To totalitarian regimes, suppression of the opposition, in often violent ways, has long been a key to staying in power.

Author chronicles 20th-century Catholic oppression at the hands of communism

In 1946, George Orwell published a short essay entitled, “Politics and the English Language.” It is a gem that deserves to be ritually proclaimed on an annual basis in town squares across the land.

After only two days, the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court adjourned the trial of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, 90, and four co-defendants, until Oct. 26.

“We are called to be completely faithful.” 

More than 130 years ago, in a foundational encyclical of Catholic social teaching, Pope Leo XIII warned against “crafty agitators” within the political class bent on dividing society for pernicious ends.

Government mandates that interfere with, or eliminate the ability of, the faithful to gather for Holy Mass are certainly not new. But has it ever been required to provide proof of a medical treatment to enter a church?

As of Dec. 20, anyone entering a place of worship in Quebec will be required to show their vaccination status.

When the Russian dissident and author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet empire in 1974, he wrote a famous exhortation to his countrymen entitled “Live Not By Lies.” Solzhenitsyn spent years doing hard labour in prison camps, survived and dared to write about his experience in The Gulag Archipelago. Not only did he write his own story, but he gathered and recounted the tragic stories of those who didn’t make it out alive.

“Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!” Since July 11, the Spanish chant of liberty has sounded loud at solidarity rallies throughout Canada, the U.S. and, most fervently, in cities across Cuba as its inhabitants in a rare show of defiance against their government seek emancipation from the authoritarian regime ushered in by Fidel Castro in 1959.

We live in a time in which truth has lost its meaning. We live in a time in which truth is replaced by feelings. When something no longer feels right it cannot be the truth. Every opinion is valid and none is greater than another.

HONG KONG -- The protesters killed in Tiananmen Square in mainland China on June 4, 1989, used to be remembered in Hong Kong with an annual candlelight vigil in the city’s expansive Victoria Park, attended by crowds as big as 130,000, all holding flickering candles.

The recent arrest of a Vatican-approved bishop, priests and seminarians in north-central China came as a shocking development, if not surprising, as religious persecution in the communist-led country has continued to intensify under President Xi Jinping.

The power of prayer is being marshalled across Canada to call out abuse of power by China’s Communist Party in a national, ecumenical Zoom liturgy scheduled for March 21.

OTTAWA -- Religious and human rights groups have applauded a parliamentary committee’s condemnation of the Chinese government for its “genocide” on religious minorities.