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JERUSALEM - Exploding violence in the Gaza Strip has left the people weeping and trapped in a war zone, said a local parish priest.

{mosimage}One of CanadaöÏÓãÊÓƵapp most outspoken Catholic bishops is going to the nationöÏÓãÊÓƵapp capital, where legislators, judges, policy makers and media will be counted among his flock.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., 63, to replace Archbishop Marcel Gervais as head of the archdiocese of Ottawa May 14. Prendergast will take possession of OttawaöÏÓãÊÓƵapp cathedral in late June or early July. Gervais submitted his resignation when he turned 75 last September, as required by canon law.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Concern for human rights and the growing use of abortion for sex selection dominated the annual March for Life May 10.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Sometimes religious people are the biggest reason why their opinions get short shrift in public debates on controversial issues, says Preston Manning, an Evangelical Christian and former leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

TORONTO - Scripture scholar Archbishop Thomas Collins is taking on a new role as liaison between the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Biblical Association of Canada.

{mosimage}APARECIDA, Brazil - On a five-day visit to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI identified a host of social and religious challenges and said the church should respond by focusing more clearly on the person of Jesus Christ.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Six men were ordained to the priesthood at St. MichaelöÏÓãÊÓƵapp Cathedral May 12 for service in the archdiocese of Toronto.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Toronto archdiocesan council of the Catholic WomenöÏÓãÊÓƵapp League of Canada passed a resolution calling for the restoration of prayer in all schools at its 86th annual convention held May 8 and 9.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. —  A fund has been created to help the family of John Pham, the 10-year-old St. Alfred School student who was killed in a school bus accident on April 11. The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board started the John Pham Memorial Fund to assist in covering funeral costs and getting the family back on its feet.

TORONTO — The sodalities of Our Lady which Jesuits earnestly planted in parishes and Catholic schools all around the world never died. The sodalities had dominated 19th- and early 20th-century Catholic piety. They re-emerged in 1953 as the Christian Life Community, or CLC.