Browse › 2010 › October

October 2010

October 1

Irish archbishops called to Rome to prepare Vatican probe into abuse

October 1, 2010

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland and Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh [images/stories/international/international10/irish_bishops.jpg]VATICAN CITY - Irish archbishops will travel to Rome in early October to meet with Vatican officials about the apostolic visitation of their dioceses ordered by Pope Benedict XVI in response to the priestly sexual abuse scandal, the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference announced. The four archbishops were called by the leadership of the Congregation for Bishops to help prepare for the visitation, which the Pope said would help them address the sexual abuse scandal, improve assistance to victims and perfect preventative measures.

October 2

York trustee Micheal Carnovale dedicated right up to the end

October 2, 2010

Micheal Carnovale, York Catholic District School Board [images/stories/education/education10/carnovale.jpg]TORONTO - Just before going on vacation for two weeks, York Catholic District School Board trustee Micheal Carnovale called one of his colleagues to ask if she could look after some parents' concerns while he was away. It’s this kind of dedication that characterized Mr. Carnovale’s 16-year career as trustee, says friend and board chair Elizabeth Crowe.

October 3

Bishop, D&P step up pressure to pass responsible mining law

October 3, 2010

Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini [images/stories/international/international10/ramazzini_alvaro.jpg]TORONTO - Last year Goldcorp Inc. pulled 2.2 million tonnes of rock out of the ground at its Marlin Mine in San Miguel, Guatemala. Using a process that sucks up millions of litres of water and adds cyanide to the mix, the company separated 7,793 kilograms of gold and 117,835 kilograms of silver from the ore. The gold sold for an average of $982 per ounce and the silver for $15.07 per ounce. It costs Goldcorp $192 to free an ounce of gold from the rock in San Miguel, making it one of the world’s most profitable mines, ever. In Northern Ontario it costs Goldcorp $585 to mine and mill an ounce of gold at its Musselwhite mine, $447 per ounce at the Porcupine mine, and $288 per ounce in Red Lake.

October 4

Collins, Prendergast begin meetings with Irish archbishops to probe abuse scandal

October 4, 2010

Two Canadian archbishops will be among Vatican officials discussing upcoming apostolic visitations with Irish archbishops over that nation's sexual abuse scandal in the Church. The meeting will take place Oct. 5-6 at the offices of the Congregation for Bishops and be chaired by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the former archbishop of Quebec City, said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., who along with Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Collins is among the apostolic visitors named by the Vatican.

Target johns in prostitution debate, urges MP

October 4, 2010

Conservative MP Joy Smith [images/stories/canada/canada10/smith_joy.jpg]OTTAWA - An Ontario court decision striking down three key prostitution laws shows the need for a national debate on the issue that includes looking at laws to prosecute johns, says Conservative MP Joy Smith, an expert on human trafficking. Smith has urged her government to study Swedish laws which have tackled the problem by prosecuting the clients of prostitutes, the johns. Sweden reduced prostitution by 30-50 per cent from 1999-2004 and substantially cut the number of women trafficked into the country, she said.

October 5

Pro-lifer slowing down

October 5, 2010

Jack Barbara Willke [images/stories/canada/canada10/jackbarbarawillke.jpg]The annual International Pro-life Conference is coming to Ottawa from Oct. 28 to 30, and it is likely to be one of pro-life advocate Jack Willke’s last international appearances. Willke, president of both the International Right to Life Federation and Life Issues Institute, has been experiencing health problems of late. “I’m past 85 now and I’ve just been hospitalized,” Wilke told The Catholic Register from his office in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A Noble Debate over a Nobel Prize

