There are 3.9 billion people hungry or malnourished, including over 800 million who are so chronically underfed they’re actually dying for lack of nutrients, which is why Development and Peace is still asking Canadian Catholics for money.

The question in Section 5 of the form stares at me from my computer: “Estimated Attendance?” I am filling out the Nathan Phillips Square Special Event Application form provided by the City of Toronto. On April 25, we plan to gather as young Catholics to raise our voices for a more generous Canada.

Perhaps the notion of the common good will soon have its day in the sun.

Canada is on track to fall even further behind other countries in doing its bit for the world’s most vulnerable populations, despite an extra $200 million injected into the 2018 foreign aid budget.

Development and Peace has signed onto a political manifesto that reflects in part the teaching of Pope Francis in a call for drastic change in environmental policy.

The disciplines of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — are an exercise in conscience formation. Lent is much more than conscience formation, but it is that.

“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart” (Luke 18:1). So begins the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. 

More than half the Canadian population thinks the Rohingya crisis, which has created a refugee camp of over 600,000 in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox’s Bazar, is “not Canada’s problem,” according to an Angus Reid Institute poll. 

The international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada is demanding the federal government adopt a feminist foreign aid policy that diverts emphasis from enabling abortion to delivering lasting peace.

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is offering something for nothing until Oct. 20 — membership in one of Canada’s biggest and oldest social justice organizations.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Listen Up! Listen Up!”

Provincial superiors of the English and French Canadian arms of the Jesuits wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Aug. 11 asking him to put pressure on the government of Honduras to protect the life of Jesuit Fr. Ismael “Melo” Moreno.

Earlier this year protesters in a small Guatemala village blockaded a giant silver mine operated by a Canadian company and for a month stood their ground despite being regularly tear-gassed by paramilitary police.

In Grade 8, Christina Kruszewski’s social studies teacher challenged the class with a question: “How are you going to change the world?”

For the first time, Development and Peace spent more than half its international budget for humanitarian aid in the Middle East, according to its annual report.