Article has been amended for updated information on Fr. Carl Matthews' wake

TORONTO - Fr. Carl Matthews, S.J., a former publisher and editor of The Catholic Register, died Sept. 26. The 80-year-old Fr. Matthews was in his 62nd year of Jesuit life.

Fr. Matthews died peacefully at Rouge Valley Hospital in Ajax, Ont. He had been at the Rene Goupil Jesuit Infirmary as his health deteriorated since his retirement from parish life in 2010.

It is Fr. Matthews' dedication to Catholic education where he made his name. He served for 14 years as a trustee with the Metropolitan Separate School Board, the predecessor of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, and is among those most responsible for full funding being extended to Catholic schools. Along with the late Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter, Fr. Matthews worked tirelessly in the halls of Queen's Park to bring equal funding to Catholic high schools, which up until 1984 were only fully funded up until Grade 10.

In the early 1990s, Fr. Matthews was publisher and editor of The Catholic Register before returning to parish life. He spent 16 years, from 1994-2010, as pastor of St. John the Evangelist parish in Waubaushene, Ont., on the shores of Georgian Bay in the northern reaches of the archdiocese of Toronto.

Born in Kingston, Ont., in 1932, Carl Joseph Damien Matthews attended Regiopolis College in his hometown before entering St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Guelph, Ont., in 1951. After first vows and two years of Juniorate, he went on to Regis College in Toronto. He returned to Regiopolis to teach for two years before returning to the University of Toronto to study education.

Fr. Matthews was ordained a priest June 4, 1966. He served in a number of parishes in the archdiocese, including Martyrs' Shrine in Midland, Ont., Good Shepherd parish in Thornhill and St. Michael's Cathedral.

A wake will be held for Fr. Matthews on September 30th from 2-4 p.m. (service at 3 p.m.) at Manresa Retreat House in Pickering, Ont., and from 7-9 p.m. at Rosar Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne St. in Toronto. The funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. on October 1st at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 520 Sherbourne St. Burial is at the Jesuit Cemetery in Guelph.

OTTAWA - Despite his motion to reopen the debate on when life begins being defeated Sept. 26, MP Stephen Woodworth has vowed to "fight on against the denial of the worth and dignity of every human."

The Conservative MP's Motion 312 would have set up a parliamentary committee to examine the 400-year-old definition of when human life begins. It was defeated by a vote of 203 to 91 in the House of Commons.

“I will be there to encourage and to speak out in defence of the Canadian values championed by Motion 312,” Woodworth said in a news release after the vote. “If possible, I’ll travel the country to talk about the very, very grave importance of enshrining in Canadian law the equal worth and dignity of every human being.”

Woodworth came under fire from Opposition MPs, and even some within his own party, as they claimed the motion was just a backdoor route to reopening the abortion debate. It's a claim Woodworth denied throughout the process. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the government's chief whip, MP Gordon O'Connor, were among the more prominent Conservative members who made it clear early in the process that they would not support Motion 312.

However, eight cabinet ministers, including Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Rona Ambrose, the Minister for the Status of Women, were among the 87 Conservative MPs — more than half the caucus — that supported Woodworth's motion.

Woodworth called on Canadians to redouble their efforts to promote the view that democratic institutions, honest laws and every human being are more important than preoccupation with abortion or any other agenda or ideology.

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New data from Statistics Canada that shows the traditional family is in decline comes as no surprise but that doesn’t make the findings any less troubling.

Canadians who live alone now outnumber couples with children. Fewer people than ever are getting married and they’re having even fewer children. Single parenting is rising, as is common-law and same-sex parenting.

It is premature to declare the traditional family structure as dead, far from it, but it’s certainly suffering. From 2006 to 2011, the number of children living in either common-law or single-parent households shot up by 22 per cent. One-third of Canadian children are now living in non-traditional family households, compared to about 10 per cent 50 years ago. That gap between traditional and non-traditional parenting will only become more narrow as young people continue to reject marriage to live common-law, as high divorce rates and pre-marital births create more single-parent homes and as same-sex parenting increases. The data has been moving in that direction since the 1970s and nothing indicates the trend will change.

