English cardinal warns teachers against Islamic State recruitment
MANCHESTER, England - It can take just one month to turn a disenfranchised teenage Catholic student into fanatical Islamic terrorist, an English cardinal planned to warn Catholic teachers.
Catholic groups, undeterred by Paris attacks, will attend climate summit
WASHINGTON - Catholic organizations advocating to protect the world and its people from the impact of climate change said the terror attacks in Paris will not dissuade them from attending the UN summit on climate change to be held there Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
Debate rises on whether Syrian refugees pose a threat
ROME - Some anti-immigrant and conservative leaders in both Europe and the United States say refugees arriving from Syria should be considered potential terrorists, and some suggest that requests for asylum should be vetted on the basis of religion.
Vatican won’t be ‘paralyzed by fear,’ says cardinal
VATICAN CITY - Even though the Vatican may be a target for terrorism, it won’t be “paralyzed by fear,” said the Vatican’s Secretary of State.
Respond to attacks with mercy, not fear
Catholics should be guided by mercy, not fear, in the wake of the Paris terror attack, said Hamilton Bishop Douglas Crosby three days after co-ordinated terrorist attacks killed at least 129 and sent 415 people to hospital.
World religious leaders condemn Paris carnage
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis raised the specter of a World War III “in pieces,” Muslims issued statements of condemnation, while evangelical Christians in America debated whether to speak of a “war with Islam.”
Canadian theologian visiting Paris was minutes away from the bloodshed
MONTREAL - When Daniel Laliberte planned his Paris getaway with his wife, he had no clue he would end up being only meters away from the biggest terrorist attack Europe has known in the past decade.
MANCHESTER, England - When the Islamic State overran the Iraqi town of Qaraqosh last August, one of the priests there jumped into his car and joined the exodus of Christians on the road east in the hope of reaching the safety of Kurdish-controlled territory.
OXFORD, England - French Catholics have urged church support for a campaign to stop Western companies from buying oil from Islamic State, in effect funding the mass killing of Christians.
Toronto's Ethiopians rally against Islamic State brutality
TORONTO - Close to 1,000 Ethiopian immigrants — a mix of Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim — gathered in the late afternoon and evening of April 28 in Dundas Square to mourn together the death of two Ethiopian migrant workers murdered April 19 in Libya by Islamic State militants.
Today’s villain, tomorrow’s saint
Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B) May 3 (Acts 9:26-31; Psalm 22; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8)
Small wonder that Saul — later Paul — was feared by the Jerusalem community. They wanted nothing to do with him, for he had terrorized the community of believers in Christ relentlessly. By his own admission in his letters, Paul had hunted them down and arrested them, voting in favour of the death penalty at their trials.
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.
Development and Peace stands #WithSyria
Four years into Syria’s civil war, Canada’s Catholic development agency is petitioning Ottawa for more aid, Canadian diplomatic contributions to a peace plan and stronger efforts to choke off the money that keeps both the Assad regime and ISIS fighting.
Local Muslims reaching out
TORONTO - As of March 10 2,942 people had hit the “like” button on Pegida Canada’s Facebook page. Another 97 people had signed up to attend Pegida Quebec’s planned March 28 rally in Montreal.
21 slain Egyptian Copt martyrs had their cross to bear
MONTREAL - Christians have always faced various degrees of persecution through the centuries and should always be prepared to wear “the crown of martyrdom,” a Coptic leader in Montreal told his congregation Feb. 28 during a memorial Mass honouring 21 Egyptians who were beheaded on a beach in Libya by jihadists in mid-February.