VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has decided to begin 2017 in much the same way as he did last year: praying for Christian unity.

TORONTO – Scarboro Missions’ interfaith office, a centre for reflection and dialogue between Canadian Catholics and people of other faiths for more than 30 years, is closing.

Pope Francis met with refugees and leaders of religious faiths including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus who joined him for a day of prayer for peace in Assisi, home of his namesake, the 12th-century friar St. Francis.

ASSISI, Italy – Jesus' cry of thirst on the cross is heard today in the cries of innocent victims of war in the world, Pope Francis said.

TEL AVIV, Israel – It was Sunday — women’s-only day — at the so-called religious beach in this Israeli city on the Mediterranean, and several hundred women and girls sat on the sand or frolicked in the gentle waves with an abandon they rarely exhibit elsewhere.

TORONTO – During Ramadan, Muslims across the globe share the Iftar meal each evening. Iftar allows Muslims to physically replenish the body’s energy after fasting from dawn until dusk and to mentally reflect on the beauty and sacrifice of their faith.

The Jewish argument for freedom of religion is embedded in the Old Testament, the former chief rabbi of Britain told an enthralled audience at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio March 15.

MONTREAL - The greatest threat to religious freedom in Canada is silence, Canada’s ambassador for Religious Freedom told more than 700 university students attending the Rise Up conference in Montreal.

VATICAN CITY - The world expects all people of religious faith to work with everyone for a better future, Pope Francis told representatives of major religions.

In or out? Us or them? Where do we draw the line? Should we draw the line? Once a line is drawn, how do we look beyond our borders?

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - The main shrine of Mississauga’s grand Fo Guang Shan Temple is typically used by Buddhists for weekly services or meditation. On May 2, however, a modest crowd of Catholics, Sikhs, Jews and Muslims joined with the Buddhists to address a situation that  all grapple with — the future.

NEW YORK - Catholics and Jews risk losing their hard-won interfaith amity if they take ecumenism for granted and fail to pass it along to a new generation of seminarians and laity, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York said in an address at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

TORONTO - In a world where the Islamic State threatens religious minorities in the Middle East, Boko Haram kidnaps Christian girls in Nigeria, Jews worldwide are forced to defend the existence of Israel, it might be said that interfaith relations are no walk in the park.

TORONTO - When Pope Francis talks about dialogue he’s not advancing an agenda or solving the political problems of the Church, Saskatoon’s Bishop Don Bolen told audiences in Waterloo, Ont., and Toronto at a pair of lectures on ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

We live inside a world and inside religions that are too given to disrespect and violence. Virtually every newscast documents the prevalence of disrespect and violence done in the name of religion, disrespect done for the sake of God (strange as that expression may seem). Invariably those acting in this way see their actions, justified by sacred cause.