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September 2011

September 21

Retreats program sets young adults’ ‘Hearts on Fire’

September 21, 2011

The first thing Fr. Phil Hurley makes clear is that when he is speaking about Hearts on Fire he is not referring to a popular line of engagement rings. “This is not the world’s most perfectly cut diamond,” he jokes. The priest is the national youth and young adult director of the Apostleship of Prayer, a Jesuit association leading the Hearts on Fire retreats. The retreats are for young adults ages 18-39, married or single, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer. “It’s a crucial time for people in their lives,” Hurley told Catholic News Service. “They are at a place in their life that they can make decisions soon and take action on it right away and make a big difference.”

Community building and vulnerability

September 21, 2011

VANCOUVER - Every May, the graduating class of St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School in North Vancouver, B.C., attends a three-day retreat organized and facilitated by school staff and alumni. My Grade 12 retreat four years ago is one of my fondest memories of high school. So it was a blessing this past May to be invited to help lead the 2011 class in this spiritual exercise. The objective of the retreat, held at Camp Stillwood (about a two-hour drive from Vancouver), is to help students open up to God and to each other. Students begin from varying levels of spirituality; we had to ensure they understood that. The retreat had all the activities that a large-scale retreat should have: a morning of team building exercises and games, a campfire, free time and an evening devoted to hilarious skits (making fun of teachers is encouraged). As a leader, I was responsible for leading some of these games, leading small group discussions and helping lead worship.

Adoration brings Scripture alive

September 21, 2011

OTTAWA - Many people find that getting away for a retreat is impossible due to time, money or family reasons. Even finding a free weekend can be difficult in our busy lives. Aside from a day at my church during Advent and Lent, where parishioners gather for lectures, quiet time and a silent meal, I haven’t attended a formal retreat in more than a decade. Instead, I have discovered the simplest, most flexible way for me to make a retreat is to find my way to the nearest adoration chapel and stay there for an hour or two. Over the past year, I have done this frequently. I have also been blessed with the grace to pray three novenas that included a minimum of an hour of adoration for every one of the nine days.

Dufferin-Peel board launches book on history of Catholic education

September 21, 2011

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - Grade 7 and 10 students in Dufferin-Peel west of Toronto are about to welcome 400 years of history on 252 glossy pages into their classrooms, and they have a couple of former students to thank for it. Our Story. Our Tradition. Our Journey: Celebrating the Church-School Connection in Dufferin-Peel is the first book published in more than 30 years by the Catholic school board that covers Mississauga and Brampton. It’s a history of Catholic education in Ontario and the region. The timeline stretches back as far as the Jesuit martyrs of the 17th century. Former students Daniel Francavilla and Jennifer Paul were asked to work on the book by their media studies teacher, Peter Fujiwara. What began as a little design and layout project ended up stretching out for a year. The pair graduated from St. Marguerite d'Youville Secondary School in Brampton, Francavilla in 2008 and Paul in 2009.

Canadian patrons help unearth Vatican’s Santa Rosa necropolis

September 21, 2011

TORONTO - A treasure that was buried for centuries within the Vatican walls will soon be on public display thanks to a triumph of local archeology and Canadian philanthropy. The Canadian chapter of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums will travel to the Vatican Museums in October to celebrate its role in the restoration of the Santa Rosa necropolis, a Roman cemetery of significant archeological and historical value. The patrons have donated about $1 million to the restoration cause. Discovered by accident in 2003 when a parking lot was being expanded, the necropolis was a burying ground mainly for slaves, servants and Rome’s lower classes.

The story of Dorothy Day, warts and all

September 21, 2011

Jim Forest’s beautifully written and poignant All is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day reveals the founder of the Catholic Worker movement as no ordinary saint, if her cause for beatification and canonization opened in 2000 proves successful. The book does not gloss over any of the controversial aspects of her early life. Before becoming Catholic, Day sought an abortion, hoping losing the child would save her love affair with the baby’s father. Afterwards, she returned to their apartment to find the man had left, leaving behind only a letter urging her to forget him and a small amount of money that he had originally intended to pay a bar bill, Forest writes. Four years later, she was delighted to become pregnant while in another relationship that, because of his atheism and her entering the Catholic Church, she realized she must end.

