The Pope calls for people to use spirituality to encourage more passionate concern for the planet.

Spiritual ways to a better environment

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Pope Francis is calling for an “ecological conversion” for all in his encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home. The Pope calls for people to use spirituality to encourage “a more passionate concern for the protection of our world” and lists a number of practical ways to integrate this teaching in our daily lives. Below we have looked at some of the Pope’s recommendations and included some suggestions about how to integrate his teachings into our daily lives.

Montreal Archbishop Christian Lepine celebrates the 400th anniversary of the first Mass on the Island of Montreal on a birch bark canoe altar June 24. The Mass, held at St. John the Baptist Church, included a re-enactment of explorer Samuel de Champlain and two Franciscans, Frs. Denys Jamet and Joseph le Caron, who came ashore during one of his journeys to the New World

Montreal marks 400 years since Champlain’s first Mass

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MONTREAL - Montreal Archbishop Christian Lepine celebrated Mass on a birch bark canoe altar June 24 to mark the feast of St. John the Baptist while at the same time commemorating the 400th anniversary of what is widely thought to be the first Mass ever celebrated on the Island of Montreal.

The athletes’ village for the Pan Am Games, left, will be home to Fr. Eduardo Soto for the best part of the summer. The Venezuelan Jesuit will be part of the Archdiocese of Toronto’s chaplaincy team for the Pan Am and Parapan Games to be held in the city during July and August.

Chaplaincy team ready for Pan Ams

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TORONTO - Growing up in Venezuela, Fr Eduardo Soto fell in love with the Pan Am Games when his home country hosted the quadrennial event in Caracas in 1983.

A member of the Missionaries of Charity helps distribute relief items to earthquake victims May 16 in the mountains overlooking Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Toronto donors faced tough decisions when it came to giving to disaster relief, local charities and fundraising initiatives.

Series of events combine to put ShareLife behind

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Natural disasters around the world combined with a larger fund-raising campaign in the archdiocese tapping into the generosity of Toronto Catholics are making for one of the most difficult years in ShareLife’s history.

St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Toronto has been closed due to safety concerns. Construction renovations at the cathedral are cited for the closure.

Cathedral closed over safety concerns

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TORONTO - First construction stripped St. Michael’s Cathedral of its spiritual atmosphere, now it is blocking parishioners from entering the pews and sacred space.

In this 2008 file photo, Missionaries of Charity Sister Nirmala Joshi meets Christian refugees who had been sheltered in Kandhamal, India. Sister Nirmala, 80, died June 23. She would have turned 81 in a month.

Sr. Nirmala Joshi, successor to Blessed Teresa, dies at 81

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CALCUTTA, India - Sr. Nirmala Joshi, who succeeded Blessed Teresa of Calcutta as superior general of the Missionaries of Charity and led the order for 12 years until retiring in 2009, died early June 23 in Calcutta at age 80.

Fr. Pierre Gingras, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Quebec City, is pictured in a late May photo. Despite being a heritage church, the archdiocese planned to close it because of dwindling membership and massive repairs.

Historic Quebec churches no longer untouchable

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QUEBEC CITY - With the decision to close one of its largest and most important churches, the Archdiocese of Quebec is sending a clear message: The future of even the most majestic churches cannot be guaranteed any more.

Despite the dangers of a country in the midst of a civil war, Fr. Art MacKinnon used his pulpit to advocate for the people who were being oppressed and imprisoned by the Dominican Republic government under dictator Rafael Trujillo.

Fr. Art MacKinnon: 50 years a martyr

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With the phone pressed to her ear memories spring to life of a man from half a life ago.

“Sure I remember him,” said Sr. Mary Jo Mazzerolle. “The day before he was killed he was in our house. He came to us to say Mass and afterwards he came to our house for supper.

A new poll shows Canadians want to keep God in the national anthem.

Canadians say leave God in anthem

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OTTAWA - An Angus Reid poll shows most Canadians approve of banning prayer before official public meetings, but would not approve of removing God from “O Canada.”

A palliative care patient chats with a sister in New York in this 2011 file photo. The Catholic Health Alliance of Canada is promoting palliative care as an option to assisted suicide, which is legal now after the Supreme Court struck down the ban.

Catholic health cannot support assisted suicide

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OTTAWA - For the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada, there is no debate about euthanasia and assisted suicide.

In 1913, Archbishop Neil McNeil (seated) invited Paulist Father Thomas Burke, second from the left, to Toronto to minister to the University of Toronto’s 250 Catholic students. Burke set up U of T’s Newman Centre. After a century in Toronto, running St. Peter’s parish, the Paulists are returning to the United States due to declining vocations.

Paulist presence ends, legacy lives

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TORONTO - The Paulist Fathers don’t want to leave Toronto, they have to. That strange uptick in vocations after the Second World War has now worked its way through the system and there aren’t enough priests left to staff the ambitious little empire of Paulist ministries that once dotted cities across North America. So, after a century in Toronto, the U.S.-based Paulists are going home.

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