NEWS

Cardus work and economics’ director Brian Dijkema believes promises made for family supports will still be in the next budget despite the drop in government revenues due to falling oil prices.

Income splitting, child benefit likely safe bets

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OTTAWA - A drop in oil prices has played havoc with federal government financial projections and raised doubts whether the federal government can balance the budget, but observers say election promises that would benefit families are unlikely to be affected.

Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of Hartford, Conn., center, and other new archbishops wear palliums received from Pope Francis during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican in this June 29, 2014, file photo. Bestowal ceremonies will henceforth take pl ace in local archdioceses.

Feed my sheep: Archbishops to receive palliums at home with their flock

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VATICAN CITY - When Pope Francis celebrates the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in June, he will set aside an element that has been part of the Mass for the past 32 years; the Vatican confirmed he will not confer the pallium on new archbishops during the liturgy.

On Jan. 29, Covenant House Toronto executive director Bruce Rivers launched the city's first "specialized longer-term transitional housing program" for female victims of sex trade and trafficking.

Covenant House partners with city to aid sex-trade workers

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TORONTO - Covenant House is stepping up to give young women and girls caught in the grip of the sex trade a way out.

An altar girl receives the Eucharist from a priest.

San Francisco priest bars altar girls, sparks another controversy

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SAN FRANCISCO - A Catholic priest who recently took charge of a San Francisco parish has said only boys can be altar servers, a move that is sparking both criticism and praise and comes amid a wider debate over conservative concerns that the Catholic Church has become too “feminized.”

On Jan. 28, Greek Catholic archbishop Nikolaos Printezis welcomed the new anti-austerity government and believes Catholics in the country will benefit from the changes. Printezis said that Catholics and Protestants faced hardships as minorities of the Orthodox-majority country. The same day, the Syriza party held its first meeting under Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.In this photo, Tsipras speaks to an audience, dated May 19, 2014.

Archbishop welcomes Greece's new government, hopes for changes

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WARSAW, Poland - A Greek Catholic leader welcomed his country's new anti-austerity government and predicted Catholics would benefit from changes.

Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs meet in Bkerke, Lebanon, Jan. 27 to address the crises in the Middle East. Pictured from left to right are Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham; Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X of Antioch; Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch; Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II; and Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan.

Christian leaders meet in Lebanon, call for end to financing terrorists

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BEIRUT - Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs called for an end to financing terrorists and suggested that borders be closed when necessary to prevent their movement.

MP Joy Smith will be leaving federal politics to focus on stopping human trafficking through her eponymous foundation.

MP Joy Smith leaving politics to fight human trafficking

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OTTAWA - Canada’s parliamentary crusader against prostitution and human trafficking is leaving federal politics.

Conservative MP Joy Smith said she will not run in the next federal election so she can devote her time to fighting human trafficking in Canada.

Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement, is pictured in 2003. Lubich died in 2008 and the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes has approved the opening for her sainthood cause.

Sainthood cause for Focolare founder Chiara Lubich formally begins

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FRASCATI, Italy - Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, "lit a new light in the Church's journey toward unity," Pope Francis said.

Holocaust survivor Hy Abrams, 90, poses for a portrait Jan. 15 in the Brooklyn borough of New York with a book that documents all the different concentration camps he was held in during World War II. Abrams was taken at age 20 by German Nazi soldiers an d separated from his mother, father, brother and three sisters.

Catholics join in marking 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation

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WARSAW, Poland - Catholic leaders joined in commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where 1.2 million mostly Jewish prisoners were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M., distributes Communion to displaced Iraqi Christians during a Jan. 20 visit to northern Kurdistan. Bishop Cantu traveled to northern Iraq with a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Jan. 16-20 to see the needs of displaced Christians and other religious minorities.

U.S. bishops' group travels to Iraq, meets with those who fled ISIS

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AINKAWA, Iraq - One of Iraq's Christians chased out of her historic homeland quietly prayed the rosary as a bishop who traveled halfway around the world to meet her and others displaced celebrated Mass for them.

Senator Don Meredith tells faith leaders in Toronto Jan. 26 that they have to reach out and welcome young people before violent gangs do.

Churches must welcome youth before gangs do, says Canadian senator

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TORONTO - Senator Don Meredith called on faith leaders in Toronto to “engage, encourage and empower our youth” to keep young people out of the clutches of violent gangs.

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