Browse › 2012 › May

May 2012

May 16

Embracing change at St. Jerome’s as new president Katherine Bergman settles in

May 16, 2012

As a researcher, Katherine Bergman has an intense interest in the past. As the new president of St. Jerome’s University, Bergman wants to talk about the future. Bergman has been studying how southern Saskatchewan went from a giant lake to a semi-arid plain — that is “the transition of the Devonian Elk Point Basin from fully marine to desiccation.”

Youth can turn to patron saints for help

May 16, 2012

Praying to patron saints can be particularly helpful to young people of faith, guiding them through difficult situations, said Fr. Francois Mifsud, chaplain at Toronto’s University of St. Michael’s College. Patron saints are offered to Christians as role models, associated with issues that matter to individuals, said Mifsud. “When you read the Gospel, some people say it’s too hard, it’s too much for me,” Mifsud said. “(Patron saints show that) for young people… being a Christian is possible, even though it is challenging.”

Students connect to God’s creation up in the Yukon

May 16, 2012

VICTORIA, B.C. - At the invitation of Whitehorse Bishop Gary Gordon, eight young Catholics associated with the Catholic chaplaincy at the University of Victoria (UVic) experienced a 10-day mission tour of the Yukon. “I went to find a new connection to God’s creation,” said Anna Ott, 19, who is visiting from Germany. “I hoped to give other Christians hope that there are young people out there who confess their faith through their everyday life.”

‘Sex Lady’ wants to make sure youth are in the know

May 16, 2012

OTTAWA - Pam Stenzel has made it her mission to make sure no teenager or young woman ends up with a sexually transmitted disease or unwanted pregnancy. She told the more than 800 high school-age participants in the Youth Conference associated with the National March for Life that she did not want any of them leaving saying “Nobody told me” about the consequences of sex outside marriage.

Visa problems quash meeting between Nicaraguan and Canadian students

May 16, 2012

Three 16-year-old Nicaraguan students’ had their dreams shattered as an all-expenses-paid trip to Canada ended before it began when they were denied visas to enter Canada. “The day I got the phone call here in my office I sat here and cried, literally sat here and cried,” said Brenda Holtkamp, chaplaincy leader at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon, Ont., which had sponsored the Nicaraguans. “Not only was I sad for myself and all the students here in the school that worked so hard for this reality, I was really very said for the young people in Nicaragua who have never had the opporunity to travel, who were so close to being here . . . and just because of bureaucracy they were turned down.”

Canada turns blind eye to cluster bomb treaty

May 16, 2012

Banning cluster bombs but then allowing Canadian pilots to drop them, Canadian soldiers to transport them and Canadian commanding officers to order them into the battlefield makes no sense, says the man who negotiated Canada’s participation in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Former arms treaty negotiator Earl Turcotte, who led Canada’s effort to negotiate the Convention on Cluster Munitions, is warning Canada has misrepresented its signature on the 2010 treaty by proposing enabling legislation with very wide exceptions.

Pope knights Canadian Jew and 96-year-old Jesuit

May 16, 2012

MONTREAL - It is rare to meet a real-life knight today. It is even rarer to meet someone knighted by the Pope. So it is truly extraordinary to meet a papal knight — who is also Jewish. Canada can now boast of one Jewish papal knight. Montreal interfaith pioneer Victor Goldbloom was welcomed into the Vatican’s Order of St. Sylvester on May 10 at a reception organized by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism.

Vatican says reconciliation talks with SSPX still ongoing

May 16, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Reconciliation talks between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X have not reached their conclusion but will continue, the Vatican said May 16, after members of its doctrinal congregation examined the latest communication from the head of the breakaway traditionalist group. "Some observations were formulated which will be kept in mind in further discussions," said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, following a meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

At audience, Pope says work should help, not hinder, family life

May 16, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Work obligations should not harm a person's family relationships but should provide support, giving couples the resources to have and raise children and spend time together, Pope Benedict XVI said. At the end of his weekly general audience May 16, Pope Benedict noted how the United Nations chose "family and work" as the focus of the 2012 International Day of Families, which was celebrated May 15.

St. Mike's severs all ties with major junior hockey

May 16, 2012

TORONTO - St. Michael's College School is officially out of the Ontario Hockey League. After reappearing in the major junior hockey ranks in 1997 after a three-decade hiatus, with the sale of the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors earlier this month, the midtown Toronto school has severed all links with the OHL team.

