JERUSALEM - On Christmas Eve, the entrance to the West Jerusalem YMCA was decked out in colorful lights against the night sky, and a Christmas tree sparkling with ornaments stood in the lobby. Jewish Israelis and international visitors, guests at the YMCA's popular restaurant, stopped to take pictures in front of the tree.

VATICAN CITY - Catholics are called to witness to their faith in Jesus before all people, including Jews, but the Catholic Church "neither conducts nor supports" any institutional missionary initiative directed toward Jews, says a new document from a Vatican commission.

VATICAN CITY - Helping to inaugurate an exhibit at the Vatican, the chief rabbi of Rome noted just how much "times have changed."

JERUSALEM - An Arab-Israeli parliament member drew harsh criticism from Jewish Israelis July 27 when he claimed that Jews have no religious ties to the Temple Mount, considered the holiest site in Judaism.

LVIV, Ukraine - Ludvika Sarah Leah Schein, who survived the Holocaust, hadn’t been to her hometown in 70 years. But she still vividly remembers the day Germans came to Rava-Ruska.

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - The main shrine of MississaugaöÏÓãÊÓƵapp grand Fo Guang Shan Temple is typically used by Buddhists for weekly services or meditation. On May 2, however, a modest crowd of Catholics, Sikhs, Jews and Muslims joined with the Buddhists to address a situation that  all grapple with — the future.

NEW YORK - Catholics and Jews risk losing their hard-won interfaith amity if they take ecumenism for granted and fail to pass it along to a new generation of seminarians and laity, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York said in an address at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

TORONTO - In a world where the Islamic State threatens religious minorities in the Middle East, Boko Haram kidnaps Christian girls in Nigeria, Jews worldwide are forced to defend the existence of Israel, it might be said that interfaith relations are no walk in the park.

VATICAN CITY - Rome's retired chief rabbi, who played a key role in fostering closer ties between Jews and Catholics, died April 19 at the age of 99.

A friend who attended a commemoration Mass at a church in MontrealöÏÓãÊÓƵapp Villeray neighbourhood at the end of February e-mailed me this compelling observation shortly afterward.