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April 2010

April 26

Love is the only way to know God

April 26, 2010

Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year C) May 2 (Acts 14:21-27; Psalm 145; Revelation 21:1-5; John 13:1, 31-33, 34-35) What was it like to be a follower of Jesus Christ in the first century of our era? We are so used to a rather comfortable and undemanding Christianity that we can fail to appreciate the struggle, sacrifice and abandonment to divine providence that characterized the first Christians.

A voice for the voiceless

April 26, 2010

The media in Canada often show an anti-Catholic bias. Few things are more misrepresented than the pro-life movement. That’s why I was very interested to do a television interview on Newfoundland Television (NTV) on Good Friday during the annual pro-life walk. At 9:30 a.m., I joined a crowd of around 300 pro-life activists holding pro-life posters in the parking lot of the Health Sciences Centre, Newfoundland’s largest hospital. Sadly, hundreds of babies are aborted here annually. During the peaceful demonstration, I joined my friend Steve and his seven-month pregnant wife Angela. This was their first year at the walk and their witness was great.

Quality of Jesuit novices more impressive than quantity

April 26, 2010

Fr. Jim Webb [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/WebbMass.jpg]MAPLE, Ont. - Jesuit provincial superior for English Canada Fr. Jim Webb could hardly wait to hit a few hundred guests at the annual Provincial’s Dinner April 14 with a piece of good news. “This year we have nine novices, the most in 20 years,” announced Webb to a round of applause. It’s the kind of news bound to hearten elders in the Jesuit community, such as Fr. Jacques Monet, who entered the Society of Jesus Sept. 7, 1949. But it’s not just about numbers, said Monet.

Religious need to invest more in formation

April 26, 2010

Sr. Mary Ellen Sheehan [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/Sheehan.jpg]TORONTO - Religious communities should invest more in continuing theological formation for their members, say a number of religious who believe it can only help in their ministry. Sr. Ellen Leonard, C.S.J., Sr. Mary Ellen Sheehan, IHM, and Friar Darren Dias, OP, recently took part in a panel discussion hosted by the University of St. Michael’s College Faculty of Theology. They all believe continuing formation is key to their religious service.

He's finally stopped running from his call

April 26, 2010

Henry Smolenaars [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/Smolenaars.jpg]Henry Smolenaars, 40, was born and raised in Nova Scotia on a dairy farm. He loved working with his hands, so after high school he became an industrial electrician. As a teen, thoughts of being a priest had come to him. But it took some time to make the call. “I ran from the call as long as I could,” he said.

The mute button is worn out

April 26, 2010

Jerry Tavares [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/Tavares.jpg]Jerry Tavares, 28, son of Portuguese immigrant parents, was born in Toronto, raised in Hamilton and moved to Peterborough to attend Trent University where he studied history, French and political science in hopes of becoming a high school teacher some day, getting married and raising a family. While he felt the Lord’s call all along, he pressed the mute button on God for many years, but the more he pressed the button, the louder God’s call became.

Protestant youth conference opened eyes to Catholic Church

April 26, 2010

Christopher Sherren [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/Sherren.jpg]Christopher Sherren, 25, was born and lived in Charlottetown until 2003 when he came to Toronto to attend St. Augustine’s Seminary and discern his call to the priesthood. Having grown up in what he would call a culturally Catholic family, Sherren spent most of his senior high school years associated with a Baptist congregation.

Neocatechumenal Way helped him find his way

April 26, 2010

Bartlomiej Palczewski [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/Palczewski.jpg]Bartlomiej Palczewski, 32, was born and raised in Poland, where he graduated from the University of Technology in electrical engineering, before working as a computer programmer. He was in Grade 7 when he first heard the call to the priesthood. “I remember I was 14, I went for my first pilgrimage ever, and on this pilgrimage something happened,” he said.

This father is set to become a Father

April 26, 2010

Stephen Crowley [images/stories/presentClergy/presentClergy10/CrowleyFamily.jpg]TORONTO - Years of experience as a husband and father provided a natural progression towards the priesthood for Deacon Stephen Crowley, now just days away from his May 1 ordination in Hamilton, Ont. The father of three adult children lost his wife Maureen, to whom he had been married for 32 years, to muscular dystrophy in 2008. “I just think that the priesthood now is a logical conclusion or a logical extension of me living out my baptism to the fullest as was my married life,” said Crowley, who worked as a medical laboratory technologist. “I see that they’re both ways of living out my baptism as a Catholic man of God and serving the community, first as a nuclear family and now as a larger family.”

University pro-lifers face misconduct charges

April 26, 2010

University of Calgary Pro Life display [images/stories/education/education10/uAlbertaProLife.jpg]CALGARY - Just five months after trespassing charges were stayed for members of a pro-life club at the University of Calgary, eight student members are now facing charges of non-academic misconduct. The charges resulted from a Genocide Awareness Project display the group hosted April 8 and 9. Its display, which compares abortion to atrocities such as the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust, had been hosted without incident eight times since 2006. On April 8, campus security allegedly asked the students to turn their signs inward or leave the campus grounds. They refused.

