As a young Catholic, I’m finding that it is important to surround myself with as much of a Catholic presence as I can. I’m in my last year of high school, and I’ve noticed that through the past few years it’s gotten harder to hold steady in my faith.

When I moved out of home for the first time, going to university, the big decision was taking matters of faith into my own hands. At university, there is no parent to wake you up on Sunday morning and drag you out to church. Did I really want to do all of that?

Retired lawyer Bob Doherty has no illusions about becoming fluent in Arabic but he’s taking a language course at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax in order to ease the transition for the Syrian refugee family his parish will soon welcome.

TORONTO - Toronto’s downtown Catholic campus chaplaincies came together to be visible witnesses of their faith on the streets.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Violence and vandalism at South African universities are reactions to inequality in the country, said Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference.

King’s University College has always been green, said principal David Sylvester, not just in its school colours but also in practice.

For high school seniors, the end of the school year is approaching. While this normally brings relief and excitement for the summer, high school graduates face the uncertainty of what is to come. Starting university or college is, after all, a leap into the unknown.

TORONTO - Pro-life groups at Ontario universities have gained an influential ally in their fight for free speech on campus.
The Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) released a position paper on April 29 opposing “the evident statutory and institutional bias that exists in Ontario against the free-expression rights of pro-life campaigners.”

HAVANA - Sitting outside the church where she was baptized, 65-year-old Clementina Torres recalls the time when anyone who publicly admitted being a Catholic in Cuba faced a host of problems. It could mean not getting into the "right" university or program, being taunted by classmates or isolated by neighbours, or it resulted in being fired, demoted or not allowed to advance professionally.

NAIROBI, Kenya - Faced with a fierce enemy driven by Muslim extremist ideology, the Kenyan government has cracked down on funding for al-Shabab, the Somali group that claimed responsibility for killing 148 mostly Christian students at Garissa University College a week ago.

NAIROBI, Kenya - The president of the Kenyan bishops' conference called on Easter worshippers to commit themselves to praying for peace and security in their homeland after militants attacked a college campus days earlier.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Most people think education is a rather simple process: you go to high school and graduate, then move on to college and graduate, and ultimately find a job and start living your life. However, it often isn’t that straightforward.

TORONTO - London, England, was never the centre of the Catholic universe. But it’s an interesting outpost with an interesting university, claims Bishop Richard Moth.

TORONTO - The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) board of directors unanimously voted to reject a campus pro-life club’s application to become an official student campus group.

JERUSALEM - Six months after the end of the most recent war in Gaza, there is still a "grave humanitarian crisis" in the narrow strip wedged between the Egyptian and Israeli borders, where more than 1.8 million Palestinians live closed off to the world because of an international embargo.