Israeli leaders have a fundamental duty to provide safety and security for their citizens. But they must act reasonably, and that does not include a carte-blanche license to bulldoze the rights and livelihoods of innocent people who pose no threat to anyone.

In a spat between the federal government and several provinces over health-care coverage for refugees, we have no hesitation in picking sides. We choose the side of compassion, the side that embraces what Pope Francis calls a “generous openness” to always comfort society’s most vulnerable members.

TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins knows all about saving souls but with his appointment to the Vatican bank he’ll be getting a crash course in savings of another kind.

It is never easy to hear the Church address the sinful litany of sexual abuse that has caused so much harm to so many people. The discussion is always painful, but it is necessary.

Pope Francis seems determined to invigorate the Church so who could be surprised to see him give the College of Cardinals a bit of a shake?

The Supreme Court ruling that lifted restrictions on prostitution has handed Parliament an opportunity to make ground-breaking social change by passing new laws to cripple this dehumanizing practice.

Pope Francis was pretty much a consensus pick as person of the year in both the religious and secular press. From Time magazine to, of course, The Catholic Register, the feeling seems universal that no other leader, religious or otherwise, could match the 2013 world impact of the joyful new Pope from Argentina.

After years of negative news about the Church, Francis repositioned the discussion to focus on humankind’s potential as a loving, generous, merciful community. He shared a vision of charity and hope while delivering a message that was consistently positive and upbeat, upbraiding “sourpusses” and celebrating the Church as a “house of joy.”

As people contemplate new beginnings for 2014, they should reflect on the wisdom of Pope Francis.

Here is a small sampling of his comments, delivered over the past nine months in homilies, writings and interviews, that The Register found poignant as we bid adieu to the old year and usher in the new.

• “A Church without charity doesn’t exist.”
• “I see the Church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
• “You can, you must, try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow.”
• “Money has to serve, not to rule.”
• “Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith, not sure of Jesus Christ.”
• “Let us never forget that authentic power is service and that the Pope, too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service which has its radiant culmination on the cross.”
• “The Church is not a refuge for sad people.
• The Church is a house of joy.”
• “An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!”
• “Let us ask for the grace not to tire of asking for forgiveness, because He never tires of forgiving.”
• “When Christians forget about hope and tenderness they become a cold Church that loses its sense of direction.”
• “An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity is this: look at the peacock — it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front, but if you look at it from behind you discover the truth.”
•  “There is no such thing as innocent gossip.”

Pope Francis was unquestionably the 2013 person of the year. Now the challenge for us, as we set New Year’s resolutions, is to make 2014 better because of him.

Catholics have more to celebrate than usual this Christmas. For the first time in Church history the birth of Jesus will be celebrated by two legitimate popes. Yes, it has been quite a year.

Nelson Mandela once said that in the pursuit of peace “courageous people do not fear forgiving.”