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August 2011

August 2

Pope calls for compassion, sharing with hungry of Africa

August 2, 2011

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - Christians cannot be indifferent to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people starving in the Horn of Africa, Pope Benedict XVI said. "It is inadmissible to be indifferent in the face of the tragedy of the hungry and thirsty," the Pope said, speaking in Polish after reciting the Angelus July 31 with pilgrims gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo. When Jesus fed the multitudes by miraculously multiplying loaves and fishes, He gave His disciples an example to follow, the Pope said. "He encourages us to give them something to eat and to share bread with the needy. Following Christ, we must be sensitive to people's poverty," he said. Commenting on the day's Gospel passage, the Pope said it was natural to read the story of Jesus' miracle and think of "our many brothers and sisters who, in these days, in the Horn of Africa, suffer from famine aggravated by war and the lack of solid institutions."

August 3

There are no favourites in heaven

August 3, 2011

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Aug. 14 (Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28) Who are God’s favourites? Who is “in” and who is “out”? Human beings have always had a distressing tendency to want to possess or control God, making God the champion or protector of an ethnic group, nation, class or religion. People have difficulty imagining God blessing those considered to be enemies or undesirables. And yet the “distressing” message is repeated often in Scripture: God does not play favourites and God is there for all people. Often it is the encounter with people and groups who are different that acts as a catalyst for rethinking images of God. Those Israelites who went into exile in Babylon had to live among (and at the mercy of) an alien people with very different views of the divine. Although they struggled against this environment they also were affected by it and began to broaden their theology and their image of God. In Third Isaiah (chapters 55-61), which was written at the end of the exile, we begin to see a more universal understanding of God. In this passage an image of a holy mountain and temple in which all the peoples of the Earth are welcome makes a startling appearance. Israel’s God can be everyone’s God — right conduct, desire and worship is the only entrance requirement.

Norway shooter is against Christian, Jewish faiths as well

August 3, 2011

WASHINGTON - The man responsible for the July 22 Norway terror attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, is not only against Muslims but also anti-Jewish and anti-Christian, according to a longtime observer of Norwegian hate groups. Breivik is at least philosophically allied with a loosely organized underground subculture of Norwegians who consider themselves "Odinists and neo-pagans," said Jeffrey Podoshen, an associate professor of marketing at Franklin & Marshall College, a liberal arts school in Lancaster, Pa. He teaches classes in business, organizations and society, and Judaic studies. Odin is an ancient Norse god sometimes better known these days as the father of another Norse god, Thor, but in Norse mythology is associated with war, battle, victory, death, wisdom, magic, poetry, prophecy and the hunt. This subculture, Podoshen told Catholic News Service, is "looking at Christianity as Breivik looks at Islam."

Archbishop Spence led Kingston diocese for two decades

August 3, 2011

Archbishop Francis John Spence, former archbishop of Kingston, died peacefully in his Kingston, Ont., home on the morning of July 27 at the age of 85. Archbishop Spence, a former president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), served as a priest for 61 years and as a bishop for 44. In 2002, after two decades of leading the archdiocese of Kingston, he retired. “As an archdiocese, we thank God for the gift of Archbishop emeritus Spence and his unfailing service and witness throughout the years of his priesthood and episcopacy,” read a statement from the archdiocese of Kingston. Archbishop Spence was born in Perth, Ont., in 1926. After his ordination in 1950, he spent two years as an associate pastor at Kingston's St. Mary’s Cathedral, where he was the secretary to the archbishop of Kingston. In 1955, Archbishop Spence earned a doctorate in canon law from the Angelicum University in Rome after three years of study. After returning to Kingston, he fulfilled a variety of responsibilities and attended the Second Vatican Council, until his appointment as a bishop in 1967.

Car bombs planted in front of Iraqi churches

August 3, 2011

VATICAN CITY - A car bomb exploded outside a Syrian Catholic church in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk leaving at least 20 people injured. The early morning attack Aug. 2 was the first time the Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church had been a target, Vatican Radio said. Police defused two other car bombs — one in front of a Christian school and another in front of a Presbyterian church. Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk told Vatican Radio that the blast set nearby cars on fire and damaged not only the church, but also about 30 surrounding homes. Most of those injured were in their homes at the time of the blast. The archbishop said he visited the injured in the hospital. "It's terrible," he said, as both Christians and Muslims were wounded in the attack. Many of the injured had been released by the end of the day, according to reports.

