OTTAWA - Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Collins is throwing out the welcome mat for all Anglicans in Canada who wish to become Catholic.

The archbishop has been named the liaison for groups of Anglicans who might want to avail themselves of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (AC). The AC offers a special structure so Anglicans can join the Roman Catholic Church corporately, while retaining aspects of their identity and patrimony, such as their liturgy.

“This is not an initiative by the Catholic Church,” said Collins. “It’s a response to groups of Anglicans that have indicated an interest in doing this.”

TORONTO - The G8 and G20 summits certainly attracted protesters. Pro-lifers Julie Abernethy and Seanna Magee weren’t going to be left out.

When Abernethy noticed a group of protesters with a pro-abortion banner walking through her downtown neighbourhood, she asked, “Is anybody representing our side?”

TORONTO - Bringing back the permanent diaconate was a spiritual stroke of Vatican II genius, according to historian Michael Power, one that traces its history to the Nazi death camp at Dachau.

Priests in Dachau — facing their deaths, resigned to their imprisonment and steeped in a near monastic routine of prayer and work — began to ask themselves what had gone wrong with the world and the Church, that saving sacrament of their world. They came to the conclusion that priests were living in isolation from the people of God and that the Church needed a way to break through.

A grassroots organization is calling on the Quebec public to stop euthanasia and assisted suicide “from being smuggled into the public health care system under the guise of medical treatment.”

But time is running out for the Montreal-based group, Vivre dans la Dignité (Living with Dignity), to sway public opinion on euthanasia. On June 22, the group launched a campaign to help people better understand the issues as the National Assembly draws an online survey to a close July 16, part of a public consultation on euthanasia.

Canada's Christian church leaders have asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get serious about banning nuclear weapons.

Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant bishops and leaders sent a letter to Harper June 25 urging him to "publicly and prominently" recommit Canada "to the energetic pursuit of the early elimination of all nuclear weapons."

QUEBEC CITY - With both gratitude and fear Cardinal Marc Ouellet has accepted a prestigious appointment from Pope Benedict XVI to become the new prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Commission for Latin America.

"Gratitude because it is a mark of great confidence from the Holy Father, obviously, and I am very grateful to him. And fear because it's a difficult responsibility and it's a huge responsibility," Ouellet said during a press conference June 30.

TORONTO - On paper, the G20 and the Catholic Church want a lot of the same things. But they're not necessarily talking the same language.

"We've entered a world where the only language that matters is economics," said Redemptorist Father Paul Hansen after the motorcades of world leaders had left town.

The leaders of the world's 20 largest economies agreed to cut their government deficits in half by 2013 and stop growth of public debt relative to Gross Domestic Product by 2016 at the summit held in Toronto June 26-27. Voluntary financial constraints on government borrowing will allow poorer countries to participate in a healthier world economy, said the final G20 communique.

TORONTO - There were more than 900 arrests, four police cars torched and Toronto's transit system shut down, leaving citizens fuming over what it all cost in dollars, frayed nerves and the reputation of Toronto the Good. But flashy pictures of burning cop cars distract from the real concerns raised by the majority of protesters, said KAIROS economics researcher John Dillon.

Everybody who made a principled stand on the issues in peaceful demonstrations during the G20 was tarred with the same brush as Black Bloc protesters who covered their faces and smashed windows, said Dillon. Out of an estimated 10,000 protesters, perhaps 150 were engaged in property damage, Dillon said.

As this year's G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto steer their attention to maternal and child health care in poor countries, Caritas Internationalis and the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace are trying to keep the leaders  focused on last year's promises to boost aid spending on food security and agriculture.

The Catholic development agencies have named "the rising food crisis" as their number one priority for the summit of the world's most powerful leaders.

WINNIPEG - Nearly 80 senior religious leaders from every region of the world gathered for the World Religions Summit in Winnipeg June 21-23 to address the “most pressing practical, ethical and strategic issues of our time.” And after many words were spoken and considered, the interfaith assembly emerged with a four-page message to the most powerful people in the world.

Winnipeg area MP Stephen Fletcher received the statement, “A Time for Inspired Leadership,” on behalf of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and was expected to deliver the document to leaders of the G8 and G20 nations meeting in  Toronto and Huntsville, Ont., June 25-27.