Michael Swan

Stemming the exodus of Israeli Christians

September 25, 2009

TORONTO - Avishay Braverman, Israel’s Minister of Minorities, is as good a Jew, as Jewish a Jew, as anyone could hope to meet. And he’s praying that “the Spirit of Jesus” will guide the leaders of Israel and its neighbours over the coming months and years. “The basis of religion is not about domination. People often take religion and abuse it for domination,” Braverman told The Catholic Register while on a stopover in Toronto Sept. 15. “It’s about acceptance.”

Canadian fertility rates up, but not high enough

September 24, 2009

More women are having more babies, but still not enough to sustain Canada's population, reports Statistics Canada. The latest numbers are from 2007 and show a 3.7-per-cent increase in births over 2006. It's the fastest increase in the birth rate since 1989. The question for some observers is whether the uptick in births has anything to do with public, government policy.

Faiths unite in support of organ donation

September 22, 2009

TORONTO - In an age when medicine and religion seem to frequently collide, the three Abrahamic faiths and medical science have found common ground on organ donations. On Sept. 20, the archdiocese of Toronto will distribute 200,000 brochures to parishes explaining the theology, science and morality of organ donation. But they won't be alone.

Loretto Sisters going green

September 21, 2009

TORONTO - Eight years and $5.2 million later, the Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary look on the big blue bank of solar panels gracing the roof of Loretto College and know that it is more than worth the trouble. “It’s God’s planet and we need to take care of it,” explained mother superior Sr. Evanne Hunter.

Reasons behind the fast

September 18, 2009

What’s a fast for? As Muslims make their way through the month of Ramadan and Jews get ready for Yom Kippur, that simple question can prompt many answers — depending on your point of view. “People do stuff like not eat in a very scrupulous way in order to avoid having to go to the trouble of being good people,” said Dan Merkur, psychoanalyst and University of Toronto lecturer in comparative religious studies.

Tamil refugee boy in immigration limbo

September 18, 2009

TORONTO - Since July 31 Citizenship and Immigration Canada has been unable to decide whether a 14-year-old refugee abandoned and alone in an African city of three million is an urgent case. The Tamil boy is a refugee from Sri Lanka’s bitter ethnic war. He doesn’t know whether his family is alive in Sri Lanka’s monsoon-soaked camps or dead. Nobody has heard from them since April and a Red Cross search has so far turned up nothing. Alone in Accra, Ghana, the boy can’t speak English, is frequently bullied and depressed.

Berrigan's God overcomes all other gods

September 17, 2009

Long before Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan became famous for getting arrested — the “radical priest” in Paul Simon’s song “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” — he was a poet, a man of letters and imagination. At 88 Berrigan can still combine words in ways that startle readers awake. Which doesn’t mean that he’s given up getting arrested. This man with eight others burned 378 stolen draft files using homemade napalm in 1968. He hammered on nuclear missiles then poured his own blood on documents and files at the bomb-maker’s headquarters in 1980. When U.S. President George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq in 2002, Berrigan decided to sit in at the Times Square recruiting office in Manhattan, getting arrested along with several of his students.

LifeSite accused of fuelling web war on Salt+Light

September 17, 2009

TORONTO - Salt+Light Television CEO Fr. Tom Rosica has reacted to daily threats against his life, reputation and ministry, blaming LifeSiteNews for stirring up “division, destruction, hatred, vitriol, judgment and violence.” Since controversy erupted over Senator Ted Kennedy’s funeral in Boston, e-mails and blog postings directed at Rosica have included: “Your grave is dug”; “We will bring down your network”; “We will force you to resign”; and “We will get the Vatican to rescind your appointment.”

Toronto artist, Farhad Nargol-O’Neill, aims for 2011 Venice Biennale

September 11, 2009

TORONTO - For some artists the idea of devotional art may be laughable — an obscure subspecies of Hallmark greeting card imagery with no purpose other than to excite shallow sentiment. But for Toronto sculptor and painter Farhad Nargol-O’Neill there’s no such thing as meaningful art without devotion. “Creation of art is an act of devotion,” Nargol-O’Neill told The Catholic Register on a recent visit to his studio.

Church needs to use technology to its advantage

September 11, 2009

If every modern church has a box full of microphones and a covey of speakers perched around the sanctuary, why do so many people complain they can’t hear the readings, the prayers or the homily? “I’ve seen around the world a kind of misuse of technology where it becomes counterproductive,” said Richard Osicki, a Winnipeg communications consultant and Catholic studies lecturer. “It distracts. It emphasizes things they don’t intend to emphasize — priests forgetting to turn on their microphones or blasting through the microphone.”