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February 2013

February 4

Pope calls for protection of life, greater investment in families

February 4, 2013

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI called for greater investment in families and protecting life.

Faith is genuine only if coupled with charity for others, Pope says

February 4, 2013

VATICAN CITY - Faith and charity can never be separated nor opposed to each other, just as faith by itself isn't genuine without charity, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Four Chaplains' love of others recalled 70 years after their sacrifice

February 4, 2013

KEARNY, N.J. - An act of valor by four men of faith 70 years ago at the height of World War II can serve as an inspiration for people today, the head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services.

February 5

Zubin Mehta conducts for the pope

February 5, 2013

VATICAN CITY - The conductor Zubin Mehta performed with an Italian orchestra at the Vatican Feb. 4, in a concert honoring Pope Benedict XVI and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

ROM opens doors to knowledge for Toronto Catholic students

February 5, 2013

TORONTO - A new partnership between the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board will open doors to enhanced knowledge for more than 12,000 students.

In Turkey, prayer, reflection after embassy attack, death of US tourist

February 5, 2013

ISTANBUL - In the second row of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Ayhan Mutlucu sat in silence after 11 a.m. Mass. She had the seen TV reports that U.S. tourist Sarai Sierra was dead, apparently murdered after disappearing two weeks earlier in a nearby area.

February 6

House of Commons passes same-sex marriage bill on second reading

February 6, 2013

MANCHESTER, England - Members of Britain's House of Commons voted, 400-175, to allow same-sex marriage, pushing a controversial piece of legislation closer to becoming law.

Faith and charity

February 6, 2013

Charity can exist without faith but faith without charity is illusory. That fundamental truth was underlined by Pope Benedict XVI in his message for Lent in which he said faith and charity are coupled and inseparable.

The Lord won’t let you down

February 6, 2013

First Sunday of Lent (Year C) Feb. 17 (Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Psalm 91; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13)

Women’s time has come

February 6, 2013

When Ontario Premier-elect Kathleen Wynne is sworn into office next week, half the country’s provincial premiers will be women (in addition to the premier of Nunavut) and they will govern 87 per cent of the population.

Sexual bullying is not part of the growing up process

February 6, 2013

In March 2011 a 13-year-old girl in London, England, stood on a window ledge and begged a teenage boy to erase the cellphone video he possessed of her being sexually abused. He refused and she slipped, falling 20 metres to her death. An inquest this January ruled it an accident.

Art and the beauty of faith

February 6, 2013

One of my favourite insights from Joseph Ratzinger’s long life in theology is that the Church does not convincingly propose the faith by the work of theology alone. Before his election as Pope he wrote that in the end the Church only has two compelling “arguments” for her faith being true. The first is the saints who have lived the Gospel fully and who the Church proposes as models of Christian witness. The second is the art that she has nurtured in her midst, her faith expressed in beauty, whether in painting, sculpture, architecture or music. Theology is necessary, but it is holiness and beauty that persuades.

Scapegoats, again

February 6, 2013

The Roman Catholic Church in Britain has always been a minority denomination, long persecuted and marginalized even today. In Scotland anti-Catholicism is hidden just below the surface. In England it has changed from the hobby of the Protestant to the fetish of the progressive. The excuse for the latest smash-the- Pope lunacy is — what a surprise — gay marriage. Ersatz Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is trying to push the policy through, and while he is opposed by the majority of his MPs, most of the country and all of the major faiths, it’s the Catholics who are being most severely reprimanded for daring to oppose the latest craze.

Golden girl inspires Kids Now

February 6, 2013

TORONTO - Students at St. Luigi Catholic School got a taste of Olympic gold on Jan. 30 when Kids Now used the school to announce Rosannagh (Rosie) MacLennan as its newest honorary mentor.

February 7

St. Mike’s launches homelessness chair

February 7, 2013

TORONTO - Dr. Stephen Hwang has been appointed the first endowed Chair of Homelessness, Housing and Health at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto.

Winning essay tackles how to achieve Christian unity

February 7, 2013

Editor’s note: This is the winning essay in the annual essay contest for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity sponsored by The Catholic Register and The Franciscan Friars of the Atonement- Graymor. Joel George, a 16-year-old student from Scarborough’s Francis Libermann High School, is this year’s winner.

Jesus’ teaching has no bounds

February 7, 2013

He speaks to rich and poor, rulers and beggars, says Nigerian cardinal

February 8

Nigeria’s religious persecution caught Church by surprise

February 8, 2013

OTTAWA - Church burnings, attacks on worshippers and suicide bombings in Nigeria are a recent phenomenon that threatens the longstanding harmony between Muslims and Christians, warned Nigeria’s new cardinal.

God’s personality revealed by beauty

February 8, 2013

Think of the most beautiful experiences in life. Holding a newborn baby. Feeling the waves of the ocean crash at your feet. Sunsets. Christmas morning. Cheeks that hurt from smiling. A first kiss.

Ottawa Mission turns no one away during deep freeze

February 8, 2013

Updated 02/14/13 OTTAWA - An end of January deep freeze saw hundreds of people caught out in the cold in Ottawa as temperatures dropped as low as -30C. The downtown Ottawa Mission braced itself for a surge in occupancy as men came in off the streets looking for a hot meal, a warm bed or a few extra layers of clothing.