We are family: Pope to give Catholic families hope in troubled times

May 16, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the world's families at a time when the institution of the family is under threat and many are still struggling with a worldwide economic crisis and a lack of cultural and societal support. As a sign of his deep concern for bolstering the family based on the lifelong union between a man and a woman, the Pope will travel to Milan to meet with those attending the May 30-June 3 World Meeting of Families.

May 17

Legionaries of Christ priest admits fathering child

May 17, 2012

THORNWOOD, N.Y. - A popular, telegenic Legionaries of Christ priest who has appeared over the years as a Church analyst for CNN, CBS, ABC and Fox News has been removed from public ministry after admitting he had a relationship with a woman "a number of years ago" and fathered her child. In a May 15 statement, Fr. Luis Garza, director of the order's North American territory, announced that Fr. Thomas D. Williams, "after consultation with his superiors, will undergo a period of reflection, prayer and atonement without public ministry."

Catholic Civil Rights League challenges anti-bullying Bill-13

May 17, 2012

TORONTO - The Catholic Civil Rights League of Canada has challenged the Liberal government's proposed Bill-13 over the anti-bullying legislation's focus on gender and sexual orientation. Joanne McGarry, executive director of the league, along with league president Phil Horgan, addressed the Ontario government’s standing committee for social policy May 15. They expressed the league's opposition to Bill-13 because of its focus on gender, its infringement on denominational rights and its impact on curriculum.

Catholics must accept Vatican II, including on Judaism, Cardinal says

May 17, 2012

ROME - The Catholic Church's relationship to Judaism as taught by the Second Vatican Council and the interpretations and developments of that teaching by subsequent popes, "are binding on a Catholic," said the Vatican official responsible for relations with the Jews. Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke to reporters May 16 after delivering a speech on Catholic-Jewish relations in light of Vatican II's declaration "Nostra Aetate" on the church's relations with non-Christian religions.

Garbage fees for Toronto food banks, shelters a 'slap in the face'

May 17, 2012

TORONTO - Parishes, food banks, shelters and other services to the poor are going to be hit with bills for garbage pickup in Toronto starting July 1. They're all part of 1,100 entities that were previously exempt from the garbage fees the city charges to businesses. City Hall will raise an extra $2.9 million per year by 2015 when the new fees are fully implemented.

Disgraced former bishop Raymond Lahey dismissed from clerical state

May 17, 2012

OTTAWA - Raymond Lahey, the former bishop of Antigonish, has been dismissed from the clerical state. His dismissal comes due to his conviction last year of possessing child pornography for the purposes of importation to Canada. He pleaded guilty in an Ottawa courtroom May 4, 2011 to the charges and served eight months in prison before being released Jan. 4.

After escaping Iraqi war, Chaldeans face moral risks in US, says bishop

May 17, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Iraqi Catholics fleeing physical danger in their homeland often find themselves unprepared for the moral threats awaiting their families in the United States, said the head of Chaldean Catholics in the Western U.S. Seeing a lack of respect for the unborn, altered definitions of marriage and a general disregard for Christian values means Chaldean Catholic families settling in the United States often find themselves in a world they are not at all accustomed to, Chaldean Bishop Sarhad Y. Jammo of the Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego told Catholic News Service May 17.

May 18

Msgr. Wayne Kirkpatrick named auxiliary bishop of Toronto

May 18, 2012

TORONTO - Msgr. Wayne Kirkpatrick, a priest of the Ontario diocese of St. Catharines, has been appointed auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Toronto. Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement May 18. Bishop-designate Kirkpatrick will be ordained to the episcopate in St. Catharines at a date to be determined before commencing his duties with the archdiocese.

Catholic Movie Reviews - The Dictator, Battleship, What to Expect When You're Expecting

May 18, 2012

The Avengers is still sitting on top of the box office charts. Can the new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy dethrone it?

Maronite patriarch urges Lebanese in US to help save Lebanon

May 18, 2012

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. - The spiritual leader of Maronite Catholics urged Lebanese in the Detroit area to play a role in the salvation of their homeland during his pastoral visit May 13. Patriarch Bechara Rai said people of Lebanese origin or heritage in America should use their experience of the way people of various ethnicities, religions and political persuasions live peacefully together in the U.S. to help forge a new civil pact among the contending factions in Lebanon. "You are living in the great country of the United States, and here the allegiance is not to the person, it is not to the party, it is to the country. It is from you the solution must come," Patriarch Rai told the more than 850 people who attended a banquet in his honor in Shelby Township.