Call Basilian Father Bob Kasun a most reluctant bishop. "I find this appointment shocking and really hard to handle," he said in a June 17 interview. When he started receiving mysterious phone messages from Ottawa one Friday afternoon, leaving a woman's first name and a number to call, he deleted them from his phone. Maybe it was a telephone solicitor or some sort of scam.

EDMONTON - Ask Fred Prather about the job Basilian Father Bob Kasun has done as pastor of Edmonton's St. Alphonsus Parish, and the response is immediate. "Phenomenal!" says the long-time parishioner. "This is a man utterly dedicated to the poor and downtrodden." Prather runs off a litany of outreach programs Kasun has started ranging from a group that prays the rosary while walking down the 118th Avenue strip west of Rexall Place to having an annual street barbecue for the immigrants and low-income people of the neighbourhood.

Quality, widely accessible palliative care is one of Canada's greatest needs, says Bishop Noël Simard of Valleyfield, Que. Simard, representing the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, was among the Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders who issued a call June 14 for a well-funded, quality national palliative care strategy. The interfaith leaders made the pitch as the assisted suicide Bill C-14 was headed to third reading in the Senate before being sent back to the House of Commons.

'Don't be afraid," Archbishop Richard Smith told young people travelling to Kraków, Poland for World Youth Day. "Go with open hearts and understand that Jesus takes nothing and gives everything." Smith presided at the commissioning Mass for World Youth Day June 12 at Holy Rosary Church, a Polish church. Dozens of young men and women wearing the red and white T-shirt of the Canadian delegation attended the Mass - their last official activity before they depart for Poland in mid-July.

Theodore Ng and his younger brother Jonhansel Ng are determined to get themselves and a group of Sherwood Park youths to Kraków, Poland for World Youth Day. They have the energy, the passion and the love to make it happen and so volunteered to coordinate preparations at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, although they no longer live in Sherwood Park. The Ng brothers live and work in Grande Prairie and commute weekly to organize meetings and fundraisers.

As Montreal prepares to celebrate its 375th anniversary in 2017, it is yet unclear how the city will honour its Catholic heritage. Although Mayor Denis Coderre has offered reassuring words on the matter, many political and religious voices fear Montreal's rich religious history will be put aside. "Be patient," Coderre told Catholic News Service when asked about how he intends to include Catholic heritage in the festivities.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal in Canada, but opponents vow to fight on a number of fronts in hopes, ultimately, of seeing Canadian society reverse its position. In a June 20 statement, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto said the Supreme Court and Parliament have "sent our country down a path that leads not simply, and obviously, towards physical death for an increasing number of fellow citizens, but towards a grim experience for everyone in our society of the coldness of spiritual death.

OTTAWA - The Liberal government's euthanasia and assisted suicide Bill C-14 received royal assent and became law June 17. Earlier in the day, after heated debate, senators voted 44 to 28 to accept amendments to the bill approved by the House of Commons the previous day by a 190 to 108 vote.

OTTAWA - Members of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience are taking the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CSPO) to court over its assisted suicide policy. "The current approach of the CPSO demands that doctors set aside their morals and go against their conscience to directly refer for assisted suicide," Larry Worthen, coalition member and executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, said in a June 21 news release.

On Saturday, July 9 at 11 a.m. in St. Joseph's Basilica, Archbishop Richard Smith will ordain 4 more men to the permanent diaconate. As well, Roger-Karol Niedzielski will be ordained a transitional deacon, a step towards priestly ordination.