{mosimage}On March 19 The Catholic Register sponsored a lecture in the 2009-2010 Somerville Lecture series at St. Jerome’s University. The lecture, titled “Muted and maligned voices: Public Justice and the Canadian Church,” was delivered by Joe Gunn, executive director of Citizens for Public Justice. Below is an abridged version of his address.

On Oct. 17, 1996, the United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Canadians turned on their evening newscast to hear CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge begin with these words:

“Good evening. A blistering attack on governments across the country today, from Canada’s Roman Catholic bishops. The issue is poverty. The bishops accuse governments of using the most vulnerable people in society as human fodder in the battle against deficits. And the bishops weren’t the only ones speaking out…”

The bishops were holding their annual plenary gathering in Halifax. Before they began the meeting, however, the bishops of the Social Affairs Commission gathered with a roomful of local activists, including Pam Coates, a United Church member and president of the National Anti-Poverty Organization.

To the assembled media, the bishops released their pastoral letter at Hope Cottage, a church-run soup kitchen in the downtown core. People living in poverty spoke, so it wasn’t only the bishops who got the microphone. And after the press conference, the media accompanied the men in black to serve lunch and eat together at the soup kitchen.

TORONTO - The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has jumped into the debate on whether to abolish the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Ontario’s Catholic bishops have chosen Bishop James Wingle as president of its executive.

OTTAWA - A pair of Catholics have made the grade as Canada’s governor general has announced 87 new appointments to the Order of Canada.

TORONTO - The Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of People has appointed Toronto's Marie Deans as the next national director of the Canadian English sector of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

OTTAWA - A pair of Catholics have made the grade as Canada’s governor general has announced 87 new appointments to the Order of Canada.

{mosimage}MONTREAL — The Canadian Centre for Ecumenism is taking it to the street. The Montreal-based centre for dialogue among Canadian churches has left its historic setting inside the Grande Seminaire de Montreal and taken up a storefront address in downtown Montreal.

 

{mosimage}CALGARY - The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform is sponsoring an 11-metre-long box-bodied truck with billboards showing aborted fetuses that began cruising the streets of Calgary on Aug. 8.

{mosimage}MONTREAL - A man with a history of psychological problems is being held in the brutal beating death of an 80-year-old Montreal nun.

TORONTO - In July 1964, young Carmelina Tarantino arrived in Toronto from Liveri, Italy, seeking medical treatment for an aggressive form of cancer. When she was permanently admitted to Toronto’s Riverdale Hospital in 1969, her prognosis was grim: she was expected to live six months. Eight years later, Carmelina made her profession of faith and became Sr. Carmelina of the Passionist Sisters of the Cross.