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April 2009

April 24

Nuclear deterrence theories are obsolete

April 24, 2009

Most people in 21 countries, nuclear-armed and not, now support the elimination of nuclear weapons, according to a survey conducted late last year by the Washington-based polling organization World Public Opinion. In 20 of the 21 nations surveyed — the total included Canada, the United States, Russia and most European powers — majorities ranging in size from 62 to 93 per cent favoured an international agreement that would lead to the destruction of existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons and halt the spread of nuclear weapons technology to countries that don’t have it. (The single exception to this pattern was Pakistan, where only 46 per cent favoured such a scheme.)

Jesus won't disappoint us

April 24, 2009

Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B) May 3 (Acts 4:7-12; Psalm 118; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18) In struggles for survival and power intelligent and compassionate dialogue is often the first victim. Words uttered or written in the heat and polemics of the moment can have a negative and even dangerous afterlife.

Why did God become human?

April 24, 2009

While in school, I did a few jobs along the way. (It’s always good to have paying jobs to help avoid getting down to thesis work.) One I enjoyed was teaching theology to Catholic teachers. After one class on Christology, a teacher-student said to me, quite seriously: “Are you saying the church teaches that Jesus was actually God? That God really became a human person? I don’t know if I believe that!” Bill listened so well, really taking in church doctrine, and actually let the question be raised in himself.

Toronto Board trying to save St. Joseph's Morrow Park

April 24, 2009

TORONTO - When Grade 12 student Vanessa Tillner graduates this year, she could be one of the last students to do so at the original site of St. Joseph’s Morrow Park High School. Next year, the school celebrates its 50th anniversary at its Bayview Avenue site in the northern reaches of the city. But the Toronto Catholic District School Board says if the school’s current lease isn’t renegotiated, there will be a new all-girls school for future graduates.

Former Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee Oliver Carroll must pay for legal fees

April 24, 2009

TORONTO - A judge has ordered former Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee Oliver Carroll to pay close to $50,000 to help cover legal fees of the ratepayer who brought conflict-of-interest charges against him. Ontario Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly ruled on April 15 that Carroll must pay $46,420 within six months. The amount will cover some of the legal costs of Catholic ratepayer Michael Baillargeon who brought the charges against Carroll.

Secure in His hands

April 24, 2009

Faith is defined as a secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God’s will. I haven’t had to rely on pure faith very often. I have a secure and content life with very little uncertainty. People talk about taking “leaps of faith,” but I cannot recall any instances when I’ve been required to do so. However, I will soon be entering the age where I am no longer living at home and am confronted with the adult world.

Ontario Trustees to meet May 7-9

April 24, 2009

TORONTO - Catholic faith plays a key role in student success, says American education researcher Fr. Ronald Nuzzi. Nuzzi, director of the University of Notre Dame University’s Alliance for Catholic Education, will be the keynote speaker at the 79th annual conference of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association. The conference’s main theme is “Catholic Education — Good News for All.” It is scheduled from May 7 to 9 in Toronto.

April 27

Ontario Catholic Education Week extends beyond class

April 27, 2009

Parishes across Ontario are being invited to support Catholic Education Week by getting involved with school activities, reflecting on the significant contribution made to the church and to society by Catholic education and by participating in prayer celebrations being held across the province. The week of May 3-9 has been designated as Catholic Education Week in Ontario, but the celebration extends beyond classrooms. Parishes are being asked to include a notice in Sunday bulletins to invite parishioners to become involved.

Caregiving of seniors creates a range of emotions

April 27, 2009

In approximately one-quarter of Canadian households, care is provided to one or more people aged 50 plus. Caring for a chronically ill relative involves physical, psychological, emotional and financial demands. Typically, caregivers experience a variety of distressing emotions along the way. They may feel guilty because, unlike their relative, they enjoy relatively good health, they have mixed feelings about being a caregiver, they sometimes lose patience, they made a promise that they would never place their relative in long-term care and they’re not sure if they can keep it. Resentment may occur because caregivers have had to make personal and financial sacrifices, their relative has treated them badly in the past, their relative is demanding and critical and they don’t feel appreciated, family members aren’t pitching in or family members are critical of their care provision.

Celebrating a legacy of inclusion in North York

April 27, 2009

TORONTO - A committee that laid the blueprints for race and ethnicity policies across the city and province 30 years ago will be honoured May 7 at the North York Civic Centre. A memorial wall designed in the council chamber will feature a tribute to the original members who served North York’s Committee on Community and Race Relations, including Fr. Massey Lombardi, pastor of St. Wilfred’s parish in northwest Toronto. Lombardi, one time director of the office of social action office for the archdiocese of Toronto, was to speak about the committee’s contribution to public institutions of the Greater Toronto Area like the Catholic school boards and beyond.

Teens share values, morals, ethics

April 27, 2009

TORONTO - Senator O’Connor College High School in North York hosted its fifth annual Building Bridges — Bridging the Gap event April 14. With a theme of “What would Jesus Do?” the aim was to ease Grade eight students in the transition to high school, explain to the 285 students attending what it means to be a healthy citizen and teach them how God made everyone unique and for a reason.

