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March 2012

March 7

Cardinal Thomas Collins greets his flock - "We must engage in our faith"

March 7, 2012

TORONTO - Like the prophet Jonah, Catholics need to become “boldly engaged” in a society that at times can seem “distant and antagonistic” to our faith, Cardinal Thomas Collins urged at a Pontifical Mass of thanksgiving in honour of his recent elevation to the College of Cardinals. “We need engagement. Bold engagement,” said Collins, adding we can all learn from Jonah, “the reluctant prophet” sent by God to preach to the ancient pagan city of Nineveh.

Don't lose hope, even in hardship, Pope tells Middle East Christians

March 7, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians in the Middle East not to lose hope despite the serious difficulties they face. "I extend my prayerful thoughts to the regions in the Middle East, encouraging all the priests and faithful to persevere with hope through the serious suffering that afflicts these beloved people," he said. The Pope made his remarks when he greeted Armenian Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni of Beirut and Armenian bishops from around the world attending their synod in Rome.

Remembering Bishop Samuel Ruiz

March 7, 2012

TORONTO - Bishop Samuel Ruiz made the Vatican nervous, he made the government of Mexico nervous and he made indigenous people around the world proud. Ruiz was bishop of the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern Mexican province for more than 40 years. He was memorialized in an ecumenical prayer service in Toronto Feb. 23 by veteran human rights campaigners and Church activists. “His legacy is alive and well and is needed in Mexico today,” Jesuit Father José Avilés told about 100 people who gathered for the prayer service and a conference that followed.

Caritas Lebanon seeks shelter for refugees fleeing Syrian violence

March 7, 2012

BEIRUT - Church aid workers scrambled to find housing for hundreds of Syrian refugees who have fled to neighboring Lebanon because of ongoing violence between Syrian forces and armed rebels. About 200 families -- more than 1,000 people overall -- made their way to the border town of Qaa in the Bekaa Valley in northern Lebanon March 5 and were struggling in the region's near-freezing temperatures. Father Simon Faddoul, president of Caritas Lebanon, told Catholic News Service March 6 that "women and children and the elderly are coming out in the cold, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, to seek safety."

Vatican website succumbs to online hacker attack

March 7, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's official website suffered an attack by computer hackers March 7, cutting off access by users for several hours. Italian media outlets reported that the website, vatican.va, became unresponsive around mid-afternoon local time, just as several other websites carried messages taking credit for the disruption in the name of the hacking group Anonymous. Email to and from the vatican.va domain was reportedly also blocked for at least part of the time.

March 8

Migration offers opportunity for growth, mission, say speakers in Rome

March 8, 2012

ROME - While migration brings struggles for the migrant and the host country, in the long term it provides opportunities for stability, cultural enrichment and religious growth, said speakers at a Rome event sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. U.S. Ambassador Miguel H. Diaz, a Cuban-born theologian, told the audience that while balancing humanitarian and legal concerns is a challenge for modern states dealing with migration, "by finding ways to integrate migrants, communities can become stronger than before. The experience of migration can be an opportunity to embrace positively human diversity."

Canadian refugee reform makes it us vs. them

March 8, 2012

Vilmos Csikja, his wife Beata and their four children from Hungary are the kind of people Immigration Minister Jason Kenney calls “bogus refugees.” They have been in Canada three years. Their application for refugee protection was denied by the Immigration and Refugee Board, an appeal to the federal court was unsuccessful, the IRB’s appeal division turned them down and the Federal Court has now declined to overturn that decision. Their last hope is an appeal to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Only about three per cent of Hungarian Roma refugee applications are successful at the IRB. Roma refugee cases have exploded over the last five years. In 2007 there were just 34. In 2011 there were almost 5,000. The Roma refugee boom coincides with two factors — the 2007 lifting of visa requirements for Hungary and increasing prominence of the extreme right wing Jobbik party in the Hungarian parliament.

Best Buy grant brings $20,000 for Beamsville school

March 8, 2012

Beamsville, Ont.'s St. John Catholic Elementary School is one of 12 schools from across the country that will enhance its technological capabilities thanks to a $20,000 grant from Best Buy Canada. The money will be used to upgrade outdated technology at the school in the small town located just west of St. Catharines, Ont. "We are very excited and we think it is going to be very beneficial to our students," said Michael Maiorano, Grade 5 teacher at St. John. "Technology is always going out and you always need new technology and we think that is beneficial to our students."

Eucharistic congress won't ignore abuse scandal, Vatican official says

March 8, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin will be characterized by humility, moderation and a renewed focus on the Eucharist as the source and nourishment of unity in the church, said the president of the Vatican committee charged with overseeing the gathering. Archbishop Piero Marini, president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, said the congress June 10-17 will reflect that this year is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, but also that Catholics in the host country, Ireland, are still reeling from the clerical sex abuse scandal and are engaged in a process of repentance and reform.

