NEWS

TORONTO - The federal government can't send Jeremy Hinzman and his family back to the United States just yet.

A unanimous decision of the Federal Court of Appeal has ordered Citizenship and Immigration to consider the AWOL American soldier's religious, political and moral beliefs before deciding whether the Hinzman family can stay in Canada. The Hinzmans reside in Toronto.

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.”

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."

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.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI joined a chorus of criticism of a raid on Belgian Church headquarters by police seeking evidence of alleged clergy sexual abuse.

In a June 27 letter of solidarity to Belgian bishops, he called the blitz on the Mechelen-Brussels archdiocese “surprising and deplorable” for the heavy-handed way it was carried out. However, the Pope also reiterated his position that accusations of abuse of minors within the Catholic Church should be pursued by civil as well as Church authorities.

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.

A $7.3 billion pledge — $5.0 billion from G8 countries and another $2.3 billion from foundations and non-G8 countries — is not enough to stop millions of needless deaths among pregnant women and children under five, and not enough for the G8 countries to say they've lived up to their responsibilities, say Catholic aid groups.

"We're disappointed with the G8 leaders," said Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace executive director Michael Casey.

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.