The parliamentary committee on assisted suicide and euthanasia has called for the gates to those ways of being put to sleep to be opened as wide as currently possible in Canadian society. If Parliament accepts the committee recommendations, it will put Canada on a slippery slope to the day when the supposed right to assisted suicide becomes an obligation. Even without the slippery slope, the committee report is a horrible, odious, reprehensible call for slaying human dignity.

The Alberta government should consult widely to find ways to protect some of the province's most vulnerable people when assisted suicide is legalized, say the bishops of Alberta. The February 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing assisted suicide will come into effect June 6, and the Alberta bishops say they are "gravely concerned that [legalization] will place certain members of our common home at serious risk."

At long last, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow embraced, kissing each other three times. "Finally," the pope told the patriarch Feb. 12 as they met in a lounge at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. "We are brothers," he told the patriarch. Amid the clicking of cameras and multiple flashes, Patriarch Kirill was overheard telling the pope, "Things are easier now."

MEXICO CITY - Pope Francis has urged Mexico's bishops to show "prophetic courage" in denouncing drug violence and avoid "the seductive illusion of underhanded agreements" which some say bishops make with corrupt officials and criminals. "The magnitude of this phenomenon . . . and the gravity of the violence . . . do not allow us as pastors of the Church to hide behind anodyne denunciations," the pope told an audience of bishops Feb. 13. More than 100,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence over the past 10 years and another 25,000 Mexicans are missing.

Paying homage to the ancient wisdom of Mexico's indigenous peoples, Pope Francis urged them to hold on to hope and condemned those who exploit them and their land. "Some have considered your values, culture and traditions to be inferior. Others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them," the pope said at a Mass Feb. 15.

Jodie Bjornstad was all smiles when she shook Archbishop Richard Smith's hand during the Rite of Election at St. Joseph's Basilica. "It was awesome," the 27-year-old teacher said after the event. Bjornstad was one of 165 catechumens, including 63 child catechumens, from across the archdiocese who affirmed their desire to become members of the Catholic Church in two separate ceremonies at St. Joseph's Basilica Feb. 13-14. The archbishop welcomed each catechumen personally.

VANCOUVER - Multitudes of immigrants settling in British Columbia are the biggest reason the Vancouver Archdiocese is steadily growing, said its archbishop. "The Archdiocese of Vancouver, it's a Church of immigration," Archbishop Michael Miller told The B.C. Catholic. Without these people, he believes, the local Church would be shrinking.

Living simply, according to Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', does not mean giving up candy for 40 days or using Lent as a good time to lose a few pounds. Stopping to give thanks to God before and after meals; admiring nature on a walk through the river valley; using less heating and wearing warmer clothes even if you could afford to consume more; or spending time with people, and really encountering them as people, are all practical ways of living out the principles of the encyclical.

TORONTO - Pope Francis' Laudato Si' may focus on climate change, but the essence of the pope's environmental encyclical is really a call for cultural change, says the director of the Vatican Observatory. "This book, Laudato Si', really is not about climate change," Brother Guy Consolmagno told a Toronto audience Feb. 8. Consolmagno was in Toronto to deliver the 2016 Faith and Reason Lecture at the Newman Centre.

EDMONTON - His voice breaking with emotion, Dr. Denis Vincent said "I cannot believe society has come to this. Why does society need to do this?" The Edmonton family physician was responding to the news the Canadian government is imposing legislation allowing physician-assisted suicide. Grasping for reasons why Canada is going down this path, Vincent said "People feel abandoned and that they do not matter anymore. The elders can feel that they do not matter."