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October 2009

October 1

Antigonish bishop expected to surrender to police on child pornography charges

October 1, 2009

OTTAWA - Antigonish Bishop Raymond J. Lahey turned himself in to Ottawa police Oct. 1 to face charges of possession and importation of child pornography. He appeared in court later that day and was released on $9,000 bail and put under strict conditions that include staying away from the Internet. His next court date is Nov. 4. In the meantime, he must stay in Rogersville, N.B.

October 2

Knights founder’s sainthood cause moving forward

October 2, 2009

HARTFORD, Conn.- The cause for sainthood of Fr. Michael McGivney has been moved forward by completion of a supplemental report on a possible miracle attributed to the founder of the Knights of Columbus. On Sept. 22 officials of a supplemental tribunal of the archdiocese of Hartford sent the new report to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The contents of the report remain secret. The tribunal gathered more testimony from additional witnesses, including several medical doctors, about the circumstances of a reported miracle.

Catholic aid making its way to Philippines' flood victims

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - Canadian Catholics are funnelling money as fast as they can to bishops in the Philippines as the dioceses in and around Manila struggle to deal with massive destruction and loss of life left by Typhoon Ketsana. The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace immediately sent $50,000 and set up toll-free phone lines and a web site to accept donations. In Toronto, where a majority of the city’s 172,000 Filipinos are Catholic parishioners, ShareLife is also accepting donations.

Canadian fertility rates up, but still not high enough

October 2, 2009

More women are having more babies, but still not enough to sustain Canada’s population, reports Statistics Canada. The latest numbers are from 2007 and show a 3.7-per-cent increase in births over 2006. It’s the fastest increase in the birth rate since 1989. The question for some observers is whether the uptick in births has anything to do with public, government policy. “I don’t think there’s any government policy that can come around and change this way of thinking,” said Andrea Mrozek, the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada’s manager of research. “For decades now we’ve been told that we don’t need a lot of kids — kids are economically a burden, it’s difficult, it’s expensive, will there be day care? — all these sorts of things. I think it’s too late. You can’t turn around now and say, ‘By the way, we think you should have lots of kids.’ ”

Religious leaders challenge G20

October 2, 2009

Before world leaders gather for their G20 summit in Muskoka next year, world faith leaders will be at the University of Winnipeg to pray that the world’s rich countries get their act together. The G20 are on track to achieve 51 per cent of the Millennium Development Goals — promises made in 2001, by the G8, which was replaced on Sept. 25 by the G20. World leaders promised to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, fight AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability and establish a new global partnership for development by 2015. The 2010 World Religions Summit aims to remind the G20 of the unfilled promises.

Awakening the masses to Theology of the Body

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - Christopher West, a popular speaker on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, will be in Toronto Oct. 16-17 for a presentation on “discovering the master plan for your life.” Invited by the God, Sex and the Meaning of Life Ministry, West hopes to crack open difficult theology, as he usually does, for the average person. “My goal is to stir hope that there is a banquet that corresponds to the hunger of the human heart,” West said. “Every human being has this ache, this yearning, this longing. We’re looking for something and what this seminar does is it taps into that hunger and awakens us.”

Altar servers' club marks 20 years at Chinese parish

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - Before his teen years, Robert Chan, 25, began attending Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Chinese parish of downtown Toronto for the past 40 years, and soon found a social haven with other Chinese youth in the altar servers’ club. Little did he know that more than a decade later he would join hundreds at the altar servers’ club 20th anniversary Sept. 26 to celebrate a success story. “I am really thankful for having the opportunity to see how our altar servers’ club developed over the years,” he told The Catholic Register. “It’s been a blessing to see the kids grow and to see them be inspired by actions of the senior members of the club and follow in their footsteps.”

