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February 2011

February 17

Denominations must work together for unity

February 17, 2011

Friars essay winner [images/stories/ysn/ysn11/friarcontestwinner.jpg]Editor’s note: This is the winning entry for the Friars’ essay contest. Acts tells the story of the early Christian Church. However alien the circumstances and cultural milieu were, the example set by the early churches in the second chapter of Acts remains a source of principles for the building of effective Christian communities. Acts 2:42 explains perhaps the most vital of those founding principles: that of spiritual and temporal Christian unity. Both forms of unity are plainly displayed in the verse, and each is a unique expression of Christ’s apparent desire for the communion of all who follow Him on this planet. Spiritual unity in the Church is an intangible connection between different believers, the basic foundation of the Church’s existence as an institution meant to foster and develop the spiritual connections between its pieces or members.

Faith can help students who show signs of depression

February 17, 2011

Marilyn Elphick [images/stories/ysn/ysn11/marilynelphick.jpg]TORONTO - A cross-border study has found that one in four students on North American university campuses show signs of depression — a figure that comes as no surprise to those who work with students. The study, published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry at the end of January, looked at more than 1,600 students at the University of British Columbia, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington. Researchers surveyed students visiting campus health centres for mostly physical reasons on a variety of questions about their mood and outlook for the future. The study also found that one in 10 students had recently thought about suicide. Sr. Susan Glaab, campus minister at King’s University College in London, Ont., said there are a number of reasons why students today may be showing increased signs of depression.

Vast mix of cultures in the St. Josephine Bakhita School rainbow

February 17, 2011

Shane Boscoe [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/stjosephinebakhita.jpg]BRAMPTON, Ont. - Eight-year-old Ofure Akhigbe stands alongside 18 of her classmates as “Oh Canada” plays over the loudspeaker to calypso-style beats at St. Josephine Bakhita Elementary School. As the school celebrates Black History Month in February, it also commemorated St. Josephine Bakhita’s feast day on Feb. 8. The school is the first in North America to be named after the first Sudanese saint. Bahkita was a former slave from Darfur who became a Canossian nun in Italy and lived there for 45 years. She was canonized in 2000. On St. Josephine Bakhita’s feast day, the school celebrated with a liturgy and the nearby St. Josephine Bahkita parish loaned the saint’s relics to the school. Canossian sisters from the parish also visited the school and shared St. Josephine’s story to the students.

Good Shepherd project tackles bed bugs, homelessness

February 17, 2011

Bed bugs [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/bedbug.jpg]TORONTO - Aaron Lewis loves to see the smile on the faces of people when he’s done steaming and vacuuming their apartments. He knows that what he does helps people sleep a little easier. “We make their life a bit more joyful,” he said. Lewis forms part of a Good Shepherd CARES crew that prepares apartments for pesticide treatments that eliminate bed bugs and cockroaches. Without the intense and detailed cleaning they provide — steaming, vacuuming, overturning tables, chairs and beds and sealing up openings around phone jacks, cable and electrical outlets, laundering all the clothes and sheets, etc. — the mere application of chemicals won’t eliminate the pests. Getting all that cleaning done for somebody who can’t do it by themselves makes Lewis feel proud and satisfied with a job well done.

February 18

Plunging necklines, lingerie parties and the new family restaurant

February 18, 2011

Before becoming a mother, I never realized the job description included letter writing, but over the years I have written many of them — to teachers, principals, directors, priests and camp counsellors. Most recently I wrote a letter to the president of SIR Corp., a Canadian company that operates 46 restaurants in Canada. Their brands include Jack Astor’s, Alice Fazooli’s, Canyon Creek, Reds, Far Niente, Four, Petite For and Loose Moose. Judging from their online financial statements, they are doing well. My letter concerned a troubling dining experience at Jack Astor’s. I was there with family to celebrate a new publishing contract. I have been a good customer — dining there since the day it has opened.

Beatification schedule for John Paul II released

February 18, 2011

John Paul II [images/stories/historical_people/PopeJohnPaulII/Gillian.jpg]VATICAN CITY - The Vatican released a three-day schedule of events for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, and warned against people selling counterfeit tickets to the beatification liturgy, which is free and open to all. Pope Benedict XVI will preside over the beatification Mass at 10 a.m. May 1 in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said. Immediately after Mass, the faithful can pray before Pope John Paul’s mortal remains, which will be set in front of the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. The veneration “will continue until the flow of faithful ends,” it said.

