NEWS

TORONTO - Nobody is in favour of torture, unjust imprisonment, secret trials, pre-emptive war or judicial murder. However, despite our best intentions, we live in a world of death penalties, wars and occupations.

For Stephen Scharper and Simon Appolloni, a University of Toronto religious studies professor and the PhD student he supervises, knowing we are not innocent requires a Christian response, one of discernment, reflection and prayer. That’s why they’ve launched an English Canadian chapter of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT).

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Kamloops Bishop David Monroe is making a speedy recovery from a vicious assault when he was attacked Oct. 22 in the rectory of Sacred Heart Cathedral.

The bishop suffered severe head and body injuries after he opened the door to the rectory to the man who attacked him.

The bishops’ sisters have been in Kamloops since hearing of the attack the next day.

MONTREAL - It was a huge reunion for St. Brother André’s family as more than 400 relatives came from near and far to attend a Mass and special gathering at St. Joseph’s Oratory on Oct. 31 to mark the rise to sainthood of their humble brethren.

It was another influx of people to an already busy shrine, which had received an estimated 9,000 pilgrims the previous day, as pilgrims were in town for an Oct. 30 celebratory Mass at Olympic Stadium in honour of St. Brother André being elevated to sainthood Oct. 17.

MONTREAL - Montreal’s Olympic Stadium came alive on Oct. 30 with nearly 50,000 scarf-waving pilgrims from across Canada and the United States attending a special Mass in celebration of Canada’s newest saint.

“Brother André was convinced that God could use him to accomplish wonderful things,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, archbishop of Montreal, in a homily mostly delivered in French. “For many decades, people came to him as a worker of wonders. It never went to his head.”

The Syrian Catholic Patriarch has criticized the failure of Iraqi security forces to protect Christian churches and beseeched world governments to come to the aid of  the innocent Christians who are being “brutally singled out because of their religion.”

Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan was in Canada when terrorists murdered at least 58 Sunday worshippers Oct. 31 at Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Church. In an e-mail to Catholic News Service, he criticized the lax security for Christian places of worship and called on “Iraqi parties to overcome their personal and confessional interests and look for the good of the Iraqi people who have elected them.”

VATICAN CITY - A terrorist attack on a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq, that left at least 58 dead and 80 wounded was a “savage” act of “absurd violence,” Pope Benedict XVI said.

The Pope urged international and national authorities to work together to end the “heinous episodes of violence that continue to ravage the people of the Middle East.”

Muslim militants, dressed in khaki pants and armed with AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide vests, stormed Our Lady of Salvation Church Oct. 31 while more than 100 faithful were celebrating evening Sunday Mass. The Washington Post reported that Fr. Wassem Sabeeh was among the first people executed. Another priest, Fr. Thaer Abdullah, was also killed.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A deadly militant siege of a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq, was a "savage" act of "absurd violence," Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope urged international and national authorities and all people of good will to work together to end the "heinous episodes of violence that continue to ravage the people of the Middle East."

"In a very grave attack on the Syrian Catholic cathedral of Baghdad, dozens of people were killed and injured, among them two priests and a group of faithful gathered for Sunday Mass," the pope said of the Oct. 31 incident.

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.

 

OTTAWA - The defeat of a bill calling on Canadian mining companies to higher standards while operating abroad is disappointing to the Canadian bishops' development agency.

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace called it "disturbing" that the responsible mining bill was defeated in the House of Commons Oct. 27.

VATICAN CITY - Closing the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI said, “We must never resign ourselves to the absence of peace.”

“Peace is possible. Peace is urgent,” the Pope said Oct. 24 during his homily at the Mass closing the two-week synod.

Peace is what will stop Christians from emigrating, he said.

Pope Benedict also urged Christians to promote respect for freedom of religion and conscience, “one of the fundamental human rights that each state should always respect.”