BANGKOK -- When Pope Francis celebrates Mass in a Bangkok sports stadium Nov. 21, tens of thousands of Catholics from across Thailand will congregate to celebrate with him.

A Pakistani Christian refugee in Thailand, begging for help from Canada, has had his family’s location revealed for the second time in a month.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- For 63 families, the strangers from Toronto represented something they’ve lived without for years — hope.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- It’s not Joshua’s fault. He was born into statelessness more than three years ago in Bangkok and immediately suffered a stroke that left him seriously brain damaged. But Joshua scares the rest of his family daily.

Wanted: 63 Canadian parishes with the resources and the heart to rescue 63 Christian families who are huddled in a nation which scorns them as outcasts but who are too scared for their life to go home.

There’s nothing like a feel-good story to kick off a new year, and stories seldom get more uplifting than a dramatic rescue involving a teenage girl who feared for her life.

In a secret location, under the watchful guard of Pakistan’s military, Asia Bibi and her family are hoping Canada or some other country will take them in before gangs searching from house to house discover her. 

MAPLE RIDGE, B.C. – Lorraine Shelstad was a prairie girl on her first trip to the big city, starting what was supposed to be a year of Bible study in Toronto.

Toronto's Fr. Michael Brehl has earned a resounding vote to confidence from his fellow Redemptorists, who have given him another six-year term as Superior General of the Congregation of Most Holy Redeemer.