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Ontario offers $10K grants for anti-hate measures

BRAMPTON, Ont. - Religious groups and cultural and Indigenous communities in Ontario will soon be able to apply for grants of up to $10,000 to protect their facilities from hate-motivated crimes.

Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Michael Ford announced today that the province would spend $25.5 million over two years on a new anti-hate security and prevention grant.

He says no Ontarian should live in fear that they will be targeted because of their background, who they love or how they worship.

The government says there were more than 1,500 police-reported hate crimes in Ontario in 2021 and Indigenous, Black, Muslim, Jewish and LGBTQ communities have been the most targeted groups in recent years.

Trudeau takes in pomp of coronation

LONDON - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gov. Gen Mary Simon were among the dignitaries on hand as King Charles III was crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey on Saturday, marking the formal celebration of the start of his reign as King and his role as Canada’s head of state.

The coronation was a two-hour traditional Anglican ceremony that combined ancient traditions and pomp and pageantry with a few modern touches.

Over a dozen Canadians were among the ceremony’s more than 2,000 guests, a crowd that ranged from world leaders and aristocrats to community workers and first responders.

A drizzle fell as the Canadian delegation entered the historic church, led by flag-bearer and astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Congratulations pour in for King Charles

The coronation of King Charles III took place early Saturday morning in London’s historic Westminster Abbey, prompting well-wishes from across Canada. Here’s what people had to say:

“Today, we ring in the reign of His Majesty King Charles III and reaffirm Canada’s enduring commitment to the Commonwealth. As we celebrate this momentous occasion, let us be reminded of our shared values of inclusivity, diversity, and respect for human rights as we work together to build a better future for all members of the Commonwealth.”

- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

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How Mexico City’s mural movement transformed walls into art

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Across the main entrance of a former Jesuit college in the heart of Mexico City, a bright-colored mural depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe represents both the Indigenous religiosity and the Christianity that shaped the culture of post-colonial Mexico.

The mural was created by Mexican artist Fermín Revueltas between 1922 and 1923, when the walls of Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso became the canvases for the country’s emerging muralist movement.

To honor the art of Revueltas, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who among others led the artistic movement a century ago, the baroque building that currently serves as a museum hosts an exhibition that reflects on the significance of their monumental art.

The exhibit, which is regularly updated, recently welcomed a contemporary mural created by Mexican craftsmen who were inspired by the old masters and will run through June 12. That mural, called “La Muerte de las Culturas” (“The Death of Cultures”), depicts how Mexicans of African descent struggled for freedom and equality, and how the community’s identity was forged from that.

Kenyan court sets bail for pastor in parishioner death probe

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A court in Kenya ruled Thursday that one of two pastors under investigation for the deaths of more than 100 of their congregants, many of whom are believed to have starved to death, could be released on bond or bail.

Pastor Ezekiel Odero was arrested last week in connection with the deaths of dozens of his congregants at his coastal megachurch, which draws thousands of people from across the country. Police closed the church, but lawyers have filed an application, scheduled to be heard Monday, to have it reopened.

Odero's parishioners turned up outside the court Thursday to pray for his release, which was granted on condition that he post a bond in the amount of 3 million Kenyan shillings (about $22,000) or cash bail of 1.5 million shillings ($11,000). The court said there was no sufficient reason to keep the pastor in custody.

Odero’s lawyers acknowledged after his arrest that 15 people died at his church but said the deaths were reported at a police station as required by law. Police have said there was no evidence at the time to suggest a crime was involved.

Ancient Knights of Malta get their 1st non-aristocratic head

ROME (AP) — A Canadian lawyer who found his vocation caring for AIDS patients in Harlem was elected the grand master of the Knights of Malta on Wednesday, the first non-European and first non-aristocratic head of the ancient lay Catholic order that provides humanitarian aid around the world.

John Dunlap, 66, was elected by an absolute majority of 99 voting members of a Knights body known as “the council complete of state.” He immediately informed Pope Francis of his election and was sworn in during a pomp-filled ceremony and procession Wednesday at the Knights’ magnificent villa on Rome’s Aventine hill.

