The power of prayer is being marshalled across Canada to call out abuse of power by China’s Communist Party in a national, ecumenical Zoom liturgy scheduled for March 21.

ROME -- Catholic bishops in Malta said that while they support equality and are against discrimination, they are concerned that two new bills meant to protect people's rights would instead threaten personal freedoms.

Conspiracy theorists portray masks as a ploy by the government to control people and restrict their rights for freedom. Anti-maskers brand themselves as freedom fighters as they fight the mandate to wear this symbol of oppression, restraint and imprisonment.

MANCHESTER, England -- An English bishop urged the U.K. government to take action against violations of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong.

MANILA, Philippines - Church leaders across Asia have expressed alarm over threats to press freedom amid reports of increasing attacks and intimidation of journalists, resulting in growing levels of self-censorship.

Third Sunday of Easter, May 5 (Year C) Acts 5:28-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Threats and intimidation are usually enough to keep people submissive and in line. The threat can range anywhere from death to dismissal or a bad evaluation, but the effect is always the same: silence and acquiescence.

WASHINGTON – Nationwide efforts to confront human trafficking received a boost in the new year as President Donald Trump signed a bill reauthorizing federal expenditures for prevention and assistance programs across the federal government.

The new Quebec government’s proposed assault on religious freedom by barring public wearing of overt faith markers is worrisome enough.

VATICAN – The Catholic Church must find a way to look at secularization as an opportunity to find new ways to proclaim the Gospel, the Jesuit superior general told the Synod of Bishops.

The massacre of 17 innocents at a Parkland, Fla., high school is not fading out of the news as quickly as other similar tragedies that have plagued the United States.

In a trend that alarms Catholic thinkers, for the 11th year in a row freedom around the globe declined in 2016.

It should surprise no one that at a time of rising authoritarianism, democracy will be on the curriculum when the Sheptytsky Institute reopens in Toronto.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Feb. 12 (Year A) Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37

We are free, but freedom can be frightening. With freedom comes responsibility, and humans are masters at fleeing from this and making excuses for their failures.

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) June 12 (2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13; Psalm 32; Galatians 2:16, 19-21; Luke 7:36-8:3)

We usually think of a “flash of recognition” in positive terms — a form of enlightenment. But David’s experience of this recognition was disturbing and even devastating. His climb to the top of the heap as king of Israel had been successful but not pretty. It had involved a lot of questionable decisions and actions, but he seemed disinclined to quibble — after all, it had worked. He had almost unlimited power and wealth — what more could one want? 

The notion of separation of church and state is an important foundation for a true democracy. It guarantees freedom of religion by favouring no religion over another. It is also the surest way of guaranteeing the expansion of religion when the state favours none and allows religion’s best instincts to make a real contribution to society.