NEWS

{mosimage}Prior to the recent pilgrimage to the Middle East by Pope Benedict XVI, Catholic Register editor Jim O’Leary travelled to the Holy Land and encountered many people who were hopeful that the Pope’s visit would be a prelude to peace. One such person was a remarkable nun whose Bethlehem orphanage has been caught in the middle of the ongoing conflict.

Sr. Sophie Boueri is small, frail and, more than simply tired from a difficult day, her face mirrors  lifetime fatigue. She is 74.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Not long after the time of Christ, a mysterious, ancient community carefully placed rolled manuscripts in clay jars and stored them in caves that remained forgotten in the desert for two millennia.

It is widely believed the scrolls were written by a fringe religious group called Essenes, but there is no proof of that or, indeed, irrefutable proof that the Essenes actually existed.

{mosimage}TORONTO - North York Community Council voted unanimously against an application by the Toronto District Catholic School Board to demolish the historic home of the late Senator Frank O’Connor.

The May 20 decision came as a relief to community members who have been raising money to restore the home, but as a setback to the board which is responsible for the old farm house.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A priestly fraternity dedicated to preservation of the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Mass is seeking permission to set up a parish in Toronto.

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has proposed to Archbishop Thomas Collins that the order would create a parish served by two priests offering all the sacraments according to the 1962 Missale Romanum. The Toronto personal parish would also serve as a base for the fraternity’s work in the dioceses of St. Catharines and London.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Life-affirming groups are mounting an offensive against a Bloc Quebecois’ MP’s third attempt to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Francine Lalonde introduced her private members’ Bill C-384 to legalize euthanasia on May 13, the day before 12,300 Canadians came to Ottawa for the National March for Life. Her previous bills died when elections were called.

{mosimage}BANGALORE, India - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared an end to the nation’s civil war in mid-May, but the head of the Sri Lankan Catholic bishops’ conference said the war will be over only when the island nation is able to overcome its ethnic divisions.

“The war is technically over. But we can celebrate the real end of war only when we are able to overcome our prejudices and live together as one people,” Bishop Joseph Vianney Fernando told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from his home May 19.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Nearly a thousand Catholics flooded Toronto's Dundas Square on May 17, rosaries in hand, heads bowed or arms raised for their most public event since World Youth Day 2002.

"It's hard to put into words," said Paul Klotz, a parishioner of St. Michael's Cathedral. "(Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins) showed us that in praying a little and reading a little you can learn so much more than by just reading the Bible (by itself)."

{mosimage}JERUSALEM - Standing before Christ's empty tomb, Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians in the Holy Land to bury their differences so they could preach hope and peace with one voice.

"The church in the Holy Land, which has so often experienced the dark mystery of Golgotha, must never cease to be an intrepid herald of the luminous message of hope which this empty tomb proclaims," the Pope said May 15.

{mosimage}TORONTO - There happens to be a recession going on and the Toronto Area Interfaith Council thinks the city’s churches, mosques, synagogues and temples ought to be doing something about it.

At the third annual TAIC breakfast with Toronto’s mayor, the interfaith council unveiled a program to encourage faith communities to collect food for food banks and to open pathways to employment, social services and housing through the 211 system.

OTTAWA - Despite driving rain and howling winds, the National March for Life May 12 drew more than 12,300 people — the largest crowd in its 11-year history.

Dubbed Exodus 2009, the March marked the 40th anniversary of the Omnibus Bill that decriminalized abortion in Canada, paving the way to abortion on demand.

On the steps to the Peace Tower, Quebec's Cardinal Marc Ouellet called upon Parliamentarians to address the juridical void that leaves abortion permissible right through nine months of pregnancy. He also called on all Canadians to build a culture of life that guards the family and welcomes human life. We are all responsible for the respect for human rights in our land, he said, especially the rights of the most fragile — infants in the womb, the elderly and the handicapped.