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October 26, 2018

Missions accomplished: After 100 years, Scarboro Missions in Toronto is closing its doors

Fr. Craig Strang on his bicycle is given plenty of attention from his pupils in the 1930s.

At 60, Fr. Ron MacDonell is the youngest of the Scarboro Missions priests. Even as his fellow priests back home in Toronto move into a seniors’ residence, MacDonell is working today in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin among Brazil’s Makushi people, bringing together village elders and young people to recover their vanishing language and culture.

Published in Canada
October 24, 2017

Regis College to preserve a large part of the Scarboro's work

The new centre will be open to all sorts of projects that arise among the students and faculty spread around the Toronto School of Theology.

Note: An earlier version of this story indicated that the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society would cease to exist by 2020.The article has been modified to more accurately reflect the Scarboro Missions plans for continuing their apostolate.

Published in Higher Education
November 16, 2016

Scarboro Missions’ interfaith office closing after three-plus decades of work

After more than 30 years as a centre for reflection and dialogue, Toronto’s Scarboro Missions’ interfaith office is closing.

TORONTO – Scarboro Missions’ interfaith office, a centre for reflection and dialogue between Canadian Catholics and people of other faiths for more than 30 years, is closing.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA
June 21, 2015

Fr. Art MacKinnon: 50 years a martyr

Despite the dangers of a country in the midst of a civil war, Fr. Art MacKinnon used his pulpit to advocate for the people who were being oppressed and imprisoned by the Dominican Republic government under dictator Rafael Trujillo.

With the phone pressed to her ear memories spring to life of a man from half a life ago.

“Sure I remember him,” said Sr. Mary Jo Mazzerolle. “The day before he was killed he was in our house. He came to us to say Mass and afterwards he came to our house for supper.

Published in Canada
May 5, 2015

Jordan’s King honours Scarboro Missions’ for its interfaith efforts

Pope Francis and Jordan's King Abdullah II pose for photos during a private audience at the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse at the Vatican April 7, 2014. The Jordanian king honoured Scarboro Missions for their interfaith efforts in a ceremony April 20, 2015.

TORONTO - In a world where the Islamic State threatens religious minorities in the Middle East, Boko Haram kidnaps Christian girls in Nigeria, Jews worldwide are forced to defend the existence of Israel, it might be said that interfaith relations are no walk in the park.

Published in Faith
May 2, 2015

Dialogue is a Church reality

Saskatoon Bishop Don Bolen speaks on ecumenical dialogue at Scarboro Missions April 25.

TORONTO - When Pope Francis talks about dialogue he’s not advancing an agenda or solving the political problems of the Church, Saskatoon’s Bishop Don Bolen told audiences in Waterloo, Ont., and Toronto at a pair of lectures on ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

Published in Canada
January 11, 2015

Scarboro Missions puts out the call

Ashley Aperocho, second to the left, is spending a year working in Guyana with Scarboro Missions. She is one of two women representing the new style of missioners Scarboro Missions is seeking, devoting a year to their work rather than three years as has been the case in the past. Scarboro Missions is taking applications for such positions until Feb. 16.

Scarboro Missions is seeking those with the guts and grit to answer God’s call to serve as a foreign missioner on a short-term basis.

Published in Canada
July 1, 2012

Missionary orders try to maintain their relevance in the modern age

Fr. Brian Swords is the newly elected moderator of the Scarboro Missions.

TORONTO - English Canada’s missionary orders will not go gentle into that good night without first issuing a warning.

“The missionary groups, are they the canaries of the Church? If they die out, do we cease to be Church?” asks Fr. Brian Swords, newly elected moderator of the Scarboro Missions. “If we cease to be, does that not suggest there’s something wrong?”

The majority of Scarboro priests are now past retirement age. The youngest ordained member is 53. There are two men in formation, with one just recently ordained a deacon and the other studying theology. The Scarboros also include a dozen lay missionaries.

Published in Features