Forgotten Rembrandt sparks Christ art exhibit

September 21, 2011

TORONTO - For many years, a painting of Christ that sat in storage at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was believed to be a Rembrandt copy. But there was something about the painting that piqued the curiosity of Canadian art expert Lloyd DeWitt, then the associate curator of the museum’s John G. Johnson Collection. DeWitt since June has been the curator of European art at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto Typical of the period, the painting was done on oak. That allowed DeWitt to initiate analysis of the painting using a process called dendrochronology, or “tree ring dating.” He made a remarkable discovery.

Regis College film series explores how we discern

September 21, 2011

TORONTO - All too often, people don’t understand how they operate or what their core values are, said Jesuit Father Monty Williams, creator of the fall film series at Toronto’s Regis College. Exploring the theme “Discernment: Finding God in the World,” the series at the Jesuit college at the University of Toronto will help participants better understand their own value system through looking at how they deal with ethical situations. “It’s significant today because the value systems that are given to us come from a whole range of ideological standpoints — even within the Church,” said Williams. “So it’s very important for a young person on their spiritual journey to at least have some understanding of what values are becoming incarnate in them.”

Shorter homilies may help bring youth back to Church

September 21, 2011

NEW ORLEANS - For eight days at Loyola University New Orleans, three priests and five deacons absorbed the cool mathematics and internal symmetry of good preaching. Just as Moses descended from Mount Sinai with Ten Commandments chiseled on two stone tablets, the rules laid out by Fr. Roy Shelly and Deborah Wilhelm of the diocese of Monterey, Calif., while not etched in permanent marker, are boundaries worthy of respect: six to eight minutes for a Sunday homily, three to five minutes for a weekday sermon. “The idea is not so much ‘brevity’ as it is not taking longer than you need,” said Wilhelm, a doctoral student with a focus on preaching at the Aquinas Institute of Theology.

Embrace the unknown

September 21, 2011

What do you see when you think of the unknown? A dark forest or an impenetrable fog? Whether by hesitating to socialize outside our circle of friends or by becoming too accustomed to daily routines, it isn’t surprising that we like to avoid risks. However, many good things await in the unknown and God doesn’t want us to miss out on them. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally losing some control over life and embracing unfamiliar situations. After all, God is in control and has a plan — even if it isn’t always obvious to us.

Student cross to ‘witness’ citywide

September 21, 2011

TORONTO - It was a triumph of the cross at Neil McNeil Catholic High School. A seven-by-five-foot cross that was built and designed by two of the east-end school’s students and teachers has been chosen to travel to each of the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s 201 schools over the next two years. The cross is part of the board’s celebration of “The Year of Witness,” the third year of the board’s pastoral plan focusing on “Word, Witness and Worship.”

Cambodian NGOs seek Canadian help

September 21, 2011

OTTAWA - An alliance of Cambodian advocacy groups has asked Canada to urge the Royal Government of Cambodia to rescind a proposed law that would severely restrict the work of non-governement organizations in that country. A representative of the civil society groups engaged in democracy building, land reform and human rights in Cambodia came to Ottawa Sept. 14 to appeal for help in preventing a law that will require Cambodian NGOs to register with the state, allowing the government to restrict or shut down NGOs without an appeals process. “The law is not passed yet but we have already seen how it will work,” said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of Cambodia’s NGO Forum, an umbrella group representing 87 NGOs, various civil society groups and about 200 additional members.

Concerns raised over Priests for Life funds

September 21, 2011

WASHINGTON - Fr. Frank Pavone, one of the most visible opponents of abortion in the United States in his role as national director of Priests for Life, has been suspended from active ministry outside the diocese of Amarillo, Texas, over financial questions about his pro-life organization. The suspension was made public in a letter from Amarillo Bishop Patrick Zurek to his fellow bishops across the country. “My decision is the result of deep concerns regarding his stewardship of the finances of the Priests for Life (PFL) organization,” Zurek wrote. “The PFL has become a business that is quite lucrative which provides Fr. Pavone with financial independence from all legitimate ecclesiastical oversight.”