February 22

Bishop Lacroix to succeed Cardinal Ouellet in Quebec City

February 22, 2011

Archbishop Lacroix [images/stories/canada_bishops/lacroix.jpg]QUEBEC CITY - The search for Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s replacement came to an end on Feb. 22 when the Vatican announced that Bishop Gerald Lacroix will become the new archbishop of Quebec. Lacroix, 53, had been acting as diocesan administrator to the archdiocese since Pope Benedict XVI named Ouellet the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and transferred the cardinal in August to Rome. Among Ouellet’s duties is to advise the Pope on the appointment of bishops.

February 23

Ontario’s equity policy on tap at annual OCSTA conference

February 23, 2011

Ontario Minister of Education Leona Dombrowsky [images/stories/education/education10/LeonaDombrowsky.jpg]TORONTO - The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association conference takes place April 28 to 30 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Ontario Minister of Education Leona Dombrowksy will be a keynote speaker at the conference on the opening day of the annual conference. Among the topics conference speakers and participants will discuss will be the Ontario government’s equity and inclusive education strategy and how it applies to Catholic schools and how the strategy will be implemented in Catholic schools. The issue has caused controversy as Catholic school boards try to implement the strategy while staying true to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

'Doers' of the Word are righteous

February 23, 2011

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time March 6 (Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32; Psalm 31; Romans 3:21-25, 28; Matthew 7:21-27) A theologian once insisted that “religion is unbelief.” While this is probably a stark and exaggerated statement in need of much qualification there is also a kernel of truth in it. There is a human tendency to construct a religion as a buffer or barrier between them and God. In this way they can “control” God and keep God away from the innermost part of their heart and soul where God desires to dwell. Religion then becomes kind of a game — keeping God “happy,” obtaining divine benefits, but continuing one’s life as usual. It is the tendency and danger that all of the prophets railed against and it was at the core of many of the teachings of Jesus.

Personal animus comes through in artist’s nonsensical works

February 23, 2011

Toronto artist Peter Alexander Por is an angry man. As I found on a visit to his controversial show of paintings and sculptures at Toronto’s Bezpala Brown Gallery (which ended Feb. 25), Por is angry, in a general way, with the mostly 20th-century tyrants who have killed millions of people and made life miserable for many millions more. Most of the 30 canvasses on display are crudely sketched portraits of Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot and other modern political monsters, emblazoned with the numbers of those who, Por claims, died as a result of their wars and persecutions. Though we have heard such statistics before, these numbers still have the power to stagger and amaze: Mao (4.5 million dead), Ayatollah Khomeini (700,000), Rwandan leader Theoniste Bagosora (one million), Pol Pot (two million), and so on.

Quebec struggles to deal with its spiritual death

February 23, 2011

A culture expresses itself in what it chooses to build. Ancient Egypt gave us the pyramids, tombs of their god-kings. Medieval France gave us the Gothic cathedral. Twenty-first century Texas gives us a $1.2-billion football stadium. Recently the Quebec provincial government and the Quebec City municipal government announced $400 million in funding for a new hockey arena. It will be the new home of what remains, as of now, an imaginary Quebec City NHL team. Juxtapose that with the news, reported in The Catholic Register last week, that Quebec’s Catholic bishops have asked the province to assist with the maintenance of the hundreds of historic churches that are no longer sustainable by the dwindling number of Quebeckers who practise their faith.

The exceptional criminality of Linda Gibbons

February 23, 2011

I have never met Linda Gibbons. I’m not sure I’d want to. After all, this 63-year-old grandmother must be a very dangerous person. She has spent almost all of the last 20 years locked up in jail. Gibbons’ story began in 1994 when the NDP formed the Ontario Government and then Attorney-General Marion Boyd obtained a court injunction to prevent anyone from offering up a public protest within a 60-foot “bubble zone” around abortion clinics. Gibbons believes abortion is tantamount to murder. You do not have to share her view to recognize the moral imperative it creates. So Gibbons stands on the sidewalk outside abortion clinics and prays silently. Sometimes she goes further; sometimes she goes so far as to hold up a sign that says: “Why, Mom, when I have so much love to give?”

Taking on secularism

February 23, 2011

In a subtle nod to the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, some Quebeckers are calling the case of Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay the “Prayer Trial.” In the Scopes case a small-town Tennessee high school teacher, John Scopes, faced charges of teaching evolution in a trial that pitted church against state and traditionalists against modernists. The trial sparked a local furor and national debate that made international headlines. Tremblay’s case is unlikely to attain such notoriety but, from the perspective of church vs. state, the two cases do indeed bear some resemblance.

