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March 2010

March 25

Students go underground in aid of ShareLife

March 25, 2010

TORONTO - Leslie Gimpes, a student at Mississauga’s St. Joseph Catholic High School, joined more than 75 students from three Toronto-area high schools at busy subway stops in the city March 24 to raise awareness and funds for ShareLife. ShareLife is the archdiocese of Toronto’s charitable fundraising arm. It supports more than 30 agencies in the archdiocese, including Covenant House Toronto, a homeless shelter for youth, Catholic Family Services in the Greater Toronto Area and Rosalie Hall, which helps young mothers and their children.

$2.1-million federal grant saves O'Connor House

March 25, 2010

TORONTO - It must be the luck of the Irish. In March, just before St. Patrick’s Day, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty rewarded the persistence of the O’Connor Irish Heritage House’s board with a gift of $2.1 million for its restoration of O’Connor House. For five years, O’Connor House’s board has been fundraising and rallying support to save a Catholic philanthropist’s stately old home on the grounds of Senator O’Connor College School.

March 26

Giving hope to gang members

March 26, 2010

TORONTO - After an airport delay caused by suspicion and confusion that he was going to a “gang conference,” American priest Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J., joined a group of speakers March 24 in Toronto at the 2010 Canada-U.S. Gang Summit. The summit, sponsored by Hincks-Dellcrest Centre and Astwood Strategy Corporations, brought together North America’s top gang experts to share their knowledge and experiences in street gang prevention, reduction, intervention and re-integration.

Example of saints helps beat consumerism

March 26, 2010

While working the market for his father, a young privileged man named Francesco found himself confronted by a misfortunate beggar, who he had no choice but to turn away. However, upon completing his father’s business for the day, Francesco chased after this beggar and gave all he had to the stranger. This young man is known to us now as St. Francis of Assisi, who abandoned his wealth to follow his faith and aid the poor.

A seraphic look at the single life

March 26, 2010

TORONTO - Determined to stay faithful to Catholic teachings and still enjoy the single life, Catholic Register columnist Dorothy Cummings McLean started a blog at the age of 35 on how to be single and stay seraphic. A selection of those blog posts from her last year of studies at Boston College are now featured in Seraphic Singles: How I Learned to stop Worrying and Love the Single Life, released by Novalis in March.

Helping the Global South through THINKfast

March 26, 2010

BRAMPTON - Campuses, parishes and schools across Canada took part in a 25-hour education and fundraising fast to increase awareness about global issues and to raise funds for those causes. The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace fast, commonly known as THINKfast, is a growing national initiative.

Positive examples lead students to the faith

March 26, 2010

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) program at St. Joseph’s parish is a witness to the positive influence of Catholic education in three Mississauga schools. “Everybody who goes to Mass, even if they are not Catholic, they say it makes them feel good, feel cleansed,” said Alexa Fitzpatrick, a Grade 11 student who enrolled at St. Marcellinus Secondary School after graduating from a public elementary school.

Obama signs executive order on abortion in health care legislation

March 26, 2010

WASHINGTON - In a quiet ceremony before more than a dozen members of Congress, mostly Catholics, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order stipulating that no federal funds would be used to pay for abortions under the new health reform law. The ceremony was closed to the media and the president delivered no remarks about the order, which was promised to a group of pro-life House Democrats in exchange for their votes in favour of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The legislation passed by a 219-212 vote late March 21.

March 27

Vatican defends action in case of Wisconsin priest abuser

March 27, 2010

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican defended a decision not to laicize a Wisconsin priest who sexually abused deaf children, despite the recommendation of his bishop that he be removed from the priesthood. In a statement responding to a report in the New York Times, the Vatican said that by the time it learned of the case in the late 1990s, the priest was elderly and in poor health. The Vatican eventually suggested that the priest continue to be restricted in ministry instead of laicized, and he died four months later, the Vatican said.

March 30

Abuse scandal offers church chance at purification

March 30, 2010

TORONTO-The glaring media spotlight, public scrutiny and even attacks on the Catholic Church over recent abuse allegations presents a time of great challenge but also an opportunity to refocus on our baptismal call to live out the Gospel teachings, says Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins. The archbishop has found himself addressing the matter frequently over recent days, with media and those in the pews, as allegations continue to swirl around a sex abuse scandal and cover-up by some clergy in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Brazil and the United States. “Throughout the world, (some) priests have done unspeakable evil. We should be grateful for the attention that the media is devoting to the sins of Catholic clergy, even if constant repetition may give it the false impression that Catholic clergy are particularly sinful,” Collins told a crowd of more than 400 people at St. Michael’s Cathedral March 30 at the annual Chrism Mass.

Bishops ask Prime Minister to urge Israel to loosen security over Holy Week

March 30, 2010

OTTAWA-Canada’s Catholic bishops have written Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to urge Israel to relax security measures making it difficult for Orthodox and Catholic Christians to participate fully in Holy Week worship. “While fully respecting and endorsing the right and need of Israeli citizens to be able to live in security, our conference is also aware that there are many people in the Middle East growing increasingly frustrated, impatient and even hostile because of various security measures imposed by the State of Israel,” wrote Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) president Bishop Pierre Morissette in a March 26 letter. “Thus ironically, today’s efforts to improve security may have the unintended but inevitable effect of spawning future insecurity.” The Saint-Jérôme bishop told Harper that Christians in Jerusalem are finding it difficult to observe “the blessing of the fire at the Easter Vigil, from joining in morning prayer on Holy Saturday, and from processing to the Holy Sepulchre.”