Police called in to probe Ottawa parish finances

September 21, 2011

OTTAWA - The Ottawa archdiocese has asked police to investigate the finances of a parish that had been led by a charismatic priest who admitted last spring to a gambling addiction. In a Sept. 18 letter distributed to parishioners at Blessed Sacrament parish in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood, Ottawa Vicar General Msgr. Kevin Beach said an independent audit of church finances found “questionable practices that require further investigation.” Beach had no further comment on the matter, but a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said he will answer questions after the 11 a.m. Mass Sept. 25 at Blessed Sacrament.

Pope to waken Germans to importance of faith, archbishop says

September 21, 2011

BERLIN - The president of the German bishops' conference said he expects Pope Benedict XVI to "wake up" his fellow Germans to the reality of God, the place of religious values in society and the need for a patient search for Christian unity. "He's going to wake us up. He doesn't want us to get distracted by the question of the financial crisis and financial problems in Germany ... but what is worth living for," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, president of the bishops' conference, told reporters on the eve of the pope's Sept. 22-25 visit. "The pope knows about the situation in Germany. He knows that Christian belief -- in the Protestant as well as the Catholic Church -- has weakened. The number of the faithful has decreased, and participation in religious services has declined. We have learned that people are not really interested in religion anymore," he said.

September 22

In Germany, pope says religious values still essential for society

September 22, 2011

BERLIN - Arriving in Germany for a four-day visit, Pope Benedict XVI strongly defended the church's voice in public affairs and said that to dismiss religious values as irrelevant would "dismember our culture." In a major address to the German parliament Sept. 22, the pope said belief in God was the foundation for Western progress in law and social justice through the centuries. "The conviction that there is a creator God is what gave rise to the idea of human rights, the idea of the equality of all people before the law, the recognition of the inviolability of human dignity in every single person and the awareness of people's responsibility for their actions," he said.

Smuggling bill under fire as Parliament resumes

September 22, 2011

OTTAWA - The federal Conservatives’ anti-human smuggling Bill C-4 came under attack as Parliament resumed Sept. 19 following its summer break. Opposition parties are trying to block the latest version of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s bill that had drawn criticism last November from Canada’s Catholic bishops. They will have a hard time however, considering the Conservative majority in Parliament. Bill C-4 was the first item debated by MPs upon their return Sept. 19. The bill aims to prevent human smugglers from abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act, placing restrictions on any group of refugee claimants who arrive in “irregular” circumstances. Kenney said the bill is aimed at smuggling syndicates, like those that brought two large shiploads of illegal migrants to Canada in the last two years.

D&P raises $4.7 million for Horn of Africa relief

September 22, 2011

As the curtain came down on 10 weeks of double-your-money matching donations for famine relief in East Africa, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace had raised approximately $4.7 million. More than 13 million people face possible starvation in Horn of Africa countries, including Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. More than two years of drought and crop failure in the region have been compounded by political chaos in Somalia. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are on the move in the region. Development and Peace will put donations to work in both short term, emergency feeding and medical care through the Caritas network and longer term projects to support farming.

Pope says Catholic-Jewish dialogue important for society

September 22, 2011

BERLIN - The Nazi "reign of terror" clearly demonstrated the depths of evil that men are capable of when they deny God and the dignity of all people he created, Pope Benedict XVI told leaders of Germany's Jewish community. Speaking Sept. 22 with the Jewish representatives in a meeting room in the Reichstag, which houses the German parliament, the pope spoke about the need to continue remembering the horror of the Shoah, the importance of continuing Catholic-Jewish dialogue and the need for all believers in God to work together to bring moral values to society. The Reichstag is a place of "appalling remembrance," the pope said, because it was in the parliament building that "the Shoah, the annihilation of our Jewish fellow citizens in Europe, was planned and organized."

Fight against federal law will undermine marriage, says archbishop

September 22, 2011

WASHINGTON - Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, told President Barack Obama in a Sept. 20 letter that his administration's fight against the Defense of Marriage Act will undermine marriage and create a serious breach of church-state relations. The law, known as DOMA, defines marriage as between one man and one woman. "It is especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination, as your administration insists on doing," the archbishop said.