposed bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

EPC has distributed 10,000 cards that can be filled out, signed and mailed free of charge to members of Parliament to stop Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde’s private member’s Bill C-562 that she introduced June 12, a week before the House of Commons adjourned for a summer break.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is getting advice from Catholics.

In advance of the July 7-9 G8 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, Harper has received letters from the bishops of the G8 nations and from the Congregation of Notre Dame sisters.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - It seemed fitting that the week-long International Eucharistic Congress ended on a battle field. Some 55,000 people celebrated “God's gift for the life of the world” in a Mass where, almost 250 years ago, British and French soldiers shot each other down.

Instead of a memorial to death, the high plateau known as the Plains of Abraham became a celebration of eternal life.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY  - By satellite video, Pope Benedict XVI told more than 55,000 pilgrims here June 22 about the wonders of the Eucharist.  

“The Eucharist is our most beautiful treasure,” the Pope said via two giant screens that loomed over the historic Plains of Abraham at the closing Mass of the 49th International Eucharistic Congress.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga urged Catholics to support a campaign to get the Canadian government to appoint an ombudsperson that would scrutinize domestic mining operations overseas.

At a press conference held at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress June 20, the cardinal/archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, thanked the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace for conducting the campaign.

It's highly unusual that journalists clap at the end of a news conference, or that you can look around and see their faces shining with joy, or the odd tear in the eye.

Twelve young men from Quebec, nine from new religious communities, were ordained at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress June 20, a sign of renewed life in the Catholic Church here.