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May 2008

May 22

D&P partners with Canada Foodgrains Bank

May 22, 2008

TORONTO - The first Catholic project by the Canada Foodgrains Bank will direct $500,000 to Zambian farmers who lost their crops to flooding in December and January.

Jantzi Social Index on rise again

May 22, 2008

TORONTO - After a year of sub-par results the Jantzi Social Index is once again leading the band among Canadian stock indexes.

We please God with forgiveness

May 22, 2008

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) June 1 (Deuteronomy 10:12-13; 11:18, 26-28, 32; Psalm 31; Romans 1:16-17; 3:20-26, 28; Matthew 7:21-27) What is most pleasing to God? Deuteronomy insists that loving and serving God alone, walking in God’s ways, brings happiness and gives life. The author defines loving and serving God as absolute loyalty and a refusal to incline one’s heart or mind towards other gods. Indeed, the Deuteronomist considers idolatry the worst of all possible sins, provoking God’s anger and punishment.

Hope does not disappoint us

May 22, 2008

In a downtown housing complex, I met Anne. Her parents raised her in this place, and since their deaths she’s lived here alone. She’s well-known in the neighbourhood; it’s her home. As a child, she was picked-on, teased and called a “freak” because of a disability. She has a meagre education, partly because she was so unaccepted in school that it was difficult for her to finish, partly because her disability reduced her mental capacities.

Soldier of Canada, soldier of Christ

May 22, 2008

In the controversy surrounding Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan, it is easy to forget that Afghanistan asked Canada to send soldiers and that Canadian soldiers go to Afghanistan voluntarily. I recently spoke with a soldier about this in the Regis College library in Toronto.

Common differences

May 22, 2008

The release of the Bouchard-Taylor report May 22 on reasonable accommodation of religious and ethnic differences in Quebec offered a useful corrective to some of the alarmism creeping into public debate on this issue. As one of the first official and systematic examinations of how Canadians integrate newcomers into our midst, it holds valuable lessons for all of us.

Humankind has unique place in God's plan

May 22, 2008

In April, after four Canadian seal hunters were killed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence when their ship capsized while being towed, the animal rights activist Paul Watson provided a provocative quote. Speaking for his organization, which engages in direct action to protest abuse of marine wildlife, he said: “The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recognizes that the deaths of four sealers is a tragedy but Sea Shepherd also recognizes that the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seal pups is an even greater tragedy.”

May 23

You are never in trouble walking with Jesus

May 23, 2008

It’s 2 a.m. It is that time of the day when a man filled with stress lays in his bed staring at his alarm clock. I ask Jesus to help me sleep, but sleep doesn’t come.

Escaping the valley

May 23, 2008

Are you stuck in a prayer rut and don’t know how to get out? When I was in high school my youth minister said that prayer ruts are the times when one is wandering — or stuck — in a spiritual valley.

Sharing the faith through song

May 23, 2008

OTTAWA - Putting his personal and spiritual reflections to music once again, Joe Zambon successfully released his second CD, You Are I Am.

Teens run for unity, peace

May 23, 2008

TORONTO - Nearly 60 teenagers in the Toronto region spent part of their weekend promoting peace and unity in the 2008 Run4Unity on May 10. While the event, run by members of the Focolare Movement, took place around the world, Toronto youth gathered at St. Jerome’s Catholic Elementary School to participate in games, sports and songs.

May 26

Sisters new ways one with the Earth

May 26, 2008

TORONTO - Though often portrayed as the far-out fringes of Catholic religious life, nuns and sisters who have dedicated themselves to ecological causes actually represent a new kind of traditionalism within the church, according to an American religious studies professor.

May 27

Toronto mayor takes handgun ban proposal to churches

May 27, 2008

TORONTO - Toronto Mayor David Miller wants churches and other faith communities to stick their necks out on behalf of the urban poor who live in the city's most violent neighbourhoods.

May 28

Regis honours papal spokesperson

May 28, 2008

TORONTO - Communication in the Catholic milieu is about bringing people together in friendship, says the newest Doctor of Divinity from Regis College.

May 29

Billion poor threatened by food crisis

May 29, 2008

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican representative said the recent rise in global food prices threatens the lives of the one billion people who spend most of their daily income in search of food.

Groups join to fight Bill C-484

May 29, 2008

OTTAWA - More than 50 organizations, labour unions and groups have lined up against the Unborn Victims of Crime Act that passed second reading in the House of Commons March 5.

Spiritual traditions keep Myanmar's people going

May 29, 2008

TORONTO - The Burmese people have fallen back on their spiritual resources as they struggle to recover from Cyclone Nargis, a source inside the tightly controlled Stalinist state has told The Catholic Register.

Immigration Canada's future

May 29, 2008

WATERLOO, Ont. - Multiculturalism, far from representing a static state, has become an ever-evolving social pattern in Canada. That was the view expressed in a recent talk at St. Jerome’s University by Gregory Baum, professor emeritus at McGill University’s faculty of religious studies.

Province expected to take over school board

May 29, 2008

TORONTO - The chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board says chances are “pretty slim” the elected trustees will not be replaced by a provincially appointed supervisor June 4.

Archdiocese of Toronto clergy appointments

May 29, 2008

The following clergy appointments for the archdiocese of Toronto will take place as of June 25, unless otherwise noted.