October 5, 2010

Science and Religion collide a lot these days, though clearly the tension between what Stephen Jay Gould referred to, as the Two Non-Overlapping Magisteriums, has existed for centuries. When the collisions occur it is the result of conflicting values as well as on theological grounds. This was made abundantly clear this week with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Medicine to Dr. Robert Evans, one of the co-creators of In Vitro Fertilization. On the one hand reaction around the world seemed of a note, sheer excitement and congratulation. On the other hand, Catholic teachings and the ‘wisdom’ of the Nobel Committee slammed into each other. The Church’s clear stance on IVF and Robert Evans socialist politics have both long been rumoured to being behind what many expected to be a much earlier awarding of the prize. Clearly the Church is not indifferent to the pain experienced by couples incapable of conception but as the International Federation of Catholic Medical Association made clear “As Catholic doctors," we at FIAMC "recognize that pain that infertility brings to a couple, but equally we believe that the research and treatment methods needed to solve the problems of infertility have to be conducted within an ethical framework which respects the special dignity of the human embryo, which is no different from that of a mature adult with a brilliant mind." None of this can be discussed without reference to the growing number of cases involving ‘mix-ups’, mistakes or possibly worse when it comes to the identity of the babies born of IVF. Recent Canadian cases are making news in Ottawa, and the problem is clearly not confined to individual doctors or to Canada and the ethical problems of IVF are compounded by this growing list of ‘mistakes’. Nor as even the Indian newspaper The Hindu reports are the problems as simple as any of can imagine, “the widespread use of such methods has created new ethical issues. For example, ‘rent-a-womb tourism' has become a thriving business in India, with wealthy couples from abroad paying poor women large sums of money to carry IVF embryos to full term.” As this report from ABC news makes clear that Catholics are not alone in considering the Nobel winning tachnology to be a win win: “The bewildering array of options due to the IVF revolution -- from the morality of making "designer babies" to exploitation of poor women as surrogate mothers -- has created much concern and many debates among secular ethicists as well.” Arthur Caplan, a noted American Bioethicist told the Washington Post "In exploring the fundamental mechanisms of how human reproduction actually works, Edwards unleashed a social, ethical and cultural tsunami that he could not have predicted and I don't think anyone at the time could have anticipated. It opened so many doors that I'm not sure we even fully appreciate it today."

October 6

Student abortion protesters arrested

October 6, 2010

Carleton University pro-life club arrest [images/stories/education/education10/arrestcarelton.jpg]Ottawa - Five students who attempted to put up a graphic anti-abortion display on the campus of Carleton University Oct. 4 were handcuffed and arrested by Ottawa police. The students were detained for a short time and issued tickets for “failing to leave the premises when directed” and for “engaging in activity prohibited on the premises,” said Craig Stewart, 24, a fourth-year Carleton student who was among those arrested. The tickets carry fines totalling $130. “We’re going to contest them,” said Stewart.

Soccer game led to launch of Famille Marie-Jeunesse

October 6, 2010

Jennifer Y.M. Lee [images/stories/faith/faith10/jmlee.jpg]SHERBROOKE, Que. - The Famille Marie-Jeunesse (FMJ) can trace its roots to a soccer game in Quebec City. No one can pin down the exact date, but some time in the early 1980s, a Quebec City seminarian named Real Lavoie noticed a group of young people playing a game in the church yard. He joined them, treated them to trips to McDonald’s and began answering their questions about God, about how to pray and how one could get to know God personally, said Jennifer Y.M. Lee, who recently made a permanent commitment to lay consecrated life

A welcoming face for refugees in need

October 6, 2010

Sr. Lois Anne Bordowitz, FCJ [images/stories/faith/faith10/sr_loisb.jpg]TORONTO - During the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, Sr. Lois Anne Bordowitz, FCJ, packed a group of students into a convoy of five cars to escape a rebel attack in a neighbouring town. The group survived and made its way, after a five-hour drive, to the capital city and eventually a flight out of the country. Bordowitz worked 10 years in Sierra Leone at a leadership training centre run by her order. She said the experience broadened her awareness of the plight of others around the world and helped her “understand the need for people to flee their country.” It was this experiences like this that informed and inspired Bordowitz’s work with refugees over the years as a member of the Faithful Companions of Jesus.

Jason Gennaro’s faith is by design

October 6, 2010

Jason Gennaro [images/stories/faith/faith10/gennaro_jason.jpg]TORONTO - Jason Gennaro has been using his web design skills to help Catholic organizations spread the word about vocations. Gennaro runs JJPG Communications, which caters to the Catholic community. He sees his work as a kind of ministry, charging minimal fees to Catholic groups to assist them in spreading the word about their work without a great financial burden. He has created web sites like www.vocations.ca, a national source of vocation information, and others for religious communities such as the Jesuits of Upper Canada and Priests for Life Canada.

Sisters of St. Joseph’s service legacy lives on through Fontbonne Ministries

October 6, 2010

Fontbonne Ministries [images/stories/faith/faith10/fontbonneministries.jpg]TORONTO - For the past decade, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto have been responding to the social needs of their community through Fontbonne Ministries. And on Oct. 1, the sisters celebrated Fontbonne Ministries’ 10th anniversary with an open house at Fontbonne Place, a residence that provides affordable, rent-geared-to-income housing for older, single women. “At their chapter in 1998, (the Sisters) agreed that nurturing community with the homeless, the alienated, the economically poor and women at risk was what they wanted to continue to do,” said Leanne Kloppenborg, administrator of Fontbonne Ministries.