What is surprising, however, is the nonchalant reaction of Canadian society to this radical reconstruction of family. Studies have found that stable, loving, two-parent (mom and dad) families make for a healthier society. Indeed, many studies suggest society suffers when traditional families and the values they instill are replaced by alternate child-rearing arrangements.

Families are the bedrock of civil society. They are the primary teachers of right and wrong, the place where values and morals are instilled and the foundation is laid for good citizenship. They are the place where children learn to love, give, co-operate, compromise and pray. It is also where they learn how to be good moms and dads.

Children raised in traditional families are less likely to fall into drug or alcohol abuse, criminal activity, depression, promiscuity, and they are less likely to grow up in poverty. They have better success rates in school, work and marriage, and they tend to become better parents themselves.

Catholics further recognize the sacredness of family as rooted in Scripture and promulgated by the saints and Church leaders. Speaking recently to a group of French bishops in Rome, Pope Benedict called family the foundation of society but said the foundation is threatened by “a faulty conception of human nature.”

“Marriage and family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself.”

So the prudent reaction to the decline of the traditional family would be a thorough evaluation by society of this worrisome trend. To blithely accept it as an inevitable, even commendable, evolution of society is something we do at our peril.

TORONTO - The Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition and the Intercultural Dialogue Institute of Toronto are pulling together Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists to think and talk about social justice at a free dinner at the Church of the Holy Trinity.

The evening will be moderated by Salt + Light TV personality Deacon Pedro Guevara Mann, with opening remarks from Campaign 2000 national co-ordinator Laurel Rothman, and takes place Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The Church of the Holy Trinity is tucked in next to the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto.
Campaign 2000 is the coalition of churches, unions and social work agencies that campaigns against child poverty in Canada.

Speaking on social justice from the point of view of major faith traditions are Sean Hillman, Buddhist PhD candidate in religion at the University of Toronto, KAIROS executive director Jennifer Henry, Muslim scholar Halil Simsek and Avrum Rosensweig, founding director and president of the Jewish volunteer agency Ve’ahavta.

To register for the evening go to www.interfaithdinner.com. Space is limited.

For the second time, the provincial government has taken over one of the province's Catholic school boards.

The Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board is the latest to fall under provincial control after an external review found board staff was willing to risk a strike to balance its budget. The board's budget was short $2.2 million this year, the fifth time in the past six years it had failed to balance its books. Staff noted that a strike might help to find those savings.

The board had no contingency plan to find the savings, said Deloitte, the consultants who authored the review.

Norbert Hartmann, who oversaw the Toronto Catholic District School Board when the province took it over in 2008, has been appointed to oversee the Windsor board's financial management and administration.

Barbara Holland, chair of the Windsor board, had predicted a takeover was coming in early August. She told The Catholic Register's Evan Boudreau that it wasn't so much financial instability, but more of a retaliatory measure for the board filing for conciliation to resolve the collective bargaining difficulties it was having with its teachers (before the province introduced its Putting Students First legislation Aug. 27).

"I do feel that it is a retaliatory measure and it is retaliation because we spoke out on this issue," said Holland.

TORONTO - Toronto parishes are being encouraged to reach out to Africa and the Philippines.

The archdiocese of Toronto is channeling parish collections to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace to help people suffering food shortages in the Sahel region of northwest Africa and flood victims in the Philippines.

In the case of the Sahel drought, which threatens the lives of 18.7 million people, collections sent in before Sept. 30 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Canadian government.

Funds contributed to Development and Peace for the Philippine floods are immediately available to Caritas NASSA — the main Catholic relief agency in the Philippines.