The election brings a hoped-for end to a tumultuous few years during which Francis intervened to remove a previous grand master as a result of a governance crisis. Francis then imposed a new set of constitutional reforms on the order, and appointed Dunlap as interim head, in ways that critics said threatened its sovereignty.

The Knights of Malta is an ancient chivalric order and sovereign entity that runs hospitals and clinics around the world. It counts 13,500 knights, dames and chaplains, 80,000 permanent volunteers and 42,000 employees, most of them medical personnel who lend first aid in areas of natural disasters and conflict zones.

Vatican No 2 confirms Russia-Ukraine peace mission plans

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Holy See's No. 2 official confirmed Wednesday the existence of a Vatican peace “mission” to try to end Russia's war in Ukraine, days after Pope Francis raised eyebrows with an offhand revelation of a secret operation that was already underway.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, expressed surprise that officials in both Russia and Ukraine claimed ignorance of the Vatican initiative when they were asked about Francis' comments. Speaking on the sidelines of a book launch Wednesday, Parolin said that both capitals had been informed, Vatican News reported.

“Based on my knowledge, they know, but you know how it is, in bureaucracies it could be that communications that are supposed to arrive don’t arrive,” Parolin was quoted as saying. “These are just my interpretations, but I know that both parties were informed.”

Francis revealed the existence of a Vatican “mission” on Sunday night during a news conference en route home from a weekend visit to Hungary. During his three days in Budapest, Francis held private meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has maintained relations with Moscow, as well as with the former foreign envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly supported the war.

Priest, scientist on trial in Germany over climate protest

BERLIN (AP) — A Jesuit priest and a scientist are appearing before a German court Wednesday charged with coercion in connection with a climate protest last year.

The Rev. Joerg Alt and Cornelia Huth, a biologist and member of the group Scientist Rebellion, blocked a road in Munich on Oct. 28.

Numerous similar protests have taken place across Germany and other countries recently as climate activists try to draw attention to the urgency of tackling global warming.

The public and political response to such road blockades has been mixed. While some German mayors have said they support the protesters' cause. if not their means, activists have also faced violence from enraged motorists and calls for tough punishment from conservative politicians.

Canadian Foodgrains Bank saving lives in Somalia

THOUSANDS of malnourished children in Somalia are being kept alive thanks to support from a local aid organization.

Stefan Epp-Koop, humanitarian program director for Canadian Foodgrains Bank, was in the civil war-torn east African nation this week to see how aid provided by that organization is being used to help people suffering from the drought there.

AG finds 45% of B.C. ministries affected by fraud

VICTORIA - A report by British Columbia's auditor general says almost half of the government's ministries were affected by some type of fraud between 2021 and 2022, most commonly theft.

Michael Pickup said Tuesday the results of a questionnaire sent to ministries last September suggest not all are following the same approach for managing risk or they don't have a full understanding of the government-wide framework for managing fraud.

He said the findings are important because fraud attempts have become more sophisticated over time.

"The purpose of the questionnaire is to not go looking for fraud. The purpose is to get a reading on the public sector's readiness to manage the risk of fraud," he said at a news conference.

Jews, Muslims, Sikhs get coronation role as king reaches out

LONDON (AP) — Rabbi Nicky Liss won’t be watching King Charles III’s coronation. He’ll be doing something he considers more important: praying for the monarch on the Jewish sabbath.

On Saturday, he will join rabbis across Britain in reading a prayer in English and Hebrew that gives thanks for the new king in the name of the “one God who created us all.”

Liss, the rabbi of Highgate Synagogue in north London, said British Jews appreciated Charles’ pledge to promote the co-existence of all faiths and his record of supporting a multifaith society during his long apprenticeship as heir to the throne.

“When he says he wants to be a defender of faiths, that means the world because our history hasn’t always been so simple and we haven’t always lived freely; we haven’t been able to practice our religion,” Liss told The Associated Press. “But knowing that King Charles acts this way and speaks this way is tremendously comforting.”

