Michael Swan

Religion slowly making its way into corporate towers

November 11, 2011

TORONTO - Nadir Shirazi calls religion "the black sheep of the diversity family." Getting corporate Canada to sit down and talk about accommodating religion at work is a tough sell compared to other diversity-in-employment seminars, said Skills For Change executive director Cheryl May. "It's more of an edgy topic," she said.

"Canadians at War" - Remembering our fallen on Remembrance Day

November 10, 2011

Passchendaele, Vimy, the Somme, Hill 70 and Flanders Fields are all still there more than 90 years after they swallowed the lives of Canadian farm boys and office clerks. The once scarred and rutted fields of mud have been transformed by green grass, monuments, grave markers and crosses. “It’s a vast memorial,” said writer Susan Evans Shaw. Evans Shaw has produced a 350-page guidebook to the battlefields of the First World War called simply Canadians at War. The book is dramatically and amply illustrated with photographs by Jean Crankshaw.

Canadian government to limit refugee sponsorships

November 9, 2011

TORONTO - Just as more churches across Canada have geared up to sponsor more refugees, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is planning to cap the number of new applications it will accept in the private sponsorship program. Private Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) do not yet know what their limits will be as of Jan. 1. The government claims it needs to stop the annual flood of new applications to clear a backlog of 23,200 refugees with sponsors waiting in Canada. “In some missions, refugees sponsored through the SAH stream must wait for almost five years before coming to Canada,” a CIC spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to The Catholic Register. “Limiting new applications will allow us to draw down the backlog and improve wait times.”

"The Future of Religion in a Secular Age" - writers say faith requires intelligence

November 9, 2011

TORONTO - With a title like “The Future of Religion in a Secular Age” the evening of high-minded talk on the campus of the University of Toronto might have been an invitation to religious hand-wringing. The new atheists, religious illiteracy, technology, loneliness, multiculturalism and community breakdown were all on the agenda. But with humour and insight two of the most prolific and thoughtful religious writers alive used the evening to affirm that faith requires intelligence. “Think of me as a lapsed heretic,” said England’s Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

Monarchy succession change no big deal - O’Donoghue

November 9, 2011

TORONTO - The Commonwealth decision to let Catholics marry into the Royal Family but still exclude them from the throne doesn’t much impress Tony O’Donoghue. “Big deal,” said an underwhelmed O’Donoghue as he works away on a book about everything that’s wrong with Canada’s constitutional monarchy. “Just allowing whoever is in line for the throne to marry a Catholic, is that a big deal? I think that’s a lot of B.S.” O’Donoghue managed to get the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2003 to rule on the constitutional validity of the 1701 Act of Settlement, one of several laws that determine who may or may not be monarch. He wanted the Act of Settlement, which forms part of Canada’s Constitution, declared unconstitutional and invalid.

Stories from the path of Abraham

November 9, 2011

TORONTO - They won’t all agree, but they will acknowledge the common ground, if only because they’ve walked it together. Franciscan Friar of the Atonement Father Damian MacPherson, Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton and Imam Abdul Hai Patel travelled together with an interfaith band of pilgrims to the Holy Land in September. Now they’re ready to report back. The four leaders will present a panel discussion called “Walking the Path of Abraham” at the Scarboro Missions headquarters, 2685 Kingston Rd., in Toronto Nov. 29, at 7 p.m.

The Vatican's global economy - ‘Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish,’ or timely, pertinent, reasonable?

November 6, 2011

Thinking in catholic terms about a global economy ought to be natural. Catholic means global, universal, transcending boundaries. But a Catholic proposal for regulating the global economy has stirred a battle between left and right within the Church. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s “note” — issued in advance of the G20 meeting that opened Nov. 3 in Cannes, France — proposed a gradual evolution toward global governance of finance and trade. On the right the proposal has been dismissed as “rubbish, rubbish, rubbish” by American conservative George Weigel of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Centre. Weigel dismisses the Pontifical Council as “a rather small office in the Roman Curia” without much standing in relation to the teaching office of the Church.

Galway choir gets a glimpse of Toronto's Irish past

November 3, 2011

TORONTO - Perhaps they weren't all saints. But they're all together in Toronto's historic St. Michael's Cemetery. A touring Irish choir from County Galway got a glimpse at Toronto's Irish history touring the monuments at the mid-town cemetery on All Saints Day, Nov. 1. The Dunmore Church Choir was in Toronto to perform a benefit concert for L'Arche Toronto and a concert at St. Paul's Basilica. But time out to investigate the part of Irish history that had reached across the ocean in the 19th century was welcome, said tenor Martin Silke. "We survived. They were the pioneers," said Silke. "They must have been horrendously brave people, if you can imagine crossing the ocean in a 20-metre boat into the unknown. It's important to remember."

Many options, but Catholics still opting for tradition

November 2, 2011

TORONTO - The future of getting buried is all about choice, but the more choices you have to make the greater the need for planning. “Pre-planning your estate and final burial options is important,” said Amy Profenna of Catholic Cemeteries, Archdiocese of Toronto. “You’re taking a lot of important decisions out of an emotionally stressful time (for your family).” The majority of Catholic Cemeteries funerals are still caskets buried in the ground. This may sound straight-forward, but there are still choices to be made, said Profenna.

Social media is ShareLife’s new door-to-door canvass

November 2, 2011

Facebook can’t replace a human face, but it can bring it closer. ShareLife, the charitable fundraising arm of the archdiocese of Toronto, relies on human faces to get its message out and bring dollars in. But social media — including Facebook and Twitter — are bringing in more and more dollars and reaching out to more and more donors. “ShareLife began as a grassroots movement with people canvassing door-to-door,” said ShareLife communications manager Bill Steinburg.