Parishes can make cheques payable to "Parish Name - Sahel Crisis Relief" or "Parish Name - Philippine Flood Relief." Cheques should be mailed to the Development Office, Catholic Pastoral Centre, 1155 Yonge St., Toronto, Ont., M4T 1W2.

Individuals can also contribute through the archdiocese, either by calling the Development Office at 1-800-263-2595 or (416) 934-3411 or online at www.archtoronto.org/humanitarian.

OTTAWA - The Ottawa Catholic District School Board has been fined $275,000 for its role in a 2011 classroom explosion that killed student Eric Leighton.

“As a school board ultimately we’re responsible for what happens in the schools,” said Julian Hanlon, director of education. “We’ve accepted that responsibility all along and this process will hopefully help bring some closure to the case, in particular for the Leighton family themselves.”

When Leighton tried cutting a 55-gallon drum in half with an angle grinder during his morning shop-class on May 26, 2011, the steel barrel exploded. The blast sent five students and A teacher to hospital, all of whom left with minor injuries except for Leighton. The Grade 12 student later passed away. He was 18.  

Charged in January under the Occupational Health and Safety Act with failing to provide instruction or supervision, failing to take every reasonable precaution to protect the workplace and failing to properly acquaint a supervisor with the handling of equipment, the board faced up to $500,000 in fines.

A media release from the Ministry of Labour stated that “the barrel the student was using had been washed out with flammable cleaner ... the barrel had been stored with its caps closed prior to the class project, allowing flammable cleaning vapour to accumulate.”

The family has called for a coroner’s inquest which is still being considered according to Dr. Roger Skinner, regional supervising coroner for Ontario east.

AURORA, ONT. - Trustees from the York Catholic District School Board agreed on Aug. 21 to accept the province's Memorandum of Understanding as a framework for local collective bargaining with their teachers' union.

The York board joins the Toronto Catholic board as the only ones to date to sign on to the province's plan to freeze teacher wages for two years, alter sick leave benefits and cut sick days, all part of the government's austerity measures to deal with a $15-billion budget deficit. In July, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association was the first of the education stakeholders to sign on to the deal.

"Adoption of the MOU will help provide labour stability and peace of mind," said board chair Elizabeth Crowe. "We have always worked in a spirit of collaboration with all our employee groups and we greatly value those relationships."

By approving the MOU it ensures there will be no labour disruption this year in York Catholic schools.

That looks like it may not be the case across the province. No other union has accepted the provincial deal and other school boards have voiced their concerns about collective bargaining being taken away from them. Premier Dalton McGuinty, however, has vowed to bring in legislation to prevent a labour disruption and has recalled MPPs from their summer break for a session beginning Aug. 27 to deal with the issue.

The York board, with 55,000 students and 103 schools, now has until Dec. 31 to sign contracts under the agreed upon guidelines.

One of Canada's most eminent theologians and one of the greatest Catholic experts in ecumenism has died.

Margaret O’Gara, Professor of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, entered the realm of eternal life on Thursday, August 16, at age 65. She had suffered from cancer for two years.

In 37 years of work as a theologian O'Gara was able to foster dialogue among Christians for the sake of overcoming divisions between the churches. Besides her teaching, research, writing, and extensive public lecturing, she was a member of official ecumenical dialogues in Canada, the United States, and at the international level. She served terms as president of both the North American Academy of Ecumenists and the Catholic Theological Society of America.

O'Gara's effectiveness came from a combination of her scholarly rigor, exceptional ability to listen sympathetically, uncommon energy, and contagious delight at the growth of mutual understanding and friendship. The same traits marked her strong personal relationships with her students and colleagues, the members of her extended family, and her many longstanding friends. The fundamental driving force of her life was her deep and abiding Christian faith.

Visitation at Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne Street, on Wednesday, August 22, from 2:00 to 9:00 p.m., with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. Funeral mass at St. Basil’s Church on Thursday, August 23, at 10:30 a.m. Burial in Breckenridge, Minnesota.