feb17-23

	Father Jim Whalen, National Director of Priests for Life Canada, passed away while conducting a pro-life parish mission in Thorold Ont., Feb. 24. The 68-year-old priest of the Archdiocese of Ottawa was also the spiritual director of the Legion of Mary Senatus. The funeral was to be held Feb. 29 in Orleans, near Ottawa.
	Earth's shadow moves toward a total eclipse of the moon Feb. 20, which can happen at full moon and only if the moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow. The next such eclipse occurs in three years.
	The Rev. Samuel Kobia, seen here delivering a sermon at Christ Church (Anglican) Cathedral in Ottawa in 2004, has decided to step down after only one five-year term as head of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Kobia is a Methodist minister whose U.S. doctorate was recently revealed to have been issued by an unaccredited institution. Kobia said he decided to quit after one term for private reasons. The WCC is linked to about 560 million Protestant and Orthodox believers from 349 different church bodies and also works closely with the Roman Catholic Church on a number of inter-faith issues.
	The 'Remembering the Children' tour by aboriginal and church leaders to promote the work of the upcoming Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) begins in Ottawa March 2. "We believe it is essential that Canadians pay close attention to this process of truth telling," said the Rev. David MacDonald, the United Church's Special Advisor on residential schools, and one of the organizers of the leaders' tour. "This is the opportunity for all of us to hear the voices of the children who attended residential schools, to listen to their stories, and to learn, maybe for the first time, of the impact that residential schools have had on Canada's First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities," MacDonald said in a news release Feb. 15. The spiritual leaders of the Anglican, Presbyterian and United Churches will also make stops in Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, and the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, as well as representatives of Metis and Inuit groups are to participate in major public events being planned in each city.
File photo	Residents of Greely, a suburban community in the south end of Ottawa, are still being advised not to leave their pets alone outside even though most of the coyotes that have roamed the area for more than a month have been hunted, trapped or moved on. There have been almost 400 sightings of coyotes in the Greely area and some small pets have been killed.
	Two Anglican congregations have voted to break away from the Diocese of Ottawa over the blessing of same-sex unions. Parishioners at St. Alban the Martyr in downtown Ottawa, led by the Rev. George Sinclair, voted 74-1 behind closed doors Feb. 16 to cut its ties with the diocese and align itself with the South American district headed by Archbishop Gregory Venables. In an Ottawa Citizen report, Sinclair said the decision is temporary and will be revisited when the Anglican Church "sorts out" its stance on the interpretation of scripture. Delegates to the diocesan synod last October voted in favor of the blessing of same-sex unions.
	(with above) A few days earlier, Rev. Alex Lewanowicz, the minister for Bearbrook, Navan and Vars, gave up his licence with the Anglican Church of Canada and agreed to serve under Venables. "The leavetaking has been hard on some people; hard on myself, too," he told the Ottawa Citizen. "We want to do it as gently as we can and not get into fighting and debate." Lewanowicz and his supporters were to hold their first service Feb. 17 in a private home. "It saddens me," Bishop John Chapman of the Diocese of Ottawa, told the newspaper. " I don't have a need for people to agree with any one position or another. It's just healthy when we work things out together," he added. "Until I've talked to them, I'm really not sure what they're intending to do." Chapman has yet to make a decision on the blessing of same-sex unions.
	San Felipe Cathedral in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic -- which is undergoing a major renovation -- is silhouetted by the noon sun in this photo taken Feb. 12.
	Students at a rural school in the Dominican Republic accept a visitor's gift of pencils, crayons and writing material. The percentage of people falling below the poverty line in the country has grown substantially since 2002 but is always the highest in the rural areas.
	Dominican Sunrise At least one quarter of the people in the Dominican Republic live below the poverty line but the country ranks among the highest in its natural beauty.