Kids understand message of We Day

October 2, 2009

MARKHAM, Ont. - When Louise Kent sang to about 300 St. Monica Catholic Elementary School pupils that “the power of youth is the power of truth,” the kids were paying attention. “We should help them (the poor),” said Grade 7 student Katherine Paulino at the end of Kent’s two-hour preview of We Day. “They say it all the time, but we should really help them.” “You’re helping to start a group in Grade 7, a whole group helping the world. But it could be everyone,” said student Renée Lam. “When I grow up, I want to help the poor,” said Ivana Anderson.

Schools need to be evangelizers

October 2, 2009

Growing up in Ontario, I spent 14 years in Catholic school. I was, and still am, grateful for the religious education I received: mandatory religion classes, school Mass and the freedom to wish people a “Merry Christmas” without reproof. I was constantly exposed to arguments for publicly funded faith-based schools and agreed with the people around me who felt that exposure to these schools allowed for stronger faith among younger generations.

Eucharistic adoration flourishes in Toronto

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - The demand for eucharistic adoration appears to have grown in Toronto, thanks in part to a Serra Club of Downtown Toronto member who discovered a calling to promote it. Zinnia Milburn has been praying for both an increase in vocations and a stronger devotion to eucharistic adoration since becoming a Serran in 2002. The Serra Club is an organization that promotes and fosters vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life. “Adoration is very important,” Milburn said. “He is there body, soul and divinity. You are talking right there to Him.”

Of divinity and cocktail parties

October 2, 2009

Questions of faith come up in the most un-churchly ways and places. You might be at a cocktail party making small talk, or in a bus waiting for your stop, and hear profound spiritual questions slipping in and out amidst the surrounding dialogue. As a teacher of mine liked to say, God is not really hard to find — “He’s everywhere.” In my practice as a marriage and family therapist, faith questions surface unsought, in their own time and way. When given the time and space, people are generally eager to talk about them. Indeed, we suffer from carrying such questions alone, often without the resources to help us probe and learn from them. But the questions are alive and well in real life.

We can experience the freedom of God's children

October 2, 2009

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) Oct. 11 (Wisdom 7:7-11; Psalm 90; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30) Intelligence and wisdom are not the same — one can be a very educated and intelligent fool. In some of the most beautiful poetic prose in the Old Testament, the author of Wisdom paints a picture of something more valuable than power, fame, wealth or health. The marketers would probably love to get their hands on whatever it is — the ultimate luxury item. Unfortunately for them but fortunately for us it is not for sale and cannot be successfully counterfeited — no knockoffs!

Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph pioneers still after 350 years

October 2, 2009

For Sr. Marilyn Larocque things that were true, essential and necessary 350 years ago are just as true, essential and necessary today. Larocque and her religious community, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, have been celebrating the 350th anniversary of their arrival in Canada this year, and discovering how much they are in sync with their founders. “We’re still pioneers,” said Larocque. “Our founder Jerome (Le Royer de la Dauversiere) and our first sister (Venerable) Marie de la Ferre, they were pioneers.” Back then the RHSJs pioneered by establishing hospitals and teaching in the first schools in New France. There are new needs today, and therefore the sisters are pioneering new ministries.

Peace is in the hands of youth

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - “Peace is hard,” Justin Trudeau told more than 4,000 Catholic students gathered in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Peace Garden Sept. 29. Nobody disagreed with him. “We need your ideas, we need your vision, we need your dreams,” the Liberal Member of Parliament and ex-teacher declared. Twenty-five years after his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, turned the sod on Toronto’s Peace Garden, his son was entrusting the ideals of peace and social justice to teenagers struggling with homework and hormones.

Jesuits put vow of poverty into action

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - There are 17,000 people living in 19 high-rise buildings crammed into just two city blocks in St. James Town — Canada’s most densely populated neighbourhood. Two of those 17,000 chose St. Jamestown over an historic, six-bedroom brick home in a quiet, leafy neighbourhood near High Park. Jesuit provincial superior Fr. Jim Webb, and his right hand man, or socius, Fr. Peter Bisson have been living in a three-bedroom apartment in one of Toronto’s poorest neighbourhoods for 10 months. Webb believes the Jesuit vow of poverty has to be more than a theory. “If you say that material things are not important but then there’s no sign of it, it lacks credibility,” he said.

