NEWS

WASHINGTON - Anticipating the worst, American religious leaders gathered the day before the federal government shut down to denounce what they called "political brinkmanship."

TORONTO - Several Toronto Catholics, including Redemptorist Father Paul Hansen, have joined an international organization that seeks to open the Vatican corridors of power beyond the clergy.

YEREVAN, Armenia - Thousands of previously middle-class Syrians now stranded in Armenia are rapidly running out of resources and could soon have no shelter, food or medicine, said an international aid group official.

VATICAN CITY - As part of its continuing efforts to promote transparency and to demonstrate its stability and adherence to industry standards, the Vatican bank published its annual report for the first time in its history.

OTTAWA - Two prominent Quebec organizations hoping to block the province’s euthanasia Bill 52 submitted forceful briefs to the Health and Social Services committee seeking public input on the bill.

Updated: 09/30/13 - changed date of Nuit Blanche

TORONTO - One year after it began as little more than an idea, the Doors of Hope project is set to take part in Toronto’s seventh Nuit Blanche.

SAINTE-ADELE, QUE. - In his final address to Canada’s Catholic bishops Sept. 23, the papal nuncio told the bishops Pope Francis was giving them “a powerful lesson on the qualities that should characterize the episcopal ministry.”

TORONTO - Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino came home to Toronto and old friends to celebrate the 100th birthday of St. Augustine’s Seminary, where he studied for the priesthood in the early 1960s.

Pope Francis’ warning about overemphasizing Church teaching on abortion and other social doctrines is no cause for Canada’s pro-life movement to change its tactics or rethink its priorities, say veteran pro-life campaigners.

VAUGHAN, ONT. - Four days after a deadly suicide attack on the historic All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, more than 200 Pakistani Canadians descended on Pakistan’s remote consulate located in suburban Vaughan to protest against the brutality and send a clear message to the Pakistani government.