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March 2008

March 20

Galileo to make Vatican return

March 20, 2008

VATICAN CITY - Four centuries after he was called by church officials to retract theories deemed suspect of heresy, the 17th-century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei will be returning to Vatican City.

To be an Easter people

March 20, 2008

What does it mean to be an Easter people? The Creed will give us some clues. Crafted as a testimony to the far-reaching significance of the presence in our midst of the Risen Lord, the Creed is our particular take on reality that in turn sets the course of our lives. It makes categorical claims about how we understand God, creation, humanity, the culmination of human history and the ultimate meaning of existence.

A new look at international development

March 20, 2008

Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail by Paul Polak (BK Currents, hardcover, 232 pages, $32). Paul Polak is convinced he has found the solution to help some 800 million dollar-a-day farmers climb out of poverty. So, he wrote a book about it for all to learn: Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail.

Catholic system is here to stay

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Kathleen Wynne put a positive spin on the bitter debate over confessional education during the fall election campaign in a speech to Catholic teachers at their annual union meeting in Toronto March 9.

Teachers need to form future leaders

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Senator Romeo Dallaire wants teachers to save Canada. According to the retired general who led United Nations peacekeepers during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the only thing that can save this country from cynicism, apathy and petty regionalism is leadership.

Province-wide teacher negotiations a no-go

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Just because provincial education bureaucrats and top union officials are sitting down together in meeting rooms talking about wages and benefits with an eye toward another four-year deal doesn’t mean Ontario has embraced province-wide bargaining with teachers’ unions, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

Canadian natives wait while Aussies celebrate apology

March 20, 2008

While Canada’s native people wait for an official government apology for the residential schools, Australian aboriginal people are celebrating their government’s willingness to say sorry.

Assisted suicide bill on the horizon

March 20, 2008

OTTAWA - Work is underway on a draft assisted-suicide and euthanasia bill and on a new test case to challenge the Sue Rodriguez Supreme Court of Canada ruling.

P.E.I. youth join to make a difference

March 20, 2008

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - A number of youth in Summerside gathered near the end of February at the local Presbyterian church to celebrate their faith ecumenically at the Make a Difference Rally.

Tattoos, body piercings and the church

March 20, 2008

Victoria Laaber goes to Mass every week and is an active part of her parish youth group. She also happens to have piercings on her nose and tongue, as well as a tattoo.

Some bastion of free speech

March 20, 2008

It is ironic to me that university institutions whose primary goal is to foster curiosity and the thirst for knowledge should work so hard to stifle groups and messages which run contrary to its politically correct ideology.

York U abortion debate back on

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - An on-again, off-again debate on abortion that was thought to be of interest to only a few dozen students at York University, but later ended up receiving headlines in major newspapers across the country, is apparently on again.

Becoming a priest

March 20, 2008

Editor's note: Below is a series of short profiles on the men who will be graduating this year from St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto. They will be ordained to the priesthood for different dioceses in Canada.

Move to replace ousted trustee causes controversy

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Toronto’s Catholic school board may or may not hold an election to replace a trustee accused of passing off personal spending as board expenses then turfed for failing to show up for four meetings in a row.

Catholic printer honoured by Jewish groups

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Jews and Catholics sat down together in Toronto to raise a glass to Tony Gagliano, St. Joseph Press executive chairman and chief executive officer March 6.

Focolare founder Chiara Lubich dies

March 20, 2008

ROME - Chiara Lubich, the 88-year-old founder and perpetually smiling symbol of the Focolare movement, died early March 14 in her room near the Focolare headquarters in Rocca di Papa, south of Rome.

May Easter rituals deepen faith: Pope

March 20, 2008

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said he hoped the church's Holy Week and Easter rituals would help deepen all Catholics' conversion to Christ and their solidarity with those who suffer.

March 21

Violence won't solve Tibet problems, says Pope

March 21, 2008

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI asked that dialogue and tolerance replace the tensions and violence that recently erupted in Tibet.

March 25

Threat of Iraq without Christians is real - Canada's response

March 25, 2008

TORONTO - With martyred Archbishop Paulos Rahho’s portrait on display before the altar, 1,000 Chaldean Catholics gathered at Toronto’s Good Shepherd Chaldean parish March 14 to pray the Stations of the Cross in ancient Syriac, a language directly descended from Jesus’ own Aramaic tongue.

Dementia sufferers need protection

March 25, 2008

TORONTO - How do you come up with a cure for Alzheimer’s if the people who have the disease can’t give informed consent to take experimental drugs that might improve their condition? Fr. Noel Simard, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and director of Saint Paul University’s Centre for Ethics in Ottawa, doesn’t think anyone is going to propose an easy answer to that question.