VATICAN CITY - Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet said the conclave "opens up a new future" for the church and is a responsibility the cardinals see as "their main task."

OTTAWA - Canada’s new religious freedom ambassador says his “deep Christian faith” will be “central” in informing the work he will do in addressing religious freedom.

TORONTO - Though some were due back in class in an hour or two and others were generations removed from their last lecture, everybody at Fr. Robert J. Madden’s funeral Feb. 20 was there as a student paying respect to a great teacher.

TORONTO - The Catholic Civil Rights League of Canada has joined with other upset people in condemning a satirical skit that mocked one of the Church’s holiest sacraments.

TORONTO - When it comes to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the mainstream media has been filled with a troubling number of errors and misrepresentations, said the head of an organization committed to combating anti-Catholic defamation.

TORONTO - If food be the music of love and of life, why should the elderly be stuck with Muzak? Why another bland tray of dietician-approved starch, protein, carbohydrates, fats and fibre?

OTTAWA - A growing group of Quebec physicians is rallying opposition to a plan to include euthanasia as part of health care under the euphemism “medical aid in dying.”

TORONTO - When Chaminade College School football coach Pat Diodati met James Bodanis, he immediately knew playing football would pay off for the then Grade 9 student. Convincing Bodanis of that, however, proved to be less instantaneous.

Joyce de Gooijer is on the lookout. As the first lay director of the Volunteer International Christian Service (VICS), de Gooijer is eager to increase the organization’s recruits through improved public awareness.

OTTAWA - A Supreme Court of Canada decision in the case of William Whatcott has disappointed religious freedom and free-speech advocates.