News/Canada

OTTAWA - The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) has launched a postcard campaign to fight a proposed bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

EPC has distributed 10,000 cards that can be filled out, signed and mailed free of charge to members of Parliament to stop Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde’s private member’s Bill C-562 that she introduced June 12, a week before the House of Commons adjourned for a summer break.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is getting advice from Catholics.

In advance of the July 7-9 G8 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, Harper has received letters from the bishops of the G8 nations and from the Congregation of Notre Dame sisters.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - It seemed fitting that the week-long International Eucharistic Congress ended on a battle field. Some 55,000 people celebrated “God's gift for the life of the world” in a Mass where, almost 250 years ago, British and French soldiers shot each other down.

Instead of a memorial to death, the high plateau known as the Plains of Abraham became a celebration of eternal life.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY  - By satellite video, Pope Benedict XVI told more than 55,000 pilgrims here June 22 about the wonders of the Eucharist.  

“The Eucharist is our most beautiful treasure,” the Pope said via two giant screens that loomed over the historic Plains of Abraham at the closing Mass of the 49th International Eucharistic Congress.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga urged Catholics to support a campaign to get the Canadian government to appoint an ombudsperson that would scrutinize domestic mining operations overseas.

At a press conference held at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress June 20, the cardinal/archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, thanked the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace for conducting the campaign.

It's highly unusual that journalists clap at the end of a news conference, or that you can look around and see their faces shining with joy, or the odd tear in the eye.

Twelve young men from Quebec, nine from new religious communities, were ordained at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress June 20, a sign of renewed life in the Catholic Church here.

Adoration chapels set up throughout Quebec City to coincide with the 49th International Eucharistic Congress have proved surprisingly popular, an organizer told me the other day.

Not that we're still playing a numbers game, but hey, let's have a little fun. The other day we reported on the numbers of clerics of various hues. Today let's talk about civic pride.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet chafes under the criticism that his pride and joy — the International Eucharistic Congress — is little more than a week-long piety-fest. So he's been chafing a bit more than usual this week as secular media here in Quebec have focused as much on such criticism as it has on actually covering the event.