Browse › 2010 › March

March 2010

March 12

Students connect to the church through the arts at St. Michael’s Choir School

March 12, 2010

TORONTO - Angelic voices fill the auditorium at St. Michael’s Choir School on an early Sunday morning. At 8:30 a.m., Grade 5 and 6 students attend their weekly rehearsal for the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral. Along with tuning up their pipes, students stand tall and practise the proper enunciation of “Christe” for the “Kyrie Eleison.” On this day, junior choir conductor Caron Daley encourages the boys to keep their focus on their singing. With guests featuring police officers, firefighters and dignitaries such as Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor David Onley, the annual Police Mass could create some potential distractions for the young students.

Canadian youth mission to the Philippines

March 12, 2010

In August, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace will take its first combined French-English group of young adults to the Philippines. The “Young Adult Solidarity Trip” aims to expose young adults to the reality of the global south and teach first-hand what Development and Peace does through its programs and partners.

March 16

Rolheiser calls for a 'culture of vocations'

March 16, 2010

TORONTO - Two hundred people gathered to network and talk about fostering a culture of vocations at the National Association of Vocation and Formation Directors bi-annual conference March 14-17 in Toronto. The “Let our Lives Speak” Vocations Alive Conference welcomed representatives from close to 150 religious groups and several lay groups — namely the Serran Foundation of Canada , the Catholic Women’s League , Canadian Catholic Campus Ministry and Catholic Christian Outreach . NAVFD’s focus in the past two years has been on encouraging its members to help young people discern not only the priesthood and religious life but also the married and single life.

March 18

St. Mike’s to host media conference

March 18, 2010

TORONTO - The University of St. Michael’s College will host a conference March 26 on “Evangelization in the Media.” The main topic is the role of evangelization in television, movies and music. “This was not supposed to be a media conference, but an ethics conference,” said Daniel Gibson, president of Compass Catholic Fellowship , which is organizing the event.

Archangel Michael icon donated to archdiocese of Toronto

March 18, 2010

TORONTO - A window on the Kingdom of God now hangs in the chapel at the archdiocese of Toronto’s Catholic Pastoral Centre. Icon painter Janusz Charczuk donated the painting of the archangel Michael to the archdiocese. The icon of the patron saint of the archdiocese of Toronto took three months to paint using traditional materials and techniques, including a base of 16 layers of gesso made from marble dust, and hand-mixed colours in egg tempura.

Trustee controversy opens voters’ eyes, says Ontario education minister

March 18, 2010

TORONTO - A silver lining to the troubles plaguing the Toronto Catholic District School Board over the past three years is that it has encouraged members of the Catholic community to stand for election or become more informed voters, says Ontario’s new education minister. “I think it’s fair to say that what has unfolded at (the Toronto Catholic board) has required everyone to look at the role and function of school board trustees. I think that’s an important outcome,” Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky told The Catholic Register.

Euthanasia bill pitched again in Canada

March 18, 2010

OTTAWA - Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde made yet another pitch for euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the House of Commons March 16 with her private member’s Bill C-384. Only about 10 MPs were in the House for the debate. It will have one hour of debate before a vote on second reading. If it passes it will be sent to committee for further study.

Irish cardinal defends actions in handling abusive priest

March 18, 2010

DUBLIN, Ireland - Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, chairman of the Irish bishops’ conference, insisted he will not resign after it was revealed that he failed to report allegations of child abuse by a priest to the police in 1975. Speaking with reporters March 14, Brady said it was not his responsibility at the time to report the allegations involving Norbertine Father Brendan Smyth to the police.

Vatican efforts to curb abuse defended

March 18, 2010

VATICAN CITY - Amid new disclosures of priestly sex abuse cases in Europe, including one in the German archdiocese formerly headed by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican strongly defended the church’s response to the crisis and said the Pope has led the effort to root out “filth” in the church. The Vatican statements came in the wake of hundreds of new sex abuse allegations against priests and other church personnel that have surfaced in recent weeks in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.

March 19

Iraqi Christians still can't go home

March 19, 2010

Elections in Iraq that some claim have opened the way for a more peaceful and democratic state haven’t overcome the divisions or the sectarian violence that is generating hundreds of thousands of refugees, said an Iraqi Dominican Sister. Sr. Aman Miriam of Mosul, Iraq — currently staying with the Adrian Dominican community in Michigan — told The Catholic Register days after 62 per cent of eligible Iraqis voted in national elections March 7 that the thousands of Iraqi Christians living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria can’t return home and fear terrorist attacks and kidnapping if they do return.

