WINNIPEG — The public is more concerned with potholes than with homelessness, says Major Karen Hoeft of Winnipeg's Salvation Army Booth Centre.

The City of Winnipeg, says Hoeft, spends a million dollars a year fixing potholes and the same amount on affordable housing.

OTTAWA — When Bishop Raymond Lahey goes to trial on child pornography charges May 4, the likely news coverage will reopen wounds caused by the worldwide clerical sexual abuse, regardless of the trial's outcome.

But observers say the pain provides an opportunity for needed renewal.

SHERWOOD PARK — As federal politicians actively campaign for votes, youngsters from Sherwood Park took their own special message to the streets, campaigning for the sanctity of human life.

Accompanied by Franciscan Father Dan Gurnick and a few parents, elementary school students marched through the community April 13 to show their solidarity with the 40 Days for Life movement.

VATICAN CITY — Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican April 17, Pope Benedict warned that technological progress must not lead people to think they can "become God."

The German pontiff, who celebrated his 84th birthday the day before, joined a Palm Sunday procession that went through St. Peter's Square before Mass.

The Lent 4.5 Program at St. Theresa's Parish in Edmonton has challenged parishioners to take personal action to protect God's creation and embrace Gospel justice.

Weekly presentations during Lent drew 35 to 50 people each Tuesday for interactive presentations on topics such as Christian simplicity, food, consumption, water, energy and transportation.

TABER - St. Augustine's Parish in Taber is now celebrating its centennial year.

The town of Taber started with a bang with abundant coal mining in the area. In 1909 its population was 3,400. But then the coal dwindled and Taber almost became a ghost town.

VATICAN CITY — The slight differences between a beatification and a canonization are easy to miss, especially when one pope beatifies another pope.

Just three weeks before Pope Benedict was to beatify Pope John Paul II on May 1, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments issued a decree designed, in part, to maintain the distinction.

VATICAN CITY — Everyone is called to holiness, which is simply striving to imitate Christ, particularly in loving God and loving others, Pope Benedict said April 13.

Ending a long series of general audience talks about saints and doctors of the Church, the pope spoke about the meaning of holiness and how it is achieved.

Climbing to the roof of his home in Cologne, Germany, during the final days of the First World War, a teenage Fritz Eichenberg would pick up pieces of shrapnel, souvenirs of night bombing raids that terrorized civilians.

Born in 1901 to a Jewish family, Eichenberg saw the widespread destruction caused by war and wondered what good was coming of it. It was then that lifelong anti-war sentiments took root.

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican commission on China has expressed deep concern over worsening relations with the Chinese government.

The commission has also appealed to authorities in China to avoid steps that would aggravate Church-state problems.