St. Augustine's student to tackle Lake Ontario

August 3, 2011

Rebekah Boscariol plans to swim across Lake Ontario for Sick Kids [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/rebekahswimthedistance.jpg]When she was eight, Rebekah Boscariol wanted to swim across the Pacific Ocean. And while it’s not quite her childhood dream, Lake Ontario – which Boscariol will cross on Aug. 5 – is still no small feat. Boscariol, 17, will swim from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., to the Toronto Lakeshore this weekend to satisfy a long-time yearning to do a solo distance swim and to raise money for the cardiac care unit at SickKids Hospital, a familiar locale for the Boscariol family. Rebekah and two of her five younger siblings have stayed at SickKids, including her 4-year-old sister Sophia, who had a successful heart surgery there in July. In 2009, when a friend from Boscariol’s swim team mentioned the story of Marilyn Bell – the first person to ever swim across Lake Ontario – Rebekah decided she wanted to emulate the accomplishment. Her mother, however, wasn’t so anxious to have her 14-year-old daughter swim more than 50 km.

August 4

Summer novels are fine, but pick up the Bible, too, pope says

August 4, 2011

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - While there's nothing wrong with a bit of light reading in the summer, reading a book or two of the Bible also can be a relaxing -- as well as enlightening -- vacation activity, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Naturally, many of the books of literature we pick up during vacation are for a diversion, and this is normal," he said Aug. 3 as he held his weekly general audience in the town square at Castel Gandolfo. With some 4,500 visitors and pilgrims present for the audience, the gathering was too large to be held in the courtyard of the pope's summer villa. The human need to relax is something to be thankful for, the pope said, because "it tells us that we were not made only to work, but also to think, reflect or simply to follow, with our mind and heart, a story we can identify with or even lose ourselves in and so find ourselves enriched." Pope Benedict said, "The Bible is a little library born over the course of a millennium," and some of the books inside are very short. They would be a great place to start for someone who has never read an entire book of the Bible.

Lahey’s sentencing hearing examines nature and scope of his child porn collection

August 4, 2011

OTTAWA - At Bishop Raymond Lahey’s sentencing hearing here Aug. 4, his lawyers tried to show his child porn collection was smaller, less sophisticated and less hard-core than others examined by an Ottawa Police detective. Detective Andrew Thompson, who found 588 child porn images, 60 videos and a file containing fictional stories on the bishop’s laptop and other devices, agreed Lahey’s collection was smaller than some he had investigated which had included hundreds of thousands of illegal images. And while Thompson agreed many of Lahey’s images were on the soft-core end of the spectrum, showing adolescent boys in nude poses, he stressed some were “quite graphic” and included “torture and stuff like that.” The expert in child pornography investigations and computer forensics admitted he has seen worse child pornography than those in Lahey’s collection, but some of the bishop’s worst images “were right up there.” None of the material depicted infants, for example, but “the explicit images of torture are disturbing,” he said. He told the court that the unusual combination of images, videos and stories showed that “Mr. Lahey has gone out and searched for stuff like that.”

August 5

Pro-lifers go down to the Crossroads

August 5, 2011

TORONTO - Since the days of Terry Fox, it’s not uncommon to find people walking, running or cycling across Canada. What’s unorthodox about the Crossroads walkers is that their cause is life. This summer, a group of Catholic university age students has been trekking across the country via highways, country roads and city streets, donning t-shirts that read “Pro-life” in large, capital letters. The group, totalling 13 young people from across Canada and the United States, began the 2011 Crossroads Pro-Life Walk in Vancouver on May 21. After traversing six provinces, they will arrive in Ottawa on Aug. 13 where their three-month journey will end with a pro-life rally. The group passed through Toronto July 30-Aug. 1, where they were joined by about 50 local supporters. “We have to keep awareness of the plight of the unborn and their mothers in the forefront of our complacent society,” wrote John Paul Meenan, a professor at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, who walked with the group for two weeks. “Crossroads provides just such a witness for life, for the unborn, their mothers and fathers, and all those who may be ignorant of the great and inestimable dignity of each and every human being as a person made in the image of God.”

