NEWS

VATICAN CITY - International Islamic scholars published an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI, taking issue with what they described as mistakes and oversimplifications of Islam in a recent papal speech to German academics.

TORONTO - Canada can and should use its military to ensure the safety of civilian refugees in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region before a Dec. 31 deadline could see African peacekeepers removed from the area, according to Canada’s largest churches.

TRURO, N.S. - Nova Scotians now have the option to shop on Sundays as of Thanksgiving weekend.

OTTAWA - At a ceremony at Rideau Hall Oct. 6, Sr. Susan Moran became a Member of the Order of Canada for her work among the homeless and disenfranchised in the Toronto area.

“I’m here because of all the beautiful, suffering people who are now my sisters and brothers,” Moran said in an interview following the ceremony. “It is through them that I’ve learned such love and compassion.” 

VATICAN CITY - When individuals lose sight of their own sinfulness, it is impossible to promote real reconciliation and establish true justice in society, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from Western Canada.

TORONTO - As Toronto's homeless face another winter on the streets and in the shelters, their fate is again an election issue.

TORONTO - One of Canada's most architecturally impressive and ambitious cathedrals is no longer a cathedral. Eparch John Pazak, spiritual head of Byzantine rite Slovak Catholics in Canada, has removed the blessed sacrament and the antimension, or altar stone, from the Cathedral of the Transfiguration, a giant gold-domed church on the edge of Unionville, north of Toronto.

TORONTO - The federal government is planning to introduce a Defence of Religions Act to protect from legal harassment those who challenge same-sex marriage or refuse to participate in such ceremonies.

The Globe and Mail reported Oct. 4 that the federal Justice Minister Vic Toews is preparing such legislation in case the House of Commons rejects a motion to reopen the debate over the legal definition of marriage.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said he hopes Pope Benedict XVI's November trip to Turkey will help calm recent tensions with Islam and advance his church's struggle for religious rights.

OTTAWA - Long a thorn in the side of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo — the African nation's second largest city — is showing no signs of relenting in his campaign to remove Mugabe from power.