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February 8, 2019

Journalist highlights plight of Christian converts in Iran

Iran has 800,000 to a million converts to Christianity, who meet secretly in a fast-growing house church network under the threat of arrest and imprisonment, Kiaa Aalipour says.

OTTAWA – An increase in Muslims converting to Christianity has prompted a crackdown by Iran’s theocratic government, says Kiaa Aalipour a representative of Article18, a London-based NGO supporting persecuted Christians in Iran.

Published in International
April 3, 2018

For converts, Easter brings sense of relief

Levi and Kaitlyn Breederland with their young family.
EDMONTON – Levi Breederland and his wife Kaitlyn feel a strong sense of relief as they approach Easter — after months of preparation they will finally be received into the Catholic Church.
Published in Canada
October 16, 2012

Cardinal says converts’ top 3 Catholic things are penance, pope, Mary

The sacrament of confession, the pope and devotion to Mary are regularly cited as the three things converts find attractive about Catholicism

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Adult converts to Catholicism regularly cite three things about Catholicism that they find attractive: the sacrament of confession, the pope and devotion to Mary, said New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan.

"Those three things, guess what, were kind of de-emphasized" after the Second Vatican Council, the cardinal said Oct. 15 during a brief meeting with English-speaking reporters at the world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization.

In his formal talk to the synod, Cardinal Dolan had said that a renewed appreciation for the sacrament of reconciliation is essential for the church's new evangelization.

He told reporters that "it seemed to be a truism after the Second Vatican Council that the council did away with the sacrament of penance, which, of course, is not true."

Instead of renewing the sacrament as the council wanted, he said, "we just gave up and we said, 'Well, that ain't going over,' so we stopped trying."

The interesting thing, Cardinal Dolan said, is that the sacrament of reconciliation actually is something attractive to many people, especially the young.

"They will often say that the church seems impersonal to them, a little faceless nameless," he said. "Well, boy, you can't find a more personal sacrament than penance. I mean this is one on one."

Cardinal Dolan said he never understood the desire to expand use of so-called general absolution, which the Vatican has severely restricted, because it was like "a drive-in carwash" and highly impersonal.

"There is nothing more personal" than going to confession one-on-one, "actually articulating sins and hearing an unworthy ambassador of Jesus say you are forgiven," the cardinal said.

Published in International