August 6

Catholic agencies part of aid campaign in Horn of Africa

August 6, 2011

LUSAKA, Zambia - Catholic agencies are reported to be among the leading organizations providing humanitarian aid to the drought- and famine-ravaged Horn of Africa. The Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa reports that Jesuit Refugee Service, Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Ethiopia and Caritas Kenya have helped thousands of refugees in northern Kenya and internally displaced people in Somalia since the water crisis hit in November. AMECEA spokesman Fr. Chrisantus Ndaga told Catholic News Service that Catholic humanitarian agencies also have worked in Djibouti and Ethiopia, running programs that address agricultural and water needs.

August 7

Jesuits sell seventh-century St. Cuthbert Gospel for $14.7 million

August 7, 2011

LONDON - The Jesuits have sold the historic St. Cuthbert Gospel — believed the oldest intact book produced in Europe — to the British Library for $14.7 million (U.S.). The British Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sell the late seventh-century Anglo-Saxon manuscript to raise funds to help fund Jesuit schools in London and Glasgow, Scotland, pay for a new school to be founded in Africa and pay for the restoration of the 19th century Church of St. Peter, Stonyhurst, the parish that serves Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England. The book, a pocket-size Latin translation of the Gospel of St. John, was found inside the coffin of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, when the saint's grave was opened in 1104. Experts believe the manuscript was placed inside the casket within 10 years of the hermit's death in 687. Jesuit Father Kevin Fox, spokesman for the British Province of the Society of Jesus, announced the sale of the Gospel in a statement in July.

August 8

At Angelus, Pope calls for prayers for Syria, Libya

August 8, 2011

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI appealed for reconciliation and respect for human rights in Syria and Libya where the governments have used force to try to end pro-democracy protests. "With deep concern, I am following the dramatic and growing episodes of violence in Syria," the pope said Aug. 7 at the end of his Angelus address to visitors gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo. A government crackdown on protesters in Hama, Syria, Aug. 5 reportedly left two dozen people dead. The United Nations has said "around 2,000 people are reported to have been killed in clashes in Syria since protesters took to the streets in mid-March demanding greater civil liberties. The violent crackdown by the authorities has received widespread condemnation from the U.N., including the Security Council and top officials, as well as world leaders."

August 9

Knights called to foster Christian unity, carry out new evangelization

August 9, 2011

DENVER - The archbishop of Quebec told members of the Knights of Columbus gathered in Denver for their convention he hoped they would be transformed, just as the first disciples had been transformed at the Transfiguration. "The Gospel reminds us that 'Jesus took with him Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain ... and he was transfigured before them,'" said Archbishop Gerald Cyprian Lacroix, quoting from the Gospel of St. Matthew. "This year the Lord has led us up a high mountain to the Mile High City -- Denver, Colorado -- for a very special experience; hopefully a transfigurating experience," he said. Archbishop Lacroix, who also is the primate of Canada, was one of three speakers at the Knights' States Dinner Aug. 2. The others were Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara, Mexico, and U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, who is prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican's supreme tribunal.

MP to target market for prostitution, human trafficking

August 9, 2011

OTTAWA - Conservative MP Joy Smith plans to introduce five pieces of legislation to combat human trafficking, including a change in prostitution laws to punish men who buy sex, particularly from underage women. “What I want to do is target the market,” she said. Though the details of her legislation are embargoed, Smith said she likes the Nordic model that treats the women and children involved in prostitution as victims and criminalizes the men who buy sex or make money off exploiting prostitutes. Penalties could include fines and/or jail time. The Nordic model was adopted after hard evidence showed the harms that developed in some countries that had tried legalizing prostitution, she said. Legalized prostitution leads to an increase in violence against women, increase in child rape and child pornography, and a rise in human trafficking, she said.

St. Augustine's student conquers Lake Ontario

August 9, 2011

TORONTO - When she was eight, Rebekah Boscariol wanted to swim across the Pacific Ocean. And while it’s not quite her childhood dream, Lake Ontario — which Boscariol crossed on Aug. 6 — is still no small feat. Boscariol, a 17-year-old student at Markham's St. Augustine Catholic High School, swam from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., to the Toronto lakeshore, where she was welcomed by a roaring crowd of supporters as she touched land for the first time in 15 hours. "I was really happy that I was done and thankful that it's over," said Boscariol shortly after completing the swim, amidst a slew of family, friends, reporters and cameras. "And I just can't believe that I just actually did it." Boscariol, among the youngest of the 55 registered swimmers to have crossed Lake Ontario, finished only 23 minutes shy of the current women's record. Exhausted, she admitted she was disappointed she didn't beat the record with her time of 15 hours, 33 minutes and 15 seconds. But she had more motivation than just breaking a record.

