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April 2015

April 29

Ontario daycares receives a $120 million boost

April 29, 2015

Good news for parents with young children in Ontario — the Ministry of Education plans to spend $120 million to increase day care spaces in the province.

Civil liberties association says withholding abortion stats an affront to democracy

April 29, 2015

TORONTO - Ontario is violating basic principles of democracy and Canada’s international treaty obligations by keeping abortion statistics secret, according to the Ontario Civil Liberties Association.

Vatican kicks off environmental push with climate change summit

April 29, 2015

Top officials from the Vatican, the head of the United Nations and leading scientists came together at a summit Tuesday (April 28) in Vatican City to label the fight against man-made climate change as a “moral issue.”

April 30

The death of debate

April 30, 2015

With two decisions this spring, the Supreme Court of Canada set laudable boundaries between the necessarily neutral state and the exercise of religious freedom.

Seeing with eyes wide open

April 30, 2015

Sometimes you can see a whole lot of things just by looking. That’s one of Yogi Berra’s infamous aphorisms. It’s a clever expression of course, but, sadly, perhaps mostly, the opposite is truer. Mostly we do a whole lot of looking without really seeing much. Our eyes can be wide open and we can be seeing very little.

The heroes of Dachau

April 30, 2015

Seventy years ago, on April 29, 1945, the largest monastery in the world was closed by the U.S. armed forces.

God welcomes all and plays no favourites

April 30, 2015

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year B) May 10 (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17) Human beings have long laboured under the illusion that God is just like us, complete with human emotions, prejudices and ideas of justice. Fortunately, they are wrong, and God often demonstrates this in dramatic ways.

Ruling against Belgian archbishop could spur claims for damages

April 30, 2015

OXFORD, England - A Belgian bishop said the president of the bishops' conference urged Catholics to respect a court judgment against him for failing to act on allegations of abuse.

The silent majority needs its voice heard on prayer

April 30, 2015

My God, my God, why have we forsaken thee. Society is hell-bent on downplaying the existence of God, ignoring Him, pushing Him to the sidelines, pretending that He just isn’t real. The latest volley in the deity war was fired broadside by the Supreme Court of Canada. In mid-April, the country’s highest court ruled unanimously that the practice of Saguenay, Que., city councillors of crossing themselves and spending 20 full seconds in Catholic prayer before conducting official municipal business was out of bounds.

A sacrificial gift to make a difference

April 30, 2015

Parishioners across the Archdiocese of Toronto have always been generous towards the needs of the greater community. Last fall, I noted that the archdiocese would be undertaking the Family of Faith campaign in parishes, and that it was important to maintain support for ShareLife while we contributed to this effort.

Toronto's Ethiopians rally against Islamic State brutality

April 30, 2015

TORONTO - Close to 1,000 Ethiopian immigrants — a mix of Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim — gathered in the late afternoon and evening of April 28 in Dundas Square to mourn together the death of two Ethiopian migrant workers murdered April 19 in Libya by Islamic State militants.

Getting it right

April 30, 2015

Early in his papacy Pope Francis committed to continuing the work of Pope Benedict XVI to impose a zero-tolerance policy for abuser priests and see-no-evil bishops. So it was more than symbolic in late April when a Kansas City bishop was forced into retirement following a criminal conviction of failing to report suspected child abuse.

Poverty advocates see the day when poverty is no more

April 30, 2015

WASHINGTON - With extreme poverty having been cut in half over the last generation — and the Millennium Development Goals target of poverty halving having been achieved five years ahead of the 2015 deadline — veterans of the global war on poverty believe it is possible that extreme poverty can be wiped out in the next 15 years.

Mother of one of 43 “disappeared” Mexican students testifies on Hill

April 30, 2015

OTTAWA - A Mexican group that includes the mother of one of 43 students who disappeared from a teacher-training college in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, is asking Canada to take Mexico off its list of safe countries.

Our soul is as vast as the universe

April 30, 2015

Even the daily trip home from work can be an adventure. One wintry night, I stood on a jam-packed city bus impatiently tracking its slow progress up a crammed street. We finally came in sight of the station. And there we stopped. Stuck. Inexplicably, the bus glued itself in place while minutes passed.