NEWS

{mosimage}LONDON - Ultratraditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson said he regrets the remarks he made denying the extent of the Holocaust.

In a statement released Feb. 26, a day after he arrived in London, Williamson said his superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, and Pope Benedict XVI "have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago because their consequences have been so heavy."

{mosimage}CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh - Bishop Patrick D'Rozario of Chittagong announced the opening of the sainthood cause of Canadian Holy Cross Brother Flavian Laplante, founder of a popular Marian shrine in Bangladesh.

D'Rozario also said that the shrine in Diang, which Brother Laplante started in 1976, has been elevated to a parish dedicated to Mary, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Toronto’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and organizers expect to fill St. Michael’s Cathedral to capacity.  

The March 17 service will be presided over by Archbishop Thomas Collins.

Collins, whose Irish ancestors settled near Guelph, Ont., in 1827, says the annual Mass has become an important part of his St. Patrick’s Day tradition. Although Collins can share a laugh about the many diverse and interesting ways people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, he said it’s important to remember the day’s religious significance.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Canadian government will be complicit with human rights violations being committed in Colombia if it proceeds with an already-signed free trade agreement, warned a church-sponsored delegation of Colombian activists that toured Canada in February.

Members of Colombia’s religious community are calling on Canadian churches to help prevent the ratification of the agreement between the two countries.

{mosimage}OTTAWA  - Five Canadian cities kicked off 40 Days for Life vigils of fasting and prayer to end abortion to coincide with Lent.

Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Edmonton have joined more than 175 American cities in maintaining prayer vigils outside abortion clinics and hospitals. The 40 Days campaigns began in the United States four years ago.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - The upcoming Synod of Bishops for Africa will give the continent’s Catholic bishops the opportunity to focus on some of the most pressing needs of people besieged by poverty, reeling from rebel violence and seeing little development assistance from their governments, said the archbishop of Gulu, Uganda.

“The synod assembly of Africa comes at a time when Africa in general and Uganda in particular is in need of reconciliation desperately, struggling for justice and yearning for peace,” Archbishop John Baptist Odama told more than 500 people Feb. 23 during the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - U.S. President Barack Obama’s first visit to Canada struck some positive notes on the environment and on trade, say Catholic observers.

But Campaign Life Coalition focused on the one issue that was not on the agenda of the Feb. 20 working visit: abortion.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI's planned trip to the Holy Land was slowly taking shape in February, and the tentative schedule included a number of important pastoral and interreligious events.

The proposed itinerary would take the Pope to Jordan May 8-11 for a visit to the new King Hussein Mosque in Amman, meetings with Jordanian officials, a Mass for Catholics in a soccer stadium, a stop at Jesus' Baptism site at the Jordan River and a pilgrimage to Mount Nebo, where Moses once looked out at the Promised Land.

TORONTO - The Sisters of Life have spent the past year-and-a-half discerning their role in Canadian society. Now, they will be teaming up with parishioners across the Toronto archdiocese to assist pregnant women in need.

The religious order, founded in New York in 1991, first established a Canadian presence in August 2007. Like other orders, the sisters take the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience but take a fourth vow to “protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.” Most of the sisters are young, between the ages of 28 and 45. The age range for postulants in formation in New York is 22-32.

{mosimage}BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The government of Argentina announced Feb. 19 that traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson had 10 days to leave the country or be expelled, news media reported.

The Interior Ministry said British-born Williamson "has concealed the true motive for his stay in the country" because he said he was an employee of a nongovernmental group when he was serving as rector of the seminary of the Society of St. Pius X in La Reja for the past five years.

Williamson, who recently provoked widespread indignation by asserting that the Holocaust was exaggerated and that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers, was removed as head of the seminary in early February.