A recent cover of The Catholic Register featured a heartbreaking picture of a tearful woman in a hijab being comforted in the wake of the New Zealand mosque attacks.

It turns out that banning assault weapons doesn’t have to be so difficult after all. All it takes is courage, resolve, leadership — and a touch of common sense.

The mirage that mass shootings — such as the massacre of 50 Muslims at prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand — are isolated incidents long ago vaporized. While mass killings are performed by deranged individuals whose behaviour falls well outside social norms, they are societal phenomena with societal roots.

Separate terrorist attacks in the past five months have killed 80 people as they worshipped in New Zealand mosques, an American synagogue and a Philippines cathedral. These are just three among hundreds of attacks on worshippers over the past decade. 

OTTAWA —The horrific murder of 50 Muslims at prayer at two New Zealand mosques March 15 hit close to home because of a similar attack in 2017 on Muslims at prayer at a Quebec City mosque.

Tears flowed during a Mass for peace at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 16, one day after terrorist attacked two mosques, leaving at least 50 people dead and dozens more injured.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – The seaside town of Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island might have had its road and rail links with the outside world cut off after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, but its Catholic priest found a way to get into the town to celebrate Sunday Mass and be with his people.