Michael Swan

Toronto archdiocese's abuse protocol committee ready to get to work

May 6, 2010

Fr. Brian Clough [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/cloughfrbrian.jpg]TORONTO - From a clinical psychologist who treats and researches sex abusers to a social worker who has spent 22 years protecting children in the child welfare system, the archdiocese of Toronto now has a team ready to thoroughly review its policies in cases of priestly sex abuse. “I’ve asked people to come to the first meeting (during the second week of May) with their suggestions and difficulties and so on,” said archdiocese of Toronto judicial vicar Fr. Brian Clough. “They’re bringing different backgrounds and different viewpoints and we’re going to have to listen.”

KAIROS reapplies for CIDA funding

April 29, 2010

Mary Corkery [images/stories/canada/canada10/corkerymary.jpg]With a $100,000 lifeline from the United Church of Canada, Canada’s ecumenical justice coalition KAIROS has until fall to either restart its international programs with new federal funding or reshape itself as a smaller, more domestically focussed organization. KAIROS has reapplied to the Canadian International Development Agency to restore some of the funding that was cut off Nov. 30. At the time CIDA officials claimed KAIROS’ regular five-year funding agreement was rejected because the church-based group’s international program no longer fit CIDA priorities. However, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told a conference in Jerusalem his government had cut KAIROS funding because it supported anti-Semitism.

Rose of Sharon has helped teen mothers for 25 years

April 29, 2010

Rose of Sharon [images/stories/features/feature10/rosseOfSharon.jpg]NEWMARKET, Ont. - When Tabatha Spooner was 16 years old she imagined herself becoming a dance instructor. That was when she was just a kid. Now, she has a kid. His name is Joshua Crilly and he’s 14 months old. Having a child has changed a lot of things in 19-year-old Spooner’s life. The biggest change is her mind.

Iraqi children find a home in Toronto school

April 29, 2010

St. Andrew’s Schoool [images/stories/education/education10/pupils.jpg]TORONTO - Like most refugees in Canada, Khulood Jarjass appreciates her new homeland for its relative safety, the freedom, the opportunity to dream again of a future for herself and her family. But what really excites the mother of three and former high school math teacher is a free Catholic education for her kids. “When I heard in Canada it’s free — Oh my God!” she said. “I was so happy.” Her kids range in age from seven to 13, Grades 2 to 7, all in St. Andrew’s in Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood. The Jarjass kids spent a year-and-a-half in crowded Syrian classrooms with a mass of other refugee students. Their teachers couldn’t help but look at the Iraqi students as an added burden and the Syrian kids saw the Iraqis as invaders in their schools. Syrian and Iraqi kids fought in and out of the classrooms.

Economy to blame as ShareLife slashed funding to D&P

April 29, 2010

ShareLife and D&P [images/stories/logos/logos10/shareLifeDP.jpg]TORONTO - The archdiocese of Toronto is giving 20-per-cent less to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace this year because ShareLife fell short of its fundraising goal last year and the recession has hit local Catholic agencies with increased demand for services. The ShareLife advisory board cut its allocation to Development and Peace to $900,000 this year, a $225,000 reduction from last year’s contribution of $1.125 million.

Youth voice needed in social justice reforms

April 26, 2010

Bishop McGrattan and Fr. Costello [images/stories/ysn/ysn10/mcgrattancostello.jpg]TORONTO - A Newman Centre evening aimed at revitalizing Catholic social justice work in downtown Toronto got people talking mainly about who wasn’t there. The April 19 gathering of about 60 people for Mass, potluck dinner and discussion was supposed to draw young people, but couldn’t compete with exams, the start of summer jobs, moving dates and all the other commitments students face in the spring. When Jesuit Father Jack Costello looked out at the grey-haired crowd in the Newman Centre chapel he said he would have to adjust his homily to fit an older crowd than he had expected.

For food banks, recession still hits hard

April 26, 2010

Food Bank [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/foodBankFeeley.jpg]TORONTO - Report On Business declares the recession is over. Down at the food bank it’s just getting up a head of steam. “There are more people going to food banks and less food being donated, both by individuals as well as our corporate partners,” Ontario Association of Food Banks executive director Adam Spence told The Catholic Register. “Those two items come together to make it a very challenging time for food banks.”

Quality of Jesuit novices more impressive than quantity

April 26, 2010

Fr. Jim Webb [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/WebbMass.jpg]MAPLE, Ont. - Jesuit provincial superior for English Canada Fr. Jim Webb could hardly wait to hit a few hundred guests at the annual Provincial’s Dinner April 14 with a piece of good news. “This year we have nine novices, the most in 20 years,” announced Webb to a round of applause. It’s the kind of news bound to hearten elders in the Jesuit community, such as Fr. Jacques Monet, who entered the Society of Jesus Sept. 7, 1949. But it’s not just about numbers, said Monet.

Hope running out for Iraqi Christians

April 23, 2010

Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. [images/stories/canada_bishops/prendergast08.jpg]Time is running out on people’s hopes for a tolerant Middle East where the Christian minorities can live in peace, said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., on returning from a trip to Lebanon and Syria. “We have to create a climate now for the Christians to stay, for the Christians to go back to Iraq and go back to the villages in Galilee. That’s the hope,” said Prendergast.

A lens in the labyrinth of the refugee slums

April 20, 2010

Refugee Children [images/stories/features/iraqExodus/refugeeChildren.jpg]Take a look at Za Aytiryya, the neighbourhood where Iraqi Christian refugees live in Beirut. Or take a tour the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus for a glimpse of a Muslim world. Or meet the child refugees whose lives are also on hold, waiting for resettlement. These three slide shows give another view of the shrinking world of Iraqi refugees.