TORONTO - A 13-hour flight to Toronto was nothing after three years spent living as refugees in Amman, Jordan, as an Armenian Orthodox family from Aleppo, Syria, launched its Canadian odyssey.

OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus are asking the Canadian government to make helping persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, whom Pope Francis and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks say face genocide, a priority.

TORONTO - The human rights of doctors would be “violated” by proposed guidelines that would require Ontario doctors, even against their conscience, to refer patients for assisted suicide, said the executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society.

OTTAWA - As Ottawa petitions the Supreme Court for a six-month extension to draft an assisted suicide law, Quebec has implemented its controversial euthanasia legislation pending a decision by the province’s Court of Appeal.

OTTAWA - The papal nuncio to Canada says Pope Francis is aware of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for the Pope to deliver an apology for past Church abuses in Canada’s Indian residential schools and is sure he “is listening with all his heart as a pastor.”

OTTAWA - The legal phase of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Indian residential schools is over, but the doors are now open to a new reconciliation phase, say Catholics involved in the process.

In 43 recommendations aimed at provincial and federal legislators, the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying has recommended the widest possible access to assisted suicide and very narrow exceptions for Catholic health professionals and Catholic hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.

TORONTO - A renovated four-bedroom house in Riverdale recently sold for $2.1 million. Half of 176 houses sold in the Toronto neighbourhood earlier this year went for more than $716,000. The traffic on the neighbourhood streets is backed up with high-end Mercedes, Lexuses and other exotic brands. Coffee in the neighbourhood will set you back the better part of a $5 bill.

TORONTO - Syria’s civil war has seen families pulling their children out of school as they escape the growing violence and persecution in the area. Many have not been back to school since the war started in 2012.

TORONTO - Canadian charities count on the arrival of the Christmas spirit as the final six weeks of the year account for almost half of their annual donations.