October 7

Upcoming trustee election offers chance to restore credibility to Catholic education

October 7, 2010

[images/stories/logos/OCSTA.jpg]TORONTO - The head of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) is concerned about the upcoming trustee elections in the Toronto Catholic board because he says misconduct at one board can affect the credibility and reputation of all Ontario trustees. “From a provincial perspective, Toronto Catholic board is like the flagship of the fleet,” said OECTA president James Ryan. “It’s the largest Catholic board in Canada and having good governance in the Toronto board is prominent in the minds, not just of every Catholic teacher in Toronto, but across Ontario.”

Brother André students to attend canonization

October 7, 2010

Brother André High [images/stories/education/education10/brotherandretrip.jpg]MARKHAM, Ont. - Select students and staff at Brother André Catholic High School in Markham, Ont., will be celebrating the canonization of their school’s namesake in a special way — by being in the immediate audience close to the Pope at the ceremony in Rome on Oct. 17. On Oct. 10, 18 students from the school will be flying to Italy for a week, along with a couple of staff members and family members, said principal Jim Nicoletti. “Back in February, when the announcement was made, we were honoured to hear it as a school and we were thrilled,” he said. “We did a little research only to find out that we believe we’re the only high school that’s named Brother André in the province.”

Getting a Catholic workout

October 7, 2010

catholic workout [images/stories/features/feature10/cath_workout.jpg]TORONTO - Michael Carrera knows how vanity driven the fitness industry is. Having worked in gyms for more than a decade, he sees showoffs all the time. And since you can’t change vanity by focusing on vanity, he decided to focus on his faith, pairing it with his profession. Carrera is a certified exercise physiologist and personal trainer with a masters in exercise physiology. He’s also a parishioner at St. Benedict parish in Toronto.

Cardinal Newman’s intellectual integrity inspires us today

October 7, 2010

It’s called the dies natalis — the day of birth. For saints it refers to their birthday in heaven or, in the eyes of the world, the day of their death upon Earth. When assigning feast days to saints, the Church usually chooses the dies natalis; for example, the feast day of soon-to-be canonized Brother André is Jan. 6, the day of his death in 1937, even though that day is also the great solemn feast of the Epiphany of the Lord.

Quebec bishops issue warning about euthanasia

October 7, 2010

euthanasia [images/stories/misc/euthanasia.jpg]Ottawa - Quebec’s Catholic bishops have cautioned members of the Quebec National Assembly to observe the law and to diligently prosecute cases involving euthanasia and assisted suicide. In a brief to a commission holding public hearings on euthanasia and assisted suicide, the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec (AECQ) reminded the Quebec National Assembly of its obligation to enforce the Criminal Code.

Taking a leap of faith

October 7, 2010

This summer, God asked me to trust and I am pleased to announce that this trust has not been spurned. I have, in a reckless fury of hopeful confidence, spent the last four months, with no funding or experience, putting together a full-length, acoustic, folk-style album of my original music. And I am amazed I can say it is now, in co-operation with an excellent producer and manager, in the final phases and near completion.

Walking to end the violence against women

October 7, 2010

Take Back the Night [images/stories/ysn/ysn10/takebackthenight.jpg]Saskatoon - Almost 300 people marched through downtown Saskatoon Sept. 27 in support of ending violence against women. The marchers were taking part in the annual Take Back the Night march. The theme of this year’s march was “Shattering the Silence” and encouraged participants to stand in solidarity with marginalized groups who faced greater risk of violence, including first nations peoples, the disabled and rural women.

Combining food and faith

October 7, 2010

Eat Pray Share [images/stories/ysn/ysn10/eat_pray_share.jpg]TORONTO - The popular novel Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert first inspired a motion picture — now it’s inspired a group for young adults to explore the spiritual side of eating. Run by Faith Connections, the young adult ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a group of eight will meet bi-monthly to share a meal together and embark on a spiritual growth journey in a program called “Eat, Pray, Share.” Broken up into six sessions, the program began Sept. 29 and runs until Dec. 8, with a seventh session planned as outreach to those who are hungry.