Ottawa - Five students who attempted to put up a graphic anti-abortion display on the campus of Carleton University Oct. 4 were handcuffed and arrested by Ottawa police.

The students were detained for a short time and issued tickets for “failing to leave the premises when directed” and for “engaging in activity prohibited on the premises,” said Craig Stewart, 24, a fourth-year Carleton student who was among those arrested.

The tickets carry fines totalling $130. “We’re going to contest them,” said Stewart.

SHERBROOKE, Que. - The Famille Marie-Jeunesse (FMJ) can trace its roots to a soccer game in Quebec City.

No one can pin down the exact date, but some time in the early 1980s, a Quebec City seminarian named Real Lavoie noticed a group of young people playing a game in the church yard. He joined them, treated them to trips to McDonald’s and began answering their questions about God, about how to pray and how one could get to know God personally, said Jennifer Y.M. Lee, who recently made a permanent commitment to lay consecrated life

OTTAWA - The Nobel prize-winning pioneer of the micro-credit movement is developing a concept he calls “social business” to lift people out of poverty and perhaps help revitalize Haiti.

Mohammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, said his social business model could transform Haiti, still reeling from its devastating earthquake, by creating a problem-solving environment that addresses deep-rooted issues such as employment and housing.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - A lack of deep evangelization lies at the root of problems shared by the churches in Canada and Latin America.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Canadian Council of Churches (CCC)  executive director Karen Hamilton grilled the Iranian president during a recent meeting in New York, telling him his threats to wipe Israel off the face of the map were “unacceptable.”

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber has returned from his first trip to the Holy Land with a deep understanding of the pressure and suffering the historic Christian community experiences there.

{mosimage}NEW YORK - Salt+Light TV producer Kris Dmytrenko thought covering the Pope’s visit to the United States April 15-20 would be like “being a pilgrim with access.”

“It was very different than what I imagined,” Dmytrenko, 28, said. “I thought I’d have free access to roam around, a ‘backstage pass.’ ”

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae shocked Catholics and non-Catholics alike with its ban against artificial birth control.

But on its 40th anniversary, marked July 25, the encyclical is widely seen as prophetic and worth a second look for its teachings on human love.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Cardinal Francis George had never studied French before attending Saint Paul University as an Oblate scholastic 40 years ago, but he found the language necessary “if you wanted to eat,” he joked at a banquet Sept. 19 at the bilingual university.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - A number of Catholic and Christian organizations have asked Canada to intervene in the crisis that has gripped the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The whole civilian population is being held hostage,” said Development and Peace advocacy officer Mary Durran.