Sr. Prejean says compassion must go to guilty as well

April 26, 2010

Sr. Helen Prejean [images/stories/education/education10/prejean.jpg]TORONTO - Sr. Helen Prejean, the American nun renowned for her opposition to the death penalty and for accompanying those about to die in their final steps, captivated a Toronto audience April 20 with the story of her continuing journey. Prejean’s first experience spiritually accompanying a convicted killer, Patrick Sonnier, was chronicled in a book and made into the 1995 feature film Dead Man Walking.

For food banks, recession still hits hard

April 26, 2010

Food Bank [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/foodBankFeeley.jpg]TORONTO - Report On Business declares the recession is over. Down at the food bank it’s just getting up a head of steam. “There are more people going to food banks and less food being donated, both by individuals as well as our corporate partners,” Ontario Association of Food Banks executive director Adam Spence told The Catholic Register. “Those two items come together to make it a very challenging time for food banks.”

Youth voice needed in social justice reforms

April 26, 2010

Bishop McGrattan and Fr. Costello [images/stories/ysn/ysn10/mcgrattancostello.jpg]TORONTO - A Newman Centre evening aimed at revitalizing Catholic social justice work in downtown Toronto got people talking mainly about who wasn’t there. The April 19 gathering of about 60 people for Mass, potluck dinner and discussion was supposed to draw young people, but couldn’t compete with exams, the start of summer jobs, moving dates and all the other commitments students face in the spring. When Jesuit Father Jack Costello looked out at the grey-haired crowd in the Newman Centre chapel he said he would have to adjust his homily to fit an older crowd than he had expected.

April 28

Caritas still hopes to reach its goal

April 28, 2010

Caritas [images/stories/logos/logos09/Caritas.jpg]TORONTO - More than $233,000 was raised by the Caritas Project’s 16th annual telethon on April 25. Although the goal of $250,000 was not attained, Caritas’ associate executive director Ramin Deravian said Caritas hopes to hits its target as it is still accepting donations until the end of April. The telethon was broadcast on CHIN TV and the Telelatino Network. It kicked off with a pre-taped message from Toronto’s Archbishop Thomas Collins. The broadcast also featured words of support from Peterborough Bishop Nicola de Angelis.

Catholic principals slam minister over Ontario budget call to freeze wages

April 28, 2010

CPCO logo [images/stories/logos/logos10/CPCOlogo.gif]WINDSOR, Ont. - Ontario Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky was taken to task by Catholic principals and vice principals here over her government’s recent budget bill which could hit them in the wallet. Bill 16 proposes that non-bargaining employees across the public sector — about 350,000 employees altogether — have their wages frozen for two years as part of an austerity move by the province to cope with a severe deficit. Dombrowsky was speaking before more than 300 delegates at the annual meeting of the the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario in Windsor April 22.

April 29

Fully Alive a start

April 29, 2010

sex education [images/stories/education/education10/SexEducation.jpg]Proposed changes to Ontario’s sex-education curriculum were ill conceived and ineptly delivered. Premier Dalton McGuinty’s only good move on this file was his hasty flip-flop on a plan to muscle explicit sex instruction into elementary schools this fall. Contrary to some interpretations, the sex-ed initiative was not derailed by Catholics. The government had no intention of imposing a curriculum on Catholic schools that conflicted with Church teaching on sexuality. McGuinty wasn’t about to risk a court challenge by requiring Catholic teachers to teach sexual orientation to Grade 3 students. Instead, Catholic educators had a government blessing to integrate the proposed new curriculum into the Fully Alive program, which has been delivering elementary students faith-based lessons on sexuality, marriage and family for more than 20 years.

To know God is to live a life of service

April 29, 2010

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C) May 9 (Acts 15:1-2, 2-29; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29) Change does not come easily, especially when cherished and time-honoured traditions and ideas are challenged. And this is even more evident in the realm of religious beliefs as the struggle during our own time attests.

St. Damien teaches us to love

April 29, 2010

In Belgium recently, someone unexpectedly crossed my path. A theological conference in Leuven included a service at nearby St. Damien Church. Entering, I met a man, a fellow conference-goer I hadn’t met before, who said, “Come down to the crypt where St. Damien is.” I followed him down, paused with my hand on the doorknob, sensing that that door led to a life-changing encounter.

Beware the contagiousness of the U.S. Christian right

April 29, 2010

For most Canadians, I suspect, the alleged activities of the Michigan-based Hutaree militia amount to little more than fresh evidence of the occasional craziness we’ve come to expect from Canada’s neighbour to the south. Canadians should not be so smug.

Bring Canadian troops home now

April 29, 2010

The fact that Brigadier-General David Menard, the Commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, called for an inquiry into his own conduct — specifically into the circumstances in which his rifle discharged at the Kandahar airbase last March 25 — will hardly inspire confidence in the troops under his command and among the Afghan civilians they are defending. Canada might be new to modern warfare, our generals might be rusty on how to load a rifle, but we yield to none in knowing about inquiries. Indeed, conducting inquiries seems to be the only Canadian growth industry immune to the vicissitudes of the economic cycle.