Teens 'lift Jesus higher' in Toronto

April 27, 2009

TORONTO - Hundreds of Ontario youth congregated in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for fellowship and praise at Catholic Renewal Ministries’ Lift Jesus Higher Youth Rally April 18. This annual event, held in conjunction with the adult rally, drew 1,500 youth to celebrate this year’s theme, Divine Mercy. Fifteen-year-old Oriana Vanderfleet, from St. John of the Cross parish in Mississauga, said she attended the all-day rally because it would be an interesting experience.

Richard Neuhaus faces Babylon

April 27, 2009

American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile, by Richard John Neuhaus (Basic Books, hardcover, 288 pages, $31). You won’t enjoy American Babylon if (a) you’re not loyal American, (b) you didn’t support the Bush administration agenda, or (c) you can get through your day without a pressing need to disparage the philosophy of Richard Rorty and other “liberal ironists.” The book’s title is provocative in itself — as was its author, the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. The historic Babylon is located just outside Baghdad, where there is nothing more than a series of mounds and ruins, the place having been destroyed by the armies of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. Babylon is mentioned many times and in several symbolic ways in the Bible. About 600 years before Christ, the Babylonian dynasty attacked the kingdom of Judah, captured Jerusalem and exiled the Israelites.

Jesus as Torah: a Jewish-Christian dialogue

April 27, 2009

Catholics and Jews care about the same world, pray to the same God, hope for the same resurrection and yet often live their lives as strangers to one another. That’s a shame. Most Catholics and most Jews wish we understood each other better. Redemptorist Father Paul Hansen and modern Orthodox Rabbi Roy Tanenbaum both know overcoming that separation isn’t just a matter of learning a few details of the traditions and theology on the other side. Understanding each other means understanding ourselves more deeply — knowing the roots of our Catholic and Jewish identities. The Toronto rabbi and priest exchanged the e-mails below just before Easter and Passover — the two principle celebrations of Christianity and Judaism that fell within four days of each other this year. The e-mails are a fragment of a vast conversation between Christians and Jews that has been growing since the end of the Second World War — a conversation launched into deeper water by the Second Vatican Council. With the help of Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto, they are inviting Catholic Register readers into the conversation.

UN conference exploited for extremist remarks

April 27, 2009

VATICAN CITY - An international conference dedicated to combating racism unfortunately was used as a platform for taking "extreme and offensive political positions the Holy See deplores and rejects," said the chief Vatican representative to UN agencies in Geneva. The Durban Review Conference was meant to be an "occasion to set aside mutual difference and mistrust; reject once more any theory of racial or ethnic superiority; and renew the international community's commitment to the elimination of all expressions of racism," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

April 28

Catholics to take over Toronto's Dundas Square

April 28, 2009

TORONTO - When St. Paul spoke in the Areopagus, he proclaimed to the Athenians that the “unknown God” they honoured with an altar was in fact the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this biblical passage that the archbishop of Toronto will present to the public in a prayerful meditation at the heart of the city — beside the bustling Eaton Centre in Dundas Square at Yonge and Dundas Streets May 17. The event caps off the church's year-long celebration of St. Paul.

April 29

Greater need brings cutbacks to Toronto shelter

April 29, 2009

TORONTO - The Good Shepherd Centre has cancelled lunch and dinner under pressure from another big jump in homeless and near-homeless people on its doorstep. From now on the centre will serve one meal a day between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The new serving hours are not a cutback, but rather an attempt to serve more meals to more clients in response to a crush of new needs. Good Shepherd Ministries executive director Br. David Lynch of the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd isn’t sure he can attribute a 25-per-cent increase in demand for meals to the deteriorating economy. He finds more immediate and concrete reasons for the lengthening lineup outside the Good Shepherd’s Queen Street East door. [data:image/png;base64,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]

Canadian Bishops’ intervention heard on reproduction act

April 29, 2009

OTTAWA - The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has joined the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada to intervene in a Supreme Court challenge of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. The challenge was launched by the Attorney General of Quebec and is supported by the provinces of New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The challenge was heard at the court April 24. The legislation was enacted in 2004. [data:image/png;base64,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]

Pope expresses sorrow for Canadian native abuses

April 29, 2009

VATICAN CITY - In a step toward reconciling a long-standing historical injustice, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sorrow for the suffering of Canadian aboriginal children over decades in church-run residential schools. The Pope met at the Vatican April 29 with a delegation of native Canadians representing those who had suffered forced acculturation and in some cases physical and sexual abuse at the government schools, many run by Catholics, and listened to their grievances.

April 30

Our Lady of Guadalupe's intercession sought to fight swine flu

April 30, 2009

MEXICO CITY - Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe and cancelled Masses in the archdiocese April 26 due to an outbreak of swine flu. The decision to cancel Masses followed instructions from the local health secretariat that all large gatherings be cancelled as authorities raced to contain an epidemic that threatened to spread well beyond Mexico.