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As the death toll hit 321 with an estimated 500 injured, members of Toronto’s large Tamil Catholic community were tracking down friends and relatives who might have been attending Easter Sunday Mass in Sri Lanka when bombs exploded at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo or St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo.

LITTLETON, Colo. - After two students at Columbine High School went on a shooting rampage April 20, 1999, killing 12 students and one teacher and injuring two dozen more, then-principal Frank DeAngelis, a lifelong Catholic, began to question his faith, wondering "how could God possibly let this happen?"

Belief in the bodily resurrection from the dead of the crucified Christ is the core of Christian faith. St. Paul stated the point succinctly: “If Christ had not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Indeed, the importance of the Resurrection goes further than that. The empty tomb reveals that the Resurrection is not a testimony to the immortality of the soul or to a “spiritual” rising in which Christ’s spirit lives in His followers while His body decays in the ground. As well, the rational grounds for belief in the Resurrection are evidence that faith is not blind or irrational.

Barely two weeks into a capital campaign to raise funds for the Archdiocese of Toronto’s newest church — named after Canada’s newest saint — about $150,000 has been collected, raising hopes shovels will be in the ground by the end of 2020.

BANGKOK - Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka, has blamed the country's authorities for the security lapse he claims could have prevented Easter bombings, in which the death toll surpassed 320.

Updated 04/23/2019

Accounting isn’t nearly as dull as we think it is, at least for those who practise the craft on behalf of international corporations that don’t want to pay taxes.

Alleluia, alleluia give thanks to the risen Lord Alleluia, alleluia give praise to His name.

The music had barely faded from our Easter liturgy when I walked into the hospital room of a woman I had been asked to visit but had never met.

Second Sunday of Easter, April 28 (Year C) Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118; Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31

The spread of Christianity began not with reasoned arguments or carefully planned strategies. People responded in droves to what Luke describes as “signs and wonders” — language that resonated with the events of Exodus.

The Vatican Cookbook: 500 Years of Classic Recipes, Papal Tributes and Exclusive Images of Life and Art at the Vatican by the Pontifi￾cal Swiss Guard. (Sophia Institute Press, 204 pages, $41.45 on Amazon.ca)

During an era in which coffee￾table books collect dust while handheld social media consumes idle time, there seems little need for another large hardback to join the lot on bookstore discount shelves. But The Vatican Cookbook stands out as an extraordinary and remark￾able collection holding within its pages 500 years of recipes, histor y and photographs.

BANGKOK - The Sri Lankan government blamed little-known Islamic group National Thowheeth Jama'ath for the Easter suicide bombings that targeted three churches and three luxury hotels across the country.