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May 2008

May 20

Toronto board's culture of entitlement exposed

May 20, 2008

TORONTO - Having spent $900,000 on questionable expenses in 2007, Toronto’s Catholic school trustees face a political crisis. “If the perception is that the board is frittering the money away on things that aren’t prescribed under the legislation it makes it difficult for us to win the public relations battle with the Minister (of Education) over underfunding. That’s a given,” said newly appointed Ward 6 trustee Rob Davis.

May 21

Seven ordained for Toronto archdiocese

May 21, 2008

TORONTO - It’s not a job, it’s a mission. The seven Toronto men ordained to the priesthood May 10 were sent out on their respective missions even before Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins laid hands on them to make them eternally priests in service of the sacrament of the church.

Neil McNeil celebrates 50 years of Spiritan way

May 21, 2008

TORONTO - Fifty years have passed since Irish priests from the Spiritan order founded Neil McNeil Catholic High School, an all-boys’ Catholic school in Toronto’s east end.

Fr. Lynch to lead Priests for Life

May 21, 2008

TORONTO - Fr. Thomas Lynch, a well-known pro-life advocate in Canada, has been appointed national director for Priests for Life Canada, the organization announced May 8.

Toronto CWL takes on poverty, speeders

May 21, 2008

TORONTO - The Catholic Women’s League (CWL) of the Toronto archdiocese moved to forward resolutions on speeding and poverty to the provincial level at its annual convention held in Richmond Hill.

Pro-life cause new civil rights movement

May 21, 2008

OTTAWA - The pro-life movement is the civil rights movement of today. That was the message of the 11th annual National March for Life that drew 7,800 to Parliament Hill May 8. “We now treat unborn babies like blacks were treated,” Alveda King, the daughter of civil rights activist Rev. A.D. King and niece of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. told a news conference sponsored by the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus.

Objectivity and being Catholic

May 21, 2008

One of the first journalism lectures I ever attended emphasized the importance of non-partisanship on the part of the reporter.

A taste of Africa at OCY banquet

May 21, 2008

TORONTO - When the theme for this year’s annual Catholic youth banquet was announced a year ago, Abigail Iseyemi, 17, said she started thinking right away about what she would wear. Although born in Canada, Iseyemi appreciates her parent’s Nigerian traditions and was eager to share that with other young Catholics.

Youth March for Life

May 21, 2008

OTTAWA - For many youth attending their first annual March for Life in Ottawa May 8-9, the experience of solidarity with other pro-life students was overwhelming. Joining about 7,800 other youth, adults and religious, many teens invented chants such as “They ask us who we are? PRO-LIFE. They want to know what we know? PRO-LIFE,” which they repeated over and over through the streets of downtown Ottawa.

Clear answers in the moral chaos

May 21, 2008

Bioethics Matters: A Guide for Concerned Catholics, by Moira McQueen, (Novalis, 105 pages, softcover, $9.95). Pope John Paul II accomplished many things as pontiff, but one of the most important for the long term is clarity — something Benedict XVI has also worked at to good effect.

Sacred icon exhibit opens in Unionville

May 21, 2008

UNIONVILLE, Ont. - Visitors to Unionville’s Varley Gallery will find a unique religious exhibit this summer. More than 150 sacred icons from mainly private collections will be on display until Sept. 1.

God does not conform to human understanding

May 21, 2008

Trinity Sunday (Year A), May 18 (Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; Daniel 3; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18) A sudden change in perspective or a new view of reality can be shocking and unsettling for many. Suddenly the conventional wisdom is no longer so wise, and reality is far more complicated than we ever imagined.

Jesus is the source of life, sustenance

May 21, 2008

Body and Blood of Christ (Year A) May 25 (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-59) Meeting the demands of hunger and thirst is the most basic of human drives. Physical survival must be ensured before people turn to those things we consider of a higher nature: self-expression, society, culture, the quest for knowledge and so on. And yet there seems to be a problem right from the beginning of human history as recorded in the Bible. Humans allow hunger and thirst — the basic drives of life — to crowd out and obliterate their relationship with God.

St. Basil's development touches a nerve

May 21, 2008

The residential towers now sprouting up across downtown Toronto regularly rouse the ire of citizens. People don’t like these structures for all kinds of reasons: because they cast long shadows, because they increase local traffic, because they make bad fits with the often low-rise neighbourhoods that surround them. But until now, I’ve never heard people objecting to a high-rise development because it threatens to eat up a parking lot.

Restoring credibility

May 21, 2008

No one says being an Ontario Catholic school trustee in these times is easy. The vast majority of trustees recognize, too, that theirs is a vocation with few rewards and a grinding workload. So the temptation to ease that burden in questionable ways may be understandable — even as succumbing to it is never acceptable.

May 22

Busy summer ahead for Habitat for Humanity

May 22, 2008

TORONTO - It isn’t rocket science, just sweat and elbow grease. But the result is families with a home. Habitat for Humanity is gearing up for another summer of constructing homes for families who are under-housed — giving parents and their children a place in the community and a secure environment where they can grow up.

MP asks justice committee to investigate rights commission

May 22, 2008

OTTAWA - Liberal MP Keith Martin has asked the House of Commons justice committee to hold televised hearings on the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the law that governs it.

Protest upstages good news for Goldcorp investors

May 22, 2008

TORONTO - Protesters lined the street outside Toronto’s King Edward Hotel May 20, and dominated the microphones inside Goldcorp Inc.’s annual general meeting, putting the world’s second largest gold producer on the defensive over its human rights and environmental record in Guatemala and Honduras.

Toronto Imam addresses Interfaith Dinner

May 22, 2008

TORONTO - For 21 years the Annual Neighbourhood Interfaith Dinner sponsored by mostly wealthy congregations of Rosedale, Moore Park and Forest Hill has meant Christians and Jews breaking bread together. For the 22nd annual dinner May 14 it meant more.

Three days of mourning for Chinese quake victims

May 22, 2008

CHENGDU, China - Catholics joined other Chinese in observing three minutes of silence May 19 to pray for and mourn those killed by the earthquake that hit southwestern China a week earlier. The Chinese government declared an unprecedented three-day period of national mourning May 19-21 for victims of the magnitude 7.9 quake. Entertainment businesses were to be closed and the Beijing Olympics torch relay in Zhejiang and Shanghai was suspended until May 22, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency.