OTTAWA – The Canadian bishop who participated in the Vatican abuse summit believes the unprecedented gathering of Church leaders is a “sign of hope” that the Church is finally coming to grips with the worldwide problem of sexual crimes against minors.

QUEBEC CITY – French-speaking Canadians will begin using a new translation of the Our Father Dec. 2.

For the first time, Canada is seeing more people claim refugee status after hopping the U.S. border on back roads than make a claim at regular, official ports of entry. At the same time the total number of refugee claims has more than doubled in just one year.

Lent gives us two solemn feasts, St. Joseph and the Annunciation of the Lord. Both fell in the last weeks of March, and it is likely that a majority of Canadian parishes did not celebrate both of them; a great many likely celebrated neither.

The Canny Scot: Archbishop James Morrison of Antigonish, by Peter Ludlow (McGill-Queens University Press, 352 pages, hardcover, $34.95).

For those of us interested in how Church social action really happens, Peter Ludlow has written a fascinating, accessible, full-length biography of Archbishop James Morrison, one of the most important Canadian bishops of the 20th century.