NEWS

St. Joseph the Worker parishioners from Thornhill, Ont., raised money and lent their labour to fund the building of homes for the poor in San Felipe de Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Mission-vacation concept takes hold at Thornhill parish

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THORNHILL, ONT. - In 1987 Elio Madonia, then in his 50s, sold his business, retired and with his wife went on vacation to the Dominican Republic with plans to continue enjoying retirement in Florida.

CSJ Office for Systemic Justice director Sr. Sue Wilson.

St. Joe’s Sisters spearhead call to protect migrants

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TORONTO - Pope Francis called for “the globalization of charity and co-operation” on the 101st World Day of Migrants and Refugees, but the Sisters of St. Joseph may have beaten the Pope to it with their submission to a United Nations commission in early January.

Victor Alcantara, a religion teacher at St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Dumfries, Va., hands a test in 2014 to Myles Sherman, a Baptist who says the Catholic high school has enriched his faith.

Non-Catholics choose Catholic schools for values, not just academics

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ARLINGTON, Va. - When Felicia and Ethan Carr began searching for a high school for their eldest son, they wanted a school with a top-notch college preparatory program.

But the Carrs, who are Baptist, sought something else as well.

Gillian Fernandopulle left her Sri Lankan homeland as a refugee at age six. Despite being in Canada for the past 20 years, she says being a refugee is something that never leaves you.

A refugee is always an outsider

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TORONTO - At 20 Tarak has been divorced from everything — his family, his home, his childhood and a future that once seemed assured.

Linda Del Rio holds a football signed by members of the Denver Broncos, outside St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 20. Del Rio was in town to attend a Vatican sports meeting and present the football to Pope Francis.

What’s God got to do with football devotion? Plenty

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Did God lift Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s overtime pass into the end zone in the conference final, rewarding the prayerful Christian player with a championship victory and a trip to the Super Bowl?

Millions of Americans may think so.

French troops lead a disarmament operation in Bangui, Central African Republic in February during what has been called a humanitarian crisis. The country's church leaders emphasized the "need for healing from the trauma people have experienced," said Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, who visited South Sudan and the Central African Republic July 10-21.

Church in Central African Republic readies plans for papal visit

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OXFORD, England - Pope Francis plans to visit the Central African Republic late this year in an effort to end two years of intercommunal violence, the vice president of the country's bishops' conference confirmed.

Aid to the Church in Need spokesperson Marie Claude Lalonde, right, speaks with Montreal Archbishop Christian Lepine. Lalonde says that in 60 per cent of countries around the world, religious liberty is compromised.

Christianity's survival in Mideast highly unlikely

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MONTREAL - The long-term survival of Christianity in the Middle East is threatened and “humanity in the region where Christianity was born will not be the same without it,” a spokesman for Aid to the Church in Need told a seminar in Montreal this week.

Pro-life supporters pray in the hallway outside U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's legislative office on Capitol Hill in Washington Jan. 22. Later that day tens of thousands planned to participate in this year's March for Life on the 42nd anni versary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion virutally on demand.

Republicans abandon anti-abortion bill

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Abortion opponents marking the huge annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 22 and anticipating legislative gains by a Republican-dominated Congress were thrown into disarray after GOP leaders unexpectedly withdrew an anti-abortion bill that had been seen as a done deal.

Members of the Missionaries of Charity pray during the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Jan. 21. The all-night vigil is held before the annual March for Life, which this year marked the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion across the nation.

Boston cardinal: 'We shall overcome' in fight against abortion

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WASHINGTON - Evoking a phrase long associated with the civil rights movement, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston told an overflow crowd in Washington that "we shall overcome" in the fight against abortion.

Fr. Joseph Chandrakanthan holds a 16th-century lamp believed to have been used by St. Joseph Vaz in Sillalai, Sri Lanka.

Toronto priest treasures saint’s lamp that kept flame of faith alight

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TORONTO - A light in the darkness has travelled across centuries, cultures and continents to wind up in Fr. Joseph Chandrakanthan’s living room in Toronto.

A homeless man takes advantage of St. Felix Centre’s 24-hour warming station during an extreme weather alert in Toronto earlier this month.

St. Felix Centre teams with city to stay open during deep freeze

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TORONTO - Catholics in the city have forged relationships with secular partners to provide the homeless somewhere safe and warm during the sometimes fatally freezing temperatures of Toronto’s winter.

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