New Beginnings in life

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - Widowed, separated or divorced Catholics can find hope again through New Beginnings, a ministry founded and operated in Toronto since the late 1970s. Often mistaken for a dating service, the ministry actually aims at guiding its participants through their grief, anger, confusion or guilt, while helping them on a spiritual level. The ministry’s director, Fr. Rudy Volk, said numbers have declined since its original retreat headquarters, St. Joseph’s Morrow Park, was sold three years ago, and he hopes the word will spread New Beginnings is still dedicated to the retreats and discussion groups via new locations. A group of leader-volunteers brings years of experience and expertise to the ministry.

266 popes in 565 pages

October 2, 2009

Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy by Roger Collins (Basic Books, softcover, 565 pages, $40.50). Roger Collins believes trying to describe in a single volume the entire history of the papacy — which covers nearly 2,000 years — is probably far too ambitious an undertaking. Nevertheless, the author of Keepers of the Keys of Heaven, a medieval specialist and honorary fellow at Edinburgh University, ably demonstrates he has a solid grasp of his subject. To bring such vast material and the stories of 266 popes into one volume is evidence of his competence. The task for the serious reader is equally daunting. The 565 pages of text, footnotes and other supportive documentation is a huge challenge. A major slice of Western history is covered. To understand the story of the popes tells us more fully what it means to be part of contemporary Western culture. Each of the book’s 21 chapters covers a century or a significant era since St. Peter.

Ten Commandments take ROM centre stage

October 2, 2009

TORONTO - The Ten Commandments will take the spotlight at the Royal Ontario Museum this month. Visitors to the ROM Oct. 10-18 will be able to see the world’s oldest and best preserved parchment scroll of the Ten Commandments in a display separate from the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. The display will only be open a total of 80 hours over the eight days. “I doubt these will come to Canada again,” said Dan Rahimi, a ROM curator. “The scrolls are very sensitive to light and that’s why we have it for such a very short time.” Like the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are being displayed on rotation every few months — eight at a time — the age of the scrolls makes them prone to deterioration the longer they are open to the public eye. The Ten Commandments, the largest of the Hebrew scrolls found, is a must-see document during a ROM visit, Rahimi added.

Good people on both sides fall prey to scapegoating

October 2, 2009

This morning I woke up at five, feeling sick. Today I want to defend pro-lifers without worsening the battle between fans of Fr. Thomas Rosica and fans of LifeSiteNews. I’m not sure how to do that, and it seems so important. Once upon a time, when I was a teenage pro-lifer, a fight broke out between two of the guys in our group, a bully and the butt of his jokes. The butt finally snapped and told the bully to go to hell. There was an explosion of chairs, and the bully chased his victim down the stairwell. Hoping to shame them both, I threw myself down on the landing, rosary in my hands. Right at that moment, the pizza deliveryman arrived. Giving me a brief, scared glance, he climbed over my legs and went into the office. Meanwhile, one of the other guys calmly collected money from the frazzled group and paid the pizza man. I want to be like the calm guy. But I’m afraid I’m still the girl on her knees on the landing, passive-aggressively praying the rosary.

Proof is overwhelming Jesus walked the Earth

October 2, 2009

Nothing says show business more than another money-making sequel after another money-making sequel. Thus, Dan Brown’s new novel, The Lost Symbol, telling us all the secrets and where the bodies are buried. Usually in the Vatican, of course, where Masonic robots are controlling the world and making it impossible for the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup ever again! Problem is, what should be dismissed as derisory makes many Catholics panic; they simply do not know how to give the basic arguments for the faith when they’re challenged. Brown is risible but his bed-fellows, the so-called new atheists, often deny that Jesus ever existed in the first place. Which would be quite an issue but for the fact that He quite clearly did. Jewish records refer to Jesus of Nazareth and did so even before Christ’s own followers had written about Him. Obviously as non-Christian Jews they didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah but they refer to Him quite clearly as the son of Mary, the alleged father being unknown.