Feature

China: Keeping the faith

April 24, 2007

BEIJING - Some time after Easter, Pope Benedict XVI was to issue a letter to Chinese Catholics that many hope will call for reconciliation and unity between those who have registered with the government and those who have not registered.

On Catholic fundamentalism

April 16, 2007

“The opposite of ‘Catholic’ is not ‘Protestant’, but rather ‘sectarian,’ ” says Jesuit Father Mark Massa, co-director of the Curran Centre for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in New York City.

The other side of the euthanasia coin

April 13, 2007

In the growing debate over euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide, one significant argument has too often been missing in action. In church circles at least, we forget to show the very human side of those most affected by any expansion of euthanasia.

‘Designer embryos’ an attack on life

April 12, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI denounced the high-tech trend that encourages parents to seek the “perfect child” through genetic selection.

Politicians challenged over rising poverty

March 9, 2007

Children won’t be lifted out of poverty in Ontario unless politicians start committing to reduce poverty rates that have remained stubbornly high despite a booming economy, Campaign 2000 declared with the release of yet another Report Card on Child Poverty in Ontario.

Public education should respect all religions

March 6, 2007

Editor’s note: With the growth of ethnic and religious diversity in Canada, there is a growing debate over religious education and whether it should be supported with tax dollars. In this essay, Peter Lauwers analyses the debate and offers a cogent argument for state funding of religious education.

Report sets stage for closer relations between Catholics, Anglicans

March 6, 2007

TORONTO - Church unity hasn’t happened yet, but Catholics and Anglicans have a new list of concrete suggestions for ways to bring the two churches closer.

Church mustn't forget its complicity in slave trade

January 25, 2007

TORONTO - The past matters to Ursuline Sister Hazel Campayne. It matters for all the ways it has shaped our world and our church — for what it reveals about who we are now.

Rich-poor gap widens

January 17, 2007

The rich are getting richer, and you're not. The median net worth of the top fifth of Canadian families grew by 19 per cent between 1999 and 2005, according to a Statistics Canada report released in December. Over the same period, the net worth of households in the bottom 20 per cent fell under 43 per cent.

Church goods retailers wary of items manufactured in China

January 17, 2007

Crucifix [images/stories/misc/crucifix-standing.jpg]TORONTO - The thought of a chalice or paten made in a sweatshop, of chasubles sewn by child labour or religious statues that come out of a factory that dumps heavy metal in a river, killing the fish, would be distinctly uncomfortable for most Catholics. The church in Canada helps fund the Maquiladora Solidarity Network and KAIROS, organizations that have demanded that major clothing retailers and manufacturers disclose their supply chains so anyone can find out whether a shirt or a pair of athletic shoes was made in a sweatshop. The church has spoken out against abusive working conditions since Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891.