Southern Baptist leader selection process fails amid dispute

A powerful Southern Baptist committee was looking to appoint a new leader Monday who could navigate controversies over its handling of sexual-abuse reforms and the ousting of churches with women serving as pastors.

Instead, the Executive Committee found itself tangled in yet another dispute, voting down a recommendation to make its own former chairman its president in what had become a racially fraught decision.

That 50-31 vote came after some of the denomination's prominent Black clergy questioned the selection process, which they saw as bypassing an African American pastor who has led the committee as interim president for more than a year.

The selection process hit a nerve in a denomination that has lost some Black clergy in recent years over what they have seen as a failure of the mostly white-led denomination to make good on its pledges to reform after its history of supporting slavery and segregation. While the SBC elected its first Black president in 2012, no African Americans have led any of the denomination's powerful agencies or seminaries.

National chief supports return of sacred items

The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the Pope's willingness to return artifacts stored at the Vatican Museum is another step forward on Indigenous Peoples' journey with the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

"We asked for the return of our sacred items, and they will make their way home soon," said Chief RoseAnne Archibald in an emailed statement.

Pope Francis said Sunday that talks were underway to return the artifacts. He was asked about the issue during a news conference on a flight back home from Hungary and said that "in the case where you can return things, where it's necessary to make a gesture, better to do it."

Much of the Vatican’s current collection is from a former pope who decided to hold a world exposition in 1925. A message went out at that time to missionaries around the globe to send items. More than 100,000 objects and works of art were displayed.

Black Protestant church still vital despite attendance drop

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The wide empty spaces in pews between parishioners at a Sunday service at Zion Baptist Church in South Carolina’s capital highlight a post-pandemic reality common among many Black Protestant churches nationwide.

At its heyday in the 1960s, more than 1,500 parishioners filled every seat at Zion. But membership at the historic church — a crucial meeting point for many during the Civil Rights Movement — dwindled over recent decades.

The trend has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which infected and killed Black Americans at a disproportionate rate. Zion’s attendance dropped from 300 parishioners before the outbreak to 125 now.

Founded in 1865, Zion still has a choir capable of beautiful singing, but it also shrunk by more than half. The stomping of feet and the call-and-response of the leader and congregation have dimmed from what they were before the pandemic.

Black Protestant church still vital despite attendance drop

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The wide empty spaces in pews between parishioners at a Sunday service at Zion Baptist Church in South Carolina’s capital highlight a post-pandemic reality common among many Black Protestant churches nationwide.

At its heyday in the 1960s, more than 1,500 parishioners filled every seat at Zion. But membership at the historic church — a crucial meeting point for many during the Civil Rights Movement — dwindled over recent decades.

The trend has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which infected and killed Black Americans at a disproportionate rate. Zion’s attendance dropped from 300 parishioners before the outbreak to 125 now.

Founded in 1865 — the year Abraham Lincoln was assassinated — Zion still has a choir capable of beautiful singing, but it too has shrunk by more than half. The stomping of feet and the call-and-response of the leader and congregation have subsided from what they were before the pandemic.

Pope voices willingness to return Indigenous loot, artifacts

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Sunday that talks were underway to return colonial-era artifacts in the Vatican Museum that were acquired from Indigenous peoples in Canada and voiced a willingness to return other problematic objects in the Vatican’s collection on a case-by-case basis.

“The Seventh Commandment comes to mind: If you steal something you have to give it back,” Francis said during an airborne press conference en route home from Hungary.

Recently, Francis returned to Greece the three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures that had been in the Vatican Museums’ collection for two centuries. The pope said Sunday that the restitution was “the right gesture” and that when such returns were possible, museums should undertake them.

“In the case where you can return things, where it’s necessary to make a gesture, better to do it,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t, if there are no possibilities — political, real or concrete possibilities. But in the cases where you can restitute, please do it. It’s good for everyone, so you don’t get used to putting your hands in someone else’s pockets.”

