A plague of threats and attacks on religious people and institutions in Canada is challenging believers to stand up for one another, faith leaders said in the wake of a new Statistics Canada report on hate crimes.

To read statistical surveys of religion in Canada and the United States is to believe organized religion is imploding. 

Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 12 (Year C) Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100; Revelation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30

New ideas nearly always provoke controversy, resistance and even violence. This applies in all areas of human activity, but nowhere is it more prevalent than in religion.

Separate terrorist attacks in the past five months have killed 80 people as they worshipped in New Zealand mosques, an American synagogue and a Philippines cathedral. These are just three among hundreds of attacks on worshippers over the past decade. 

VATICAN – Pope Francis welcomed top officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Vatican the day before the officials inaugurated their first temple in the city of Rome.

PARIS – The French bishops' conference has condemned rising anti-Semitism in the country, as official data showed a massive increase of attacks, prompting new government measures.

OTTAWA – The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has warned an Ontario child services agency it could face legal action for discriminating against a Christian couple.

Alberta’s Catholic school system is again under fire from the province’s education minister, David Eggen. The issue this time is the “Catholicity clause” in teachers’ contracts which require teachers to agree to live a Catholic lifestyle.

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte renewed his attacks on Catholic leaders and urged Filipinos to stop going to church altogether.

As Americans learned how Washington was realigned by the Nov. 6 mid-term elections, the elder statesman of the American civil rights movement was in Toronto calling President Donald Trump “an icon of chaos” and urging Canadians to resist “plantation capitalism” being pushed by American nationalists.

In a fine interview following the recent synagogue killings in Pittsburgh, Ottawa’s Rabbi Reuven Bulka offered wisdom that went far beyond the specific act of terrible bloodshed. 

Religion has not always been a woman’s ally. 

VATICAN – Pope Francis said many Catholics share his initial thoughts about the worship of charismatic Christians – "that more than prayer meetings they seem to be samba schools" – but he is convinced God wants Catholics and Pentecostals to learn from each other.

OTTAWA – A new survey shows Canada’s high levels of immigration are making the country more religious and heightening the need to respect religion’s place in the public square, says Andrew Bennett, Canada’s former ambassador for religious freedom.

VATICAN – Like the ancient Israelites, Christians today also can fall into the temptation of creating their own idols when difficulties and uncertainties arise, Pope Francis said.