{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - While Pope Benedict XVI may not attend the 49th International Eucharistic Congress in person, his virtual presence will be there for all to see.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - This year’s National March for Life in Ottawa May 7-9 will honour the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Toronto’s first real warm spring day welcomed 36 glove-clad volunteers carrying plastic garbage bags or brooms throughout a downtown section of the city April 18.

{mosimage}TORONTO - St. Basil's Church in downtown Toronto hosted the ordination of two young men to the priesthood for the Basilian order on April 19.

It was a significant day for the Basilians, as Fr. Glenn McDonald and Fr. Andrew Leung, both 29 and from Alberta, were two of only three men ordained as priests within the Basilian order in North America since 2001. The third was ordained earlier this year in Houston, Texas.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Vocations in Toronto might seem healthier from the perspective of other Canadian dioceses. Where some areas of the country generate zero priestly vocations on a yearly basis, the archdiocese of Toronto’s mean average is four or five. In fact, Toronto will  be ordaining seven priests for the archdiocese in May.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Italian priests of the archdiocese of Toronto and their parishes are preparing for the 100th anniversary of the first Italian church of Toronto. On Nov. 8, 1908, Archbishop Fergus McEvay gave the old St. Patrick’s Church to the Italian community, under the new name of “Our Lady of Mount Carmel.”

{mosimage}CALGARY - The federal government continues to subsidize fossil fuel production at the cost of developing sustainable energy alternatives, according to a study released April 15 by KAIROS, an ecumenical church-based social justice organization.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Liberal MP Denis Corderre says the next election will be fought over censorship.

But the newly minted Heritage Critic was not speaking about press freedom in light of hate speech complaints levied against Catholic Insight, Maclean’s and Ezra Levant, the former publisher of the Western Standard.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - The pilgrims carrying the Ark of the New Covenant have faced snow and rain and shine.  They have become experts in caring for blisters. Some of them have sunburns on their faces.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Catholic Insight magazine has paid $6,000 in legal fees fighting a human rights “hate” complaint, yet no hearing date is in sight.

For a small circulation (3,500 subscribers) conservative specialty magazine, “it has cost us quite a bit,” said the magazine’s editor, Basilian Father Alphonse de Valk.