Churches need to define how they're going to help repair the damage residential schools did to aboriginal culture in Canada and the federal government must cough up the millions of documents that future historians will need to tell the story of Canada's effort to assimilate First Nations' people, says the interim report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

The report marks the halfway point of the five-year mandate of the commission. It warns that government reluctance to provide full and meaningful access to Library and Archives Canada records threatens the mandate of the commission. The TRC intends to go to court to force greater government co-operation.

WINDSOR, Ont. - Four former Windsor students of Fr. William ”Hod” Hodgson Marshall are suing the priest, the Congregation of St. Basil and the diocese of London for claims arising from sexual abuse for which the now 89-year-old priest has been convicted.

Marshall was sentenced last June to two years in jail after pleading guilty to 17 counts of indecent assault between 1962 and 1985 for cases that arose in Windsor, Toronto and Sudbury. Marshall was a teacher, coach and principal at schools in those cities.

TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins was big news over the two weeks leading up to his elevation to the College of Cardinals.

Every major news organization in Canada covered the event in Rome with news reports, analysis, feature interviews, photos, videos and live blogging. Canada’s largest newspaper kicked its coverage off with a two-part profile of Collins that ate up pages of precious newsprint.

“It was acres, wasn’t it?” said Toronto Star associate editor Alison Uncles. “It was thousands of words.”

OTTAWA - A bill to create a national suicide-prevention strategy received overwhelming multi-party support Feb. 15, sailing through a second reading vote 285-3 in the House of Commons.

Bill C-300: An Act Respecting a Federal Framework for Suicide Prevention, now goes to committee for further study.

A national suicide prevention strategy was among the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care that the bill’s sponsor, Conservative MP Harold Albrecht, chaired with NDP MP Joe Comartin.

ANTIGONISH, N.S. - An Antigonish, N.S., priest who served as spokesman for the diocese in the wake of child pornography charges against then Bishop Raymond Lahey is under investigation by the addictions treatment centre where he has been executive director for the last 17 years.

Fr. Paul Abbass has stepped down from his duties at Talbot House just outside Sydney, N.S., and suspended his work as a parish priest and as episcopal vicar and director of pastoral services for the diocese of Antigonish.

TORONTO - As she takes over as executive director of KAIROS, Jennifer Henry’s priority is keeping the ecumenical social justice organization close to its roots in Canada’s churches.

“My commitment is to preserve the ecumenical character of this organization and I think that’s also the commitment of people around the board table,” Henry told The Catholic Register.

SASKATOON - Fr. Andrew Britz, OSB, longtime editor of The Prairie Messenger, died Feb. 14 at the age of 71 years.

The Benedictine monk and priest, who edited The Prairie Messenger from 1983 to 2004, was known for his strong editorial voice in the Catholic weekly newspaper published by St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster, Sask.

TORONTO - Assassinated Pakistani minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti gave his life for human rights, freedom and democracy. And to mark the one-year anniversary of his death, family, friends and supporters will gather to mark his legacy.

On March 2, International Christian Voice — the Toronto-based human rights organization run by Peter Bhatti, Shahbaz’s brother — is holding a memorial dinner at the Woodbine Banquet and Convention Centre in Toronto. Among those expected to be in attendance are Cardinal Thomas Collins, retired Pakistani Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha, who now lives in Toronto, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, along with representatives from human rights organizations and community leaders.

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Bishop J. Faber MacDonald, who served a number of Maritime dioceses over the years, passed away at the age of 80 in Charlottetown.

A Prince Edward Island native, Bishop MacDonald was ordained a priest for the diocese of Charlottetown at the age of 31. On Jan. 11, 1980, just nine days before his birthday, Pope John Paul II appoint the priest from P.E.I. bishop of the diocese of Grand Falls, Nfld. A little more than two months later he was ordained at St. Dunstan's Basilica in his home province.

OTTAWA - Parents’ groups and organizations defending religious freedom have reacted with disappointment to a Supreme Court of Canada decision concerning the rights of parents to exempt their children from Quebec’s mandatory Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) program.

Canada’s highest court ruled Feb. 17 the program does not violate the religious freedom of Catholic parents because they were unable to prove the course harms their children.