Among all the red hats and sashes trailing after the Pope at his various events here in the United States was one who is a familiar figure to Canadians. It was Cardinal Marc Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec and primate of the Catholic Church in Canada.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON — In voting on 2008 ballot questions across the country, the Catholic Church view against same-sex marriage appeared headed for victory, but Catholic efforts to influence voting related to abortion, assisted suicide, embryonic stem-cell research and gambling failed.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Churches are lining up to help inmates of the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, come to Canada.

Catholic, Anglican and United churches have all submitted sponsorship applications to bring Guantanamo prisoners to Canada as refugees. The Canadian Council for Refugees has been organizing the sponsorships and has called on the federal government to expedite the applications.

{mosimage}Prior to the recent pilgrimage to the Middle East by Pope Benedict XVI, Catholic Register editor Jim O’Leary travelled to the Holy Land and encountered many people who were hopeful that the Pope’s visit would be a prelude to peace. One such person was a remarkable nun whose Bethlehem orphanage has been caught in the middle of the ongoing conflict.

Sr. Sophie Boueri is small, frail and, more than simply tired from a difficult day, her face mirrors  lifetime fatigue. She is 74.

{mosimage}ROME - The global economic crisis has caused an 11-per-cent increase in world hunger in the past year and the total number of hungry people has surpassed one billion for the first time, according to a report from a United Nations agency.

The UN report was released as Pope Benedict XVI, in a letter to German President Horst Kohler, was expressing his concern for the plight of African nations, where more than one-quarter billion people are undernourished (compared to 15 million in the entire developed world).

{mosimage}HARTFORD, Conn.- The cause for sainthood of Fr. Michael McGivney has been moved forward by completion of a supplemental report on a possible miracle attributed to the founder of the
Knights of Columbus.

On Sept. 22 officials of a supplemental tribunal of the archdiocese of Hartford sent the new report to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The contents of the report remain secret. The tribunal gathered more testimony from additional witnesses, including several medical doctors, about the circumstances of a reported miracle.

{mosimage}Charges against an American refugee advocate for bringing 12 Haitians to the U.S.-Quebec border where they claimed refugee status were quietly dropped in November.

Janet Hinshaw-Thomas — founder of Prime — Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees in Pennsylvania and niece of the late theologian Cardinal Avery Dulles — was arrested in Lacolle, Que., Sept. 28, 2007. She had called ahead to say she was bringing 12 Haitian asylum-seekers. She had often brought refugees to Canadian border posts to file for refugee status.

{mosimage}Filipinos will be happy to see the back of 2009. As Christmas approaches the Filipino community is bracing for another natural disaster in their home country.

The Mayon volcano, a 2,460-metre mountain in central Philippines, has been spewing lava, smoke and ash in a mild state of eruption since mid-December. Volcanologists expect the mountain to erupt more severely any day, and state authorities have called out police, soldiers and others to try to keep 47,000 evacuees in temporary shelters from sneaking back into their homes for Christmas.

TORONTO - From his beginnings as a teen prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp to becoming pastor and leader of 1,800 Jewish families at Toronto’s Adath Israel Synagogue, Rabbi Erwin Schild has led one of the most remarkable lives in Toronto.

On Nov. 24, keynote speaker Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa and the many friends of Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto will honour Schild and his wife Laura with a charity dinner.

Below is the compete text of the address given Oct. 28 by Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins at the annual Cardinal's Dinner in Toronto.

On behalf of Cardinal Ambrozic, I am happy to welcome you to the 31st annual Cardinal’s Dinner. Let us all keep Cardinal Ambrozic in our thoughts and prayers, asking God’s blessing upon him in his years of retirement.

This dinner is an occasion for all of us from within the Archdiocese of Toronto, and from the wider community, to come together in fellowship, and to help raise money to support many worthy charitable organizations. Over the years, more than $5.5 million dollars has been raised to help those in need. I thank Mr Daniel Sullivan for chairing this year’s Cardinal’s Dinner.