Toronto Chaldeans pray for homeland

March 19, 2010

TORONTO - Toronto’s Chaldean Catholic community continues to pray for peace in the wake of further violence affecting Christians in Iraq. “We go with prayer and in this Holy Week, we ask our Lord Jesus Christ, King of Peace, to make peace in this country. All our hearts go to the (people in Iraq),” Chaldean Archbishop Hanna Zora told The Catholic Register.

Anglican Catholic Church of Canada seeks unity

March 19, 2010

OTTAWA - The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada College of Bishops has sent a formal letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome asking that the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus be implemented in Canada. Released last November by the Vatican, the Apostolic Constitution opened the door for Anglicans to become Catholic while retaining aspects of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony. In asking that a personal ordinariate be established in Canada, the Anglican Catholic Church is following similar requests from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Rich, educated not necessarily less active in religion

March 19, 2010

TORONTO - A good education and a good job are no barrier to believing in a personal God, according to a University of Toronto sociologist. But the American-born professor also warns that a close association between conservative, reactionary politics and religion is driving better educated Americans away from church, what Scott Schieman calls “the Sarah Palin effect.”

Watching movies with a faithful eye

March 19, 2010

I love movies. I have experienced and learned a lot from them, from historical dramas, action-packed thrillers, suspense, romance and more. But there is one thing about some movies that I have problems with: misleading information and stereotypes, especially when it comes to religion. Movies based on religion can have rewarding consequences, opening the viewers’ eyes and minds to new ideas, teaching them things about religion that they otherwise would never have known. However, there are some movies more than willing — I would say eager — to take a bite out of religion and portray it to the world as a joke or a hoax.

Pope unfairly tarnished

March 19, 2010

Thousands of words have been written and spoken in recent days about Pope Benedict XVI and the latest child-abuse scandal sweeping Europe. Much of it originates from a secular media that, in the Internet age, too often seems driven by a nudge-nudge, wink-wink modus operandi. The challenge, then, is to separate fact from fiction. To his credit, the Pope has never tried to hide from the modern tragedy of the church: the sexual abuse of children at the hands of priests. On the contrary, prior to recent events he has earned praise even from church critics for his up-front handling of an ever-widening tragedy that continues to plague Europe and North America.

Who's responsible for web's unregulated side?

March 19, 2010

A recent verdict in Italy against executives of Google raises concerns for online media operations around the world. A Milan court convicted three Google Inc. executives Feb. 24 for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with Down’s Syndrome by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006. Google will appeal the six-month suspended jail terms and said the verdict “poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the Internet is built,” since none of the three employees found guilty had anything to do with the offending video.

Romance, Internet style

March 19, 2010

It was a red letter day in the office. “She’s quit,” said one of the ladies in the file room. We were overjoyed. We had loathed our manager. Ugh! “She’s going to Australia to get married,” said our informant. “She met him over the Internet.”

Jesus' suffering was for our good

March 19, 2010

Passion Sunday (Year C) March 28 (Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56) The professional martyr or victim is a character known to us all. This individual drinks deeply from the cup of self-pity and victimhood and firmly believes that their “persecution” is because they are right and others wrong. They are standing up for what is right while others operate out of self-interest or corruption. But more often than not, they are suffering for their own opinions, prejudices and behaviour that is aggressive and intolerant.

My life as a 'Seraphic Single'

March 19, 2010

Before she added “McLean” to her byline, Catholic Register columnist Dorothy Cummings wrote a book called Seraphic Singles: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Single Life, published by Novalis. It was accepted for publication a week after her wedding. Seraphic Singles was compiled from blog posts Cummings wrote during her last year at Boston College. Seraphic Singles will have its official launch on March 25 in Toronto (7-10 p.m. at the Duke of York Pub at 39 Prince Arthur Ave.) It is available at www.novalis.ca . The Catholic Register has reproduced two excerpts. A 40-something woman once asked me how you can stay seraphic when you are an older single and when it seems that marriage mightn’t happen. I pondered this question while travelling; while my train roared and screamed across the countryside, I came up with a list.

Repo Men shows how capitalism is a part of us

March 19, 2010

A certain kind of reviewer, many of them working for the religious press, is going to object to Repo Men because of all the blood and swearing. As if morality consisted of a list of banned words and bodily fluids. Catholics know morality has nothing to do with purity codes or legalisms. When legalists (sometimes Pharisees and sometimes Scribes) confronted Jesus over purity issues (ceremonial washing before meals), His response was derisive.