Court overturns conflict conviction against TCDSB trustee Kennedy

March 8, 2012

TORONTO - The Ontario Divisional Court has cleared Toronto Catholic school trustee Angela Kennedy of conflict-of-interest charges. The court overturned a 2010 Ontario Superior Court verdict that found Kennedy guilty of a conflict stemming from a May 2008 school board budget meeting where she had voted against staff layoffs. The 2010 decision ruled her vote may have affected two of her sons who were employed by the Toronto Catholic District School Board. The appellate court ruled March 5 that any economic interests Kennedy may have gained by voting against the cuts were minimal and unlikely to influence her vote.

Christians in Syria live in fear of persecution, say Catholic officials

March 8, 2012

JERUSALEM - Christians in Syria live in fear of a repeat of persecution like was seen in Iraq, said officials of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine. "The same pattern like in Iraq is re-emerging, as Islamic militants are now kidnapping and killing Christians in Syria," said Issam Bishara, vice president of the Pontifical Mission and regional director for Lebanon and Syria. "Christians are concerned about the repercussions of the events taking place in the region. They fear that the experiences of Iraq and Lebanon -- which took place against the backdrop of a civil war -- could play out again in their own lands. These concerns haunt the Syrian Christians."

March 9

Church must better explain teaching on sexuality, Pope tells US bishops

March 9, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Permissive attitudes toward sex, cohabitation before marriage and acceptance of same-sex marriage can damage individuals and are harmful for society, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of U.S. bishops at the Vatican. "It is in fact increasingly evident that a weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant, and the widespread rejection of a responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity, have led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost," the Pope said March 9.

Catholic movie reviews - John Carter & Silent House

March 9, 2012

Planning on a trip to the movies this weekend? We have reviews of a the year's first big blockbuster from Disney and a new horror starring Elizabeth Olsen.

Future priests share the stories of their call at 2012 Ordinandi Dinner

March 9, 2012

TORONTO - Ten years ago, Chris Lemieux sat amidst a crowd of Catholics listening to the vocation stories of a group of young men on the brink of entering the priesthood. Though it was only a few months after his baptism, he knew then that he was being called to religious life. So on March 6, it was only fitting that Lemieux would follow in the footsteps of those men and become one of this year's four priestly candidates to share their stories with a crowd of more than 1,900 at the 22nd annual Ordinandi Dinner. Serra International, an organization promoting vocations to Catholic religious life, hosted the evening, which was held at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton, Ont.

Vatican vulnerable to money launderers despite new laws, says US report

March 9, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The U.S. government has put the Vatican on a list of countries that are vulnerable to money launderers, though not as vulnerable as the United States itself. It was the first time the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs included the Holy See in its annual report. The Vatican was one of 68 countries listed as "Jurisdictions of Concern," the second classification behind "Jurisdictions of Primary Concern," which the U.S. identifies as major money-laundering countries and includes the United States, Canada, Australia and Mexico.

New evangelization also begins with confession, Pope says

March 9, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Confession can help Catholics build lives filled with hope and holiness, which are needed for effective evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI said. "New evangelization, therefore, also starts from the confessional," he told confessors and other participants attending a course sponsored by the Apostolic Penitentiary -- a Vatican court that that handles issues related to the absolution of sin. New evangelization "draws its life blood from the holiness of the children of the church, from the daily journey of personal and communal conversion to adhere ever more deeply to Christ, he said in his address March 9.

Recognizing gay unions devalues marriage, official tells UN council

March 9, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church condemns violence and discrimination against homosexual persons, but recognizing same-sex unions as a marriage devalues the unique identity and social contributions of the union of a man and a woman, a Vatican official told the U.N. Human Rights Council. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Vatican observer at U.N. agencies in Geneva, told the council March 9 that the Vatican "condemns discrimination and violence against any human person, including those who are so targeted because of perceived sexual differences."

Moving beyond the Mideast headlines in "Persecuted Christians"

March 9, 2012

TORONTO - Every reporter wants what Martin Himel has — a story that could shift how people think and talk about global politics, a story rich with human drama, suffering, heartbreak and redemption. Himel found that story among Christian refugees in Toronto and among the huddled and fearful Christians of Cairo and Baghdad where he filmed Persecuted Christians. The hour-long documentary will get its world premiere on VisionTV March 14.

March 10

Catholic blogosphere is out there — and that’s a good thing

March 10, 2012

OTTAWA - Colin Kerr used to believe Catholic bloggers in Canada were “a bunch of cranks.” But then he looked more closely and had to think again. Kerr, an assistant professor of theology at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay, Ont., found more than 100 English- language blogs in his investigation of the Canadian Catholic blogosphere. They included blogs by bishops (Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and Montreal Bishop Thomas Dowd), blogs by priests and religious, blogs by organizations such as the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Catholic Register and Salt + Light TV, blogs by homeschooling moms, blogs by pro-lifers, blogs on liturgy, theological reflections, parenthood and religious life inside a monastery.

March 11

Getting to know Jesus from a Jewish perspective

March 11, 2012

Jesus was a Jew. Mary and Joseph were Jews. All 12 apostles were Jews. The first ecumenical council of the Church was held in Jerusalem in about 50 AD and everybody there was Jewish — even if they were there to decide what to do about non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Very few of the people you meet at Sunday morning Mass are Jewish. Still, all these gentiles who surround us in church want nothing more than to know Jesus better. The Jewish Annotated New Testament is an invitation to do just that — know Jesus better.