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March 2008

March 7

Generosity fills a genuine need

March 7, 2008

During Lent, we are called as Catholics to renew our commitment to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In the archdiocese of Toronto, the Catholic community comes together to support the most vulnerable and needy in our communities through ShareLife.

Resist the culture of death

March 7, 2008

The culture of death hates the Catholic Church, with good reason. We stand for life in all its fullness, beauty and possibility, perhaps never before more actively and consistently than we do right now.

Suffering for others a sign of faith

March 7, 2008

Passion Sunday (Year A), March 16, 2008 (Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66) We can endure almost anything if we know that we are doing what is right and that our suffering has meaning. The Suffering Servant figure in Isaiah’s prophecy was one such individual.

Tolle's 'New 'Earth' pains the body

March 7, 2008

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle (Plume, 315 pages, $15.50). A New Earth has attracted notoriety thanks to the patronage of TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey. It is a profoundly non-Christian book that exploits the Holy Name of Jesus to bamboozle Oprah’s mostly Christian audience.

Serra honours 2008 ordinandi

March 7, 2008

TORONTO - More than 1,200 Catholics from around the archdiocese of Toronto gathered March 4 to celebrate their very own “Men of the Eucharist” at the 18th annual Ordinandi Dinner.

Dufferin-Peel adds disclaimer to Golden Compass

March 7, 2008

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Where Halton opted for a ban, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has decided to go with a note.

March 10

Sisters' Jubilee project gets go ahead

March 10, 2008

TORONTO - Toronto’s religious sisters have reason for some jubilation over their jubilee project almost nine years after they started. The way has been cleared for construction of 54 affordable homes on an unused plot of land in Toronto’s southeast corner, at Lawrence Avenue and Manse Road.

New Jesuit leader has strong social justice background

March 10, 2008

TORONTO - For the next six years Canada’s English-speaking Jesuits will be under the direction of a man known for a life-long commitment to the poor.

Saving the planet part of the faith

March 10, 2008

Editor's note: Canada's Catholic bishops have waded into the national debate over global warming. On March 7, the social affairs commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released its new statement called Our Relationship with the Environment: The Need for Conversion. In this document, the bishops insist that Christians must lead a global effort to curb mass consumption and our governments must develop concrete plans to reduce pollution. For the complete text of the statement can be downloaded in pdf format here. For our own report on the issue, read below.

Finding peace in tragedy

March 10, 2008

I believe that nothing can happen that God does not will, and all things work to the good of those who love God — even in the midst of tragedy.

Making a difference one recycled can at a time

March 10, 2008

BRAMPTON, Ont. - Ian McGillivray single-handedly became his high school’s recycling program after he noticed it didn’t have one.

Rev. Ian Paisley to resign in Northern Ireland

March 10, 2008

DUBLIN, Ireland - Although some Catholics still remember the Rev. Ian Paisley's diatribes against Catholics, other praised the progress of the Protestant minister who became the highest official in the Northern Ireland government.

March 13

Pope condemns killing of Iraqi archbishop

March 13, 2008

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI called the kidnapping and death of an Iraqi archbishop "an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being and seriously harms the ... co-existence among the beloved Iraqi people."

March 18

Good News

March 18, 2008

Lent started early in February and Easter has arrived even as Canada, at least in Toronto enivrons, is still struggling to shake off winter. The crocuses and snowbells have only just begun to do their annual teasing that warm weather is finally on its way, and suddenly, it’s Easter.

March 19

Afghanistan vote counterproductive, say peace activists

March 19, 2008

TORONTO – Parliament's vote to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan to 2011 has not advanced the cause of peace, according to Pax Christi U.S.A. and Canadian affiliates of Pax Christi International.

What Latimer ruling means to Catholics

March 19, 2008

As a father of a severely mentally disabled and autistic 21-year-old son (Justin) who suffers from a rare and incurable neurological disease, I would like to share a few reflections on the highly publicized Robert Latimer case and its implications for us as Catholics in our local parishes.

St. Thomas warns of the perils of bling

March 19, 2008

The Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas has its fun parts. Buried right at the end of Part Two, in Question 169, Article 2, Thomas addresses the controversy of “Utrum Ornatus Mulierem Sit Sine Peccato (Whether the Adornment of Women is Devoid of Mortal Sin).”

Faith needs to be learned at home

March 19, 2008

"But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and to your children’s children." Deuteronomy 4:9 This forthright biblical injunction could also be called the great challenge of faith in our time and in our place. This beautiful little passage from Deuteronomy is the First Reading for Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent. In this text, Moses gives the people the statutes and ordinances to follow so that they can live in the promised land. He makes it clear that the people have a special relationship with the Lord because of the exodus, the liberation of the people from slavery in Egypt.

Heaven forbid we have religion in public realm

March 19, 2008

The role of religion in the public realm continues to command the attention and stir the fears of countless numbers. John Waters, the Irish biographer and music columnist, recently observed during an interview over his new book, the autobiographical Lapsed Agnostic, that there are only two subjects in contemporary Ireland that are politically incorrect: Eamon de Valera and God. Has it come to this?

We share in Christ's divine origin, destiny

March 19, 2008

Easter Sunday (Year A) March 23 (Acts 10:34, 36-43; Psalm 118; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18) Peter’s conversation with Cornelius, so unexceptional to us, would have been stunning and even disconcerting to most of his contemporaries. Cornelius belonged to a different nation, ethnic group, religion and system of values. He was also a Roman officer — a member of the hated occupying army — and Peter was not only in his house but was relating to him the wonderful account of God’s power manifested in Jesus.