News/Canada

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Refugee rights advocates launched a campaign Nov. 29 to ensure that humanitarian workers do not get charged with laws aimed at human traffickers.

“I am proud to aid and abet refugees,” said refugee advocates from charities and NGOs from across Canada. They stood, one by one. Then nearly all of the more than 300 delegates to the The Canadian Council for Refugees fall consultation in Ottawa were standing.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s apology to Quebeckers for the past sins of some Catholics in that province has provoked an unprecedented response — positive and negative — across the country.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - When Reginald Bibby researched his book Fragmented Gods back in the 1980s, he recalls the hostility he encountered among some Catholic women who wanted more gender equality in the church.

{mosimage}TORONTO - It’s time for Canada’s Catholic bishops to state clearly what they think Canada should be doing in Afghanistan, according to a lay peace group which plans to petition the bishops for a statement before Christmas.

{mosimage}Editor's note: Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec and primate of the Catholic Church in Canada, made front page news Nov. 21 with the publication in daily newspapers across the province of an open letter asking forgiveness for the sins of past church leaders. Below is an English translation.

Following my intervention at the Bouchard-Taylor commission, your comments have been many and varied. I have read all of them with great care, whether they came in the mail or through the media. I thank you for the messages of support, I also thank you for the criticism which has made me reflect and prompted this open letter, which seeks to deepen reflection, dispel misunderstandings and promote dialogue in a spirit of peace and reconciliation.

{mosimage}The federal government has some explaining to do about climate change and tax breaks. A coalition of churches with the help of an environmental legal group are hoping to hear what the government has to say early in 2008.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Canadian society stands to become a much bleaker place if religious attendance continues to decline as it has over the past two decades.

{mosimage} OTTAWA - No decision has been made by Vatican officials on the possibility of a papal visit to Canada to attend next June's Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City, Canadian church officials say.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s assessment of Quebec’s spiritual void, his passionate defence of her Christian history and his warning about the threat of fundamentalist secularism should be heeded in the rest of Canada, say religious freedom experts.

TORONTO - Churches believe the moment has finally arrived when poverty is about to mix with politics in Canada, and the faith community wants an invitation to the party.