Advocates in favour of wider access to assisted suicide have dominated parliamentary committee hearings that will help craft a new assisted-suicide law, with little opposition so far from religious voices.

Two hundred years ago the French aristocrat Eugene de Mazenod gathered a few priests into a kind of evangelical team in southeastern France. They went into neglected, impoverished parishes preaching in the local dialect of Provençal, not French, sharing their lives and the Gospel with poor people who had been left behind by modern France.

OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus are asking the Canadian government to make it a priority to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, whom Pope Francis and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks say face genocide.

The Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), has videotaped his message for Christmas and the New Year. Entitled Goodness abounds, Bishop Crosby refers similarly to the theme of mercy which the Church celebrates this month and throughout the coming year as the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. The production of this video has been made possible thanks to the collaboration with Salt + Light Television.

OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus are asking the Canadian government to make helping persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, whom Pope Francis and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks say face genocide, a priority.

Catholics should be guided by mercy, not fear, in the wake of the Paris terror attack, said Hamilton Bishop Douglas Crosby three days after co-ordinated terrorist attacks killed at least 129 and sent 415 people to hospital.

OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops called unanimously Sept. 18 for the federal government to invoke the notwithstanding clause in response to the Supreme Court’s Feb. 6 Carter decision on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Sr. Teresita McInally may have received the Pro-Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross herself, but the unexpected papal honour is really recognition of the work of her order, said the 87-year-old Sister of St. Joseph.

ROME - The historic “Sunday of four popes” attracted more than 800,000 pilgrims — the largest turnout ever for a canonization Mass — including seven Canadian bishops.

The Diocese of Hamilton, Ont., has gifted St. Peter’s Seminary with its largest donation to date.

HAMILTON, ONT. - Surprised, grateful, humbled and excited.

HAMILTON, ONT. - Fr. Daniel Miehm has been appointed the new auxiliary bishop for the Hamilton diocese.

Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana announced the appointment by Pope Benedict XVI Feb. 20.

Catholic higher education doesn’t start in a university lecture hall and doesn’t end with a black gown and a piece of paper under a new agreement St. Jerome’s University has signed with the Hamilton diocese and six Catholic school boards.

The agreement will allow the university, diocese and school boards to pool resources for adult education, volunteering, curriculum development and more.

“We look at it very positively as an excellent opportunity to support each other in the mission of Catholic education and to promote Catholic education as a life-long process,” Gus Hubbard, Hamilton Catholic District School Board superintendent of education, told The Catholic Register.

Hamilton, Brant-Haldimand Norfolk, Waterloo, Bruce-Grey, Halton and Wellington Catholic school boards are signatories to the agreement with St. Jerome’s.

Beginning with a casual conversation about Catholic education in Waterloo Region, the agreement was developed with Hamilton Bishop Doug Crosby’s encouragement over a year of meetings. The agreement was signed by all parties Sept. 20.

“It helps all partners to think about Catholic education as something that extends from a child’s early years through high school, post-secondary education and beyond,” said St. Jerome’s religious studies professor Cristina Vanin in an e-mail.