As Toronto’s city-run shelter system bulges with refugees and migrants, volunteer-run Out of the Cold programs are operating at capacity and wondering when governments are going to get serious about housing.

OTTAWA – The Canadian government needs to speed the processing for refugee claimants and raise the number of government-sponsored refugees, say advocates.

Welcoming the stranger can sometimes be a risk of faith, but it is a risk that Christians are called to take, said Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins. 

Starlight, star bright

Re: Forgiveness is the greatest miracle (July 22-29):

Fr. Rolheiser states that “the miracle” of a starlit night sky “goes mostly unnoticed; we watch television instead.”

Deeper reasons for this may be involved. Humans spill so much light into the sky that few of our present generation have ever experienced what the natural night sky looks like. Most of the lighting industry displays a stunning indifference to this issue. And the amount of  “light-pollution” continues to increase by about six per cent annually in most places.

Sleeping in insufficient darkness suppresses our immune systems. Artificial light disrupts the life-cycles of insects, birds, amphibians and other animals. Many people think responsibility for our environment is a religious issue and light-pollution is certainly included in this. Does your porchlight shine upward?

James LaFramboise,

Thornhill, Ont.

The recess bell rings and a child dives for cover underneath her desk. A teacher is at the front of the classroom but a student is wandering from desk to desk starting conversations of his own. The lunch bell rings and several pupils have arrived without lunch, or uniforms, or gym clothes. A six-year-old turns up in school mid-morning, but doesn’t have enough English to tell the school secretary who she is, where she’s from or where she’s supposed to be.

Anyone who has stepped inside a church in the last 40 years doesn’t need a nationwide poll to tell them that the most religious Canadians are the newest Canadians. Immigrants are driving the bus for almost every faith community in Canada, but none more-so than Catholics.

The Church, with its long history of serving the poor and the persecuted, must play a key role in dealing with the global migration crisis.

The churches that sponsor refugees may be nervous about their budgets over the next three years, but they will probably get through the coming flood of refugee arrivals, according to the organization that represents sponsorship agreement holders across the country.