Mass translations are a challenge in every language, official says

August 9, 2011

VATICAN CITY - In Italian the verbs "to translate" and "to betray" sound very similar and have given birth to the adage, "To translate is to betray." Msgr. Juan Miguel Ferrer Grenesche, undersecretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, cited the saying in an interview Aug. 9 with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, about the task of translating Mass texts and the Bible. English-speaking bishops are about to see stacks of new Roman Missals, the fruit of their long labors in commissioning, perfecting and obtaining Vatican approval for a new English translation of the prayers used at Mass. The Italian bishops' conference continues working on its new translation of the missal while the French bishops are working on both the missal and a new translation of the Bible, Msgr. Ferrer said. He told the Vatican newspaper that the whole "translator-betrayer" idea "is true to a great extent since the translator, even if involuntarily, can betray the text because it's not easy to faithfully transmit a text in another language."

August 10

Many of Catholic artist’s works draw inspiration from the Bible

August 10, 2011

TORONTO - Chris Fung was born and raised Catholic, but it was through art that he discovered his faith. That art is about to take centre stage at Fung’s upcoming show, Our Best Is Now: How. The exhibit, which runs from Aug. 16-28, will feature more than 100 pieces from Catholic artist Fung, his sister Janine and cousin Nigel. Catholic and artist weren’t always titles Fung held or coveted, though. At one point, he didn’t plan on being either. In his teens, Fung broke away from his faith as “the grass was greener anywhere else.” But when a friend committed suicide, Fung began his journey back to his Catholic roots, whether he knew it or not. To pass the time, he began drawing, though he had no experience with art outside high school art classes. Over time, it became more and more important to him, and the faith seemed to find its way into his art. Now, 12 years later, for the first time his work will be on display at a downtown Toronto art gallery.

Fr. Naranjo ministered to migrant workers

August 10, 2011

TORONTO - Fr. Jose Maria Naranjo took his mission as an Ardorini Missionary of serving people in rural areas seriously. As chaplain of the seasonal Mexican workers labouring in the Holland Marsh lands north of Toronto, he ran a weekly Mass in Spanish. “When they were losing their faith or depressed, he was there for them,” said Ricardo Boscan, national president of the Hispanic Cursillo Movement. “And that definitely did a lot for this group of people.” Fr. Naranjo passed away July 31 after months of battling cancer. Only 42 years old, he was in his 11th year of the priesthood with the Ardorini Missionaries. He was pastor of St. Mary Margaret parish in Woodbridge, Ont., where he had previously served as associate pastor and administrator. Born in Colombia, he came to Canada in 1994 with the sponsorship of Fr. Eugene Filice, local superior of the Ardorini Missionaries. Fr. Naranjo studied philosophy at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Colombia and theology at the Toronto School of Theology.

Mass for Faithful Departed unique in letting people resolve their grief

August 10, 2011

TORONTO - Catholic Cemeteries’ Annual Mass for the Faithful Departed offers families who have lost loved ones a great source of spiritual strength, said Amy Profenna. “By celebrating the Mass on the grounds where their loved ones are interred, it’s very special and very emotional for a lot of people,” said Profenna, manager of marketing and public relations at Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Toronto. “The Mass plays a unique role in the resolution of grief.” Taking place Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. at seven different cemeteries throughout the GTA, Profenna is expecting more than 12,000 people to attend the annual outdoor summer Masses. Catholic Cemeteries has been holding the Masses for about 24 years — and they typically fall close to the Feast of the Assumption. By celebrating the Annual Mass, Catholic Cemeteries aims to fulfill its mission as a vehicle of compassion to the bereaved, said Profenna.

Sowing the soil before the seed is planted

August 10, 2011

As World Youth Day quickly approaches, youth from all over the world are busy preparing for the celebration of the Catholic faith in Madrid, Spain. Millions of people will take part in a transformative worldwide encounter with Pope Benedict XVI during the week of Aug. 16-21. Never having attended a World Youth Day, I am so excited to experience this year’s extraordinary opportunity to deepen my faith and grow closer to Christ during this week-long event. When I first signed up to attend World Youth Day with my parish’s youth group, I admit that the idea of travelling to the beautiful city of Madrid with my closest friends quickly convinced me to take part. I didn’t stop to think about how the World Youth Day pilgrimage could have a potential effect on my life and faith.