TORONTO – A 13-year-old girl with long, flowing black hair and dark eyes stands poised at the head of a massive church hall, flanked by a bishop and several priests. More than a hundred community members sit before her.

Data from two major polling firms show Canadians are nowhere close to the caricature of faith-hostile atheists that we’ve been led to believe characterize us.

Canadians are mostly faithful believers in God who value family life, honesty and concern for others, according to an Angus Reid Institute survey.

Canadians are still leery of Islam and mostly weirded out by the veils and headscarves worn by a minority of Muslim women, but our general tolerance for religious diversity is actually on the rise, according to a survey released April 4 by the Angus Reid Institute.

As tensions rise between world powers over events in Syria and Korea, Canada needs to show some “backbone” when it comes to nuclear weapons disarmament, says former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament Doug Roche.

The Canadian government is giving an international Catholic refugee agency another $1.6 million to help put people on the road to a better life.

Canada can expect to see more asylum seekers crossing its 9,000 km, mostly unguarded, border with the United States as enforcement toughens at the U.S.-Mexican border and President Donald Trump continues to issue executive orders to restrain refugee arrivals, Catholic refugee advocates have told The Catholic Register.

As their U.S. brethren bask in finding an ally in the Trump administration, pro-lifers in Canada understand they still have much work to do in turning the tide in favour of life north of the border.

Recent events have been dark and disturbing. First we saw U.S. President Donald Trump put a “temporary” travel and immigration ban on seven mostly Muslim countries. Then there was the tragedy in Quebec City where six men were killed and several wounded while praying.

Before Christmas last year, Wartohi Myrdijian had to worry about the bombs falling on either side of her house in Aleppo. She was most afraid of the crude, unpredictable, improvised bombs that came from the ISIS side of the conflict.

Will Month 13 unsettle thousands of Syrian refugees who have already settled in Canada?

ISTANBUL – Sami Dankha, his three brothers and their families used to kick off Christmas celebrations by attending a packed Christmas Eve Mass at St. Thomas Church in Baghdad. Wearing brand new clothes and sporting fresh haircuts, they would spend the night chatting, singing and eating pacha, a dish made from sheep's head that Iraqis consider a delicacy and a staple of Christmas.

There can hardly be a voter or politician who doesn’t believe Canada’s shamefully high rate of child poverty should be promptly reduced and eventually eliminated.

If there’s anything that unites Canadians, it’s their overwhelming support for something very few of us have.

A federal government decision to restore funding to a United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees is being applauded by a Catholic aid group.