In Ottawa, speculation is growing about a possible spring election. When the federal campaign officially begins, religious leaders want poverty reduction to be front and centre. On Monday and Tuesday, a coalition of faith leaders met with 15 Members of Parliament in Ottawa. Their ambitious goal was to launch a national conversation about poverty. The ...read more

It was unfathomable that one idea could change how the world interacts. And then you signed up for Facebook. While watching the three-time Oscar winner The Social Network, I was struck by how this invention — motivated, if the film is to believed, by the insecurities of its co-founder — has impacted the lives of ...read more

As Christians in Pakistan mourn the killing of their boldest representative, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canada’s bishops are keeping his message alive. Shahbaz Bhatti was Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet minister before his assassination on Wednesday. He visited Ottawa in February, where he told Canadian Catholic News that he was “ready to die and sacrifice ...read more

For Said Musa, being publicly exposed as a Christian condemned him to death row. Yet his testimony of faith, spread throughout the world, may have also helped secure his liberation. As we reported on the S+L Blog and Perspectives, Musa worked for the Red Cross in Afghanistan when, due to a local television report, he ...read more

Who killed Jesus? From the Gospels, we know that he was crucified directly by Roman soldiers. But those who want to attribute blame for his death have drawn in a wider pool of suspects: Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, the Jewish people, and all of humanity. The question of Jewish culpability in “deicide” is particularly charged, ...read more

Last week we told you about the plight of Sayed Musa, a Christian convert sentenced to die in Afghanistan. Apostasy remains a capital offense in that country. Writing on behalf of the Canadian bishops, as the chair of their Human Rights Committee, Archbishop Brendan O’Brien of Kingston asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to intervene ...read more

In nearly six years at S+L, my most challenging film shoot was at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Widely considered the holiest shrine in the world, the church features prominently in the documentary Within Your Gates. Gaining access to film in the edicule—the small structure marking Jesus’ burial tomb—felt like a minor ...read more

On New Year’s Day, Pope Benedict dedicated his message for the World Day of Peace to the cause of religious freedom. In his message, the Holy Father made headlines with his assertion that “Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on account of its faith.” That statement may have surprised some, but ...read more

Reporting for S+L, I enjoy a unique vantage point of the subjects we cover. Only once did I feel uncomfortably close to the story. It was during my last assignment in Rome that I met journalist Matt Baglio, who had just released a book titled “The Rite”. Baglio documents his experiences accompanying a priest who ...read more

In my hometown of Deep River, Ontario, my family was usually among the last to put up the Christmas tree. Likewise, we waited weeks before pitching our dessicated fir to the curb. It was not due to the liturgical calendar that we observed the custom later than our neighbhours. We just weren’t in much of ...read more