Pope speaks of secret peace ‘mission,’ help for Ukraine kids

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday revealed that a secret peace “mission” in Russia's war in Ukraine was under way, though he gave no details, and said the Vatican is willing to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war.

“I’m available to do anything,” Francis said during an airborne press conference en route home from Hungary. “There’s a mission that’s not public that’s underway; when it’s public I’ll talk about it.”

Francis gave no details when asked whether he spoke about peace initiatives during his talks in Budapest this weekend with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary.

Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Francis said the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.

Pope in final Mass in Budapest urges Hungary to open doors

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Pope Francis urged Hungarians to open their doors to others on Sunday, as he wrapped up a weekend visit with a plea for Europe to welcome migrants and the poor and for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Francis issued the appeal from the banks of the Danube as he celebrated Mass on Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos Square, with the Hungarian Parliament and Budapest’s famed Chain Bridge as a backdrop. The celebration provided the visual highlight of Francis’ three-day visit that has been dominated by the Vatican’s concern for the plight of migrants and the war in neighboring Ukraine.

Citing local organizers, the Vatican said some 50,000 people attended the Mass, more than 30,000 of them in the square, on a brilliantly sunny spring morning. Among them were President Katalin Novak and Hungary’s right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose lukewarm support for Ukraine has rankled fellow European Union members.

Francis has expressed appreciation for Hungary’s recent welcome of Ukrainian refugees. But he has challenged Orban’s hard-line anti-immigration policies, which in 2015-2016 included building a razor wire fence on the border with Serbia to stop people from entering. Upon arrival, Francis urged Hungary and Europe as a whole to welcome those who are fleeing war, poverty and climate change, calling for safe and legal migration corridors.

Details revealed about King Charles III’s coronation service

LONDON (AP) — It will be a coronation of many faiths and many languages.

King Charles III, keen to show that he can be a unifying figure for everyone in the United Kingdom, will be crowned in a ceremony that will for the first time include the active participation of faiths other than the Church of England.

Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders will take part in various aspects of the coronation, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said Saturday, as it revealed details of a service it described as an act of Christian worship that will reflect contemporary society.

The ceremony also will include female bishops for the first time, as well as hymns and prayers sung in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, as well as English.

Dust to dust? New Mexicans fight to save old adobe churches

CORDOVA, New Mexico (AP) — Ever since missionaries started building churches out of mud 400 years ago in what was the isolated frontier of the Spanish empire, tiny mountain communities like Cordova relied on their own resources to keep the faith going.

Thousands of miles from religious and lay seats of power, everything from priests to sculptors to paint pigments was hard to come by. Villagers instituted lay church caretakers called “mayordomos,” and filled chapels with elaborate altarpieces made of local wood.

Today, threatened by depopulation, dwindling congregations and fading traditions, some of their descendants are fighting to save these historic adobe structures from literally crumbling back to the earth they were built with.

“Our ancestors put blood and sweat in this place for us to have Jesus present,” said Angelo Sandoval on a spring day inside the 1830s church of St. Anthony, where he serves as mayordomo. “We’re not just a church, we’re not just a religion – we have roots.”

Dust to dust? New Mexicans fight to save old adobe churches

CORDOVA, New Mexico (AP) — Ever since missionaries started building churches out of mud 400 years ago in what was the isolated frontier of the Spanish empire, tiny mountain communities like Cordova relied on their own resources to keep the faith going.

Thousands of miles from religious and lay seats of power, everything from priests to sculptors to paint pigments was hard to come by. Villagers instituted lay church caretakers called “mayordomos,” and filled chapels with elaborate altarpieces made of local wood and varnished with pine sap.

Today, threatened by depopulation, dwindling congregations and fading traditions, some of their descendants are fighting to save these historic adobe structures from literally crumbling back to the earth they were built with.

“Our ancestors put blood and sweat in this place for us to have Jesus present. This is the root of my faith,” said Angelo Sandoval on a chilly spring day inside the 1830s church of St. Anthony, where he serves as mayordomo in his native Cordova. “We’re not just a church, we’re not just a religion – we have roots.”