Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register

Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register

Sheila was a reporter for The Catholic Register from 2008-2011.

A graduate of the University of Toronto's international relations program (M.A.) and Carleton University's School of Journalism (M.J.),  she has worked at The Canadian Press, CBC Ottawa, The Toronto Star, The Jordan Times and IRIN Middle East.

Calling all Catholic rock fans.

Musician David Wang has launched a new web site that he hopes will contribute to building an online history of contemporary Christian music.

CatholicRock.org went online in August. It is the brainchild of Wang, leader of the award-winning Canadian Christian rock band Critical Mass and a former music columnist for The Catholic Register. It can be found at www.catholicrock.org and features Wang’s collection of Register columns.

Hamilton’s Good Shepherd Refuge has passed the halfway mark of its $10-million fundraising goal to complete Good Shepherd Square, the city’s first complex of buildings that will house social services to combat poverty.

Alan Whittle, Good Shepherd’s director of community relations and planning, says it’s an innovative approach in tackling poverty that includes access to affordable housing and social services within the same vicinity.

TORONTO - Armed with the lessons he learned from the Second World War, Polish army veteran Kaz Chomko, who is approaching a milestone 100th birthday, has been spreading the message of peace and the gift of human life in his 35-year hospital ministry as a deacon with the archdiocese of Toronto.

Chomko’s call to the diaconate came in 1976, and he made hospital ministry his call.

“My idea was to (highlight) the value of life. I chose to work with the sick and suffering,” he said.

When speaking to patients, Chomko spoke of how he coped with his own struggles and found inner peace with God.

TORONTO - At the height of her career, Dorothy Pilarski was training hundreds of women how to be successful in business. But Pilarski says her most rewarding endeavour has been as a mother to her two children.

In her new book, Motherhood Matters: Inspirational Stories, Letters, Quotes & Prayers for Catholic Moms, Pilarski invites women to reflect on the vocation of motherhood. She shares personal experiences through inspirational stories on the joys and challenges of motherhood that show how she has shared the Catholic faith with her son and daughter.

“We need a movement to reclaim motherhood to the dignity that Our Lady (gave) it,” Pilarski said.

Peterborough’s first Catholic liberal arts college is responding to the need for solid Catholic education for youth in the diocese, says Fr. Joseph Devereaux, chancellor of the Peterborough diocese.

“The focus is to provide something for youth that will help them,” said Devereaux.

“(It’s about) what can we do for youth intellectually, spiritually, socially. A well-rounded education can help provide that.”

Retired Catholic school educator Eleanor Glenn is on a different stage now, but she still has a passion for teaching others about the Catholic faith.

Instead of a classroom, Glenn — who has a religious education specialist certificate — is now spreading the Word through drama in her one-woman play that connects the sacrifice of the Mass with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

The Servant at the Supper is about a fictitious servant girl who baked the bread and served the wine at the Last Supper. She is also present when the women bring the news of Christ’s Resurrection to the disciples and at Pentecost.

TORONTO - The founders of St. Michael’s Choir School believed no boy should ever be turned away because of money.

That principle has endured to this day but what has changed since 1937 is an economic climate that makes implementing it a greater challenge than ever.

To address that, the school will mark its 75th anniversary by launching a new foundation to raise funds for bursaries, scholarships and other special projects.

TORONTO - Investing in social programs that tackle poverty makes “economic sense,” according to a new report by a federal advisory group on poverty.

“It is in the public interest for all governments in Canada’s federation to invest in preventing poverty and improving economic and social well-being,” said the National Council of Welfare in its report “The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty.”

According to the report, released in late September, the cost of poverty in 2007 was estimated at more than double the $12.6 billion “poverty gap” — the amount it would have cost to ensure that all Canadians had an income above the poverty line. In 2009, more than three million Canadians were living in poverty and the national poverty rate was 9.6 per cent.

TORONTO - Young Ontario pro-lifers are gearing up for Canada’s first “Defund abortion rally” on Oct. 22 at Queen’s Park.

Instead of controversial photos of unborn babies, ads for the Campaign Life Coalition Youth-led rally are highlighting a new approach: an appeal to taxpayers.

“Ontario taxpayers pay over $30 million annually to cover the cost of abortions in their province,” begins a YouTube ad created by Campaign Life Coalition Youth.

TORONTO - A multi-faith group of parents has banded together to urge voters to be mindful of the importance of parental rights and education when voting in Thursday's Ontario election. 

“We are looking (towards) the future, what should happen when new government is elected,” Peter Chen of the Toronto Chinese Catholic Task Force (TCCTF) said after a Sept. 29 press conference. “As Catholics, as religious groups, we hope that our parents would have their own basic rights in deciding what they'd like to hear and what should be taught (to their children).”