OTTAWA - Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias told the 50th annual National Prayer Breakfast April 20 the world is growing dark and dismal as it loses an understanding of what it means to be human.

TORONTO - After more than two decades, Catholic Insight magazine has published for the last time. The magazine’s April issue will be its final one.

TORONTO - Not only is the Islamic State causing catastrophic human tragedy throughout Syria and Iraq, it is engaged in a “cultural genocide” as it destroys anything in its way that is not part of its idea of Islam, said Sascha Priewe.

OTTAWA - With legalized euthanasia looming large over the House of Commons, a Tory backbencher has tabled a motion to affirm the right of free votes on matters of conscience.

If you ever visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing on a Sunday and decide you would like to attend Mass at Our Lady of China, you will have to catch Line Two from the Qianmen subway station just south of the square and travel six stations to Dongzhimen. Walk about five minutes west from Dongzhimen and you will find yourself at the front gate of the Canadian Embassy. Inside the embassy on Sundays expatriates from Africa, Europe, Canada and elsewhere gather to form their own parish.

Ten years of fighting off friendly fire attacks from the pro-life movement and politically motivated budget cuts from Ottawa has left outgoing Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace executive director Michael Casey feeling inspired, consoled, hopeful and at peace.

MONTREAL - He was a cardinal with a common touch, a street-smart Montrealer who used the media effectively, peppered sermons with references to his beloved Montreal Canadiens, returned his Order of Canada on principle and humbly served his community at soup kitchens and blood donor clinics.

MONTREAL - It was dignified and unpretentious, a funeral fit for Montreal's popular Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte.

MONTREAL - At dawn April 16, before the doors had even opened at 7 a.m., a small crowd and three television crews had already gathered outside Mary Queen of the World Cathedral to pay their respects to Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte.

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada ruled April 15 that Saguenay council must stop praying before meetings and pay damages to an atheist who launched a complaint in the matter.