D&P keeps a watchful eye on Mideast developments

February 23, 2011

With only a few, small projects in the Middle East, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is carefully watching the changing political landscape before it makes any changes to its programming in the region. “Our current program, which is mainly focused on peacebuilding, is quite small and we are not present in any of the countries experiencing protests,” Development and Peace spokeswoman Kelly Di Domenico told The Catholic Register. Most of the $935,000 a year Development and Peace designates for the Middle East is in fact spent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where partner agencies receive $385,000 and $120,000 to run programs that help women earn money.

John Cassaday to chair Cardinal's Dinner 2011

February 23, 2011

TORONTO - John M. Cassaday, president and chief executive officer of Corus Entertainment Inc., has been named as chair of the 32nd annual Cardinal’s Dinner. The dinner, founded by the late Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter and continued to this day by Archbishop Thomas Collins, has raised more than $5 million since its inception, with many business and political leaders attending each year. It will be held Oct. 27 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Youth get creative to worship the Lord

February 23, 2011

Since childhood, we have done our best to stay true to our faith in all aspects of our lives — especially worship. We maintain the same habits we were taught as children and often do not think of other ways to pray to the Lord. At times our prayer life may feel quite repetitive and we may find prayer more of a chore than a form of worship. To stay interested and involved in worship, as with anything, we must rethink ways to worship Christ. Many Catholic youth — myself included — have found ways of worshipping that elicit a deep interest within the one who is praying and allows for a newfound intimacy during prayer. The use of song, art, poetry and dance are platforms utilized by this generation of Catholic youth to worship and promote Christ.

Basilian plan for school for low-income students draws fire

February 23, 2011

TORONTO - A new private Catholic high school that wants to open its doors to youth from low-income families in Toronto is taking flack from critics who argue the plan would “economically segregate” students. David Livingstone, director of the University of Toronto OISE Centre for the Study of Education and Work, has concerns about the proposed model for the 500-student Toronto Cristo Rey School, which will be run by the Basilian order. The project is “well-intentioned but ill-informed,” said Livingstone, author of How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. He said research since the 1960s has found that mixing low-income and high-income students together suggests “low-income students are going to gain and high-income students are not going to lose.”

Saguenay Mayor vows to fight prayer ban

February 23, 2011

The Catholic mayor of Saguenay, Que., is appealing for donations to help him fight a Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ruling that ordered him to stop opening council meetings with a prayer. Mayor Jean Tremblay said he will appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. “We make a prayer, all the council, since the beginning of the city 150 years ago,” said Tremblay in an interview from Saguenay of the 20-second prayer said before the opening of council meetings. Tremblay has also refused to heed an order to remove a crucifix and a small statue of the Sacred Heart from council chambers. “We don’t agree with that because those objects for some people that means our faith, for some others our culture, for some other our tradition,” he said.

Building an Ark

February 23, 2011

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you. You will recognize these words as the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, If, and they, as much as any scriptural commentary, provide the key to understand the story of Noah and the Ark. What is the meaning of this story? Are we really to believe that at a certain time in history the whole earth was flooded and that one man, Noah, had the foresight to build a boat on which he had placed a male and female of every living species on earth so as to save them from extinction? Clearly the story is not to be taken literally, as a concrete event in the history of this planet. Like a number of other biblical stories of the origins of history, it is not an historical video-tape of what happened but is rather a story of the human heart, a story which is truer than true in that it happens again and again inside of our lives. And how does it happen? What is the meaning of the story of Noah and the Ark?

Linda Gibbons to get a hearing before the Supreme Court of Canada

February 23, 2011

TORONTO - The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to hear jailed activist Linda Gibbons' appeal of a temporary injunction banning protest at downtown Toronto abortion clinics later this year. Her lawyer, Daniel Santoro, expects the Supreme Court could hear her case in the fall. Gibbons, a 62-year-old great-grandmother, has been arrested 20 times over the last 16 years, spending half of that time in maximum security prisons for different offences under the Criminal Code. This for violating a temporary 1994 civil court injunction protecting downtown Toronto abortion clinics from protesters such as Gibbons, an injunction that has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Ontario. She is not permitted within 60 feet of the clinics. Gibbons has violated the injunction each time by praying within the no-go zone.