{mosimage}TORONTO - Catholic doctors are scrambling to have an influence nationally in coming debates over pro-euthanasia legislation.
{mosimage}TORONTO - Lining the sidewalk across from a crisis pregnancy centre and its abortion clinic neighbour in downtown Toronto April 18, 24 people held signs up to passing traffic with messages related to abortion.
{mosimage}TORONTO - The Earth needs to be treated as a sacrament given to each other because “time is running out,” said Fr. Pier Giorgio di Cicco.
{mosimage}TORONTO - Ever since the risen Christ asked “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” and the blinded young Pharisee answered “Who are you, Lord?” the church has had to deal with the difficult Saul of Tarsus, St. Paul the Apostle.
To mark 2,000 years since his birth in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Pope Benedict XVI has designated June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009, the Year of St. Paul.
{mosimage}TORONTO - When Jesus told His disciples they would have the poor with them always the operative word was "with." Jesus knew He would leave, but the poor would take His place — always with His disciples.
Most of us fail to live up to Jesus' vision. The poor are not with us at all. They live separate lives, apart from the mainstream — out of sight and out of mind. Because that's the way we like it. The poor make us uncomfortable.
{mosimage}TORONTO - Thousands of reports of adverse effects from a vaccine used to protect against cervical cancer raise further questions about a controversial mass vaccination program for young women in Canada, says the head of a Catholic bioethics group.
Touted as a vaccine for women, Gardasil, which is made by Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., is the first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer caused by certain strains of human papillomavirus, also known as HPV, which is a sexually transmitted virus. But a soon-to-be-released report by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says close to 10,000 people reported adverse effects to Gardasil.
{mosimage}Our family spent 25 days in France this summer kayaking down the Rhone, climbing the Eiffel Tower, lying on the beach and feasting on French food and drink.
As fun as all this sounds, some of the most satisfying moments of our trip were watching our two girls (ages 12 and 10) form a deeper appreciation of their Catholic heritage.
“We do not believe people are just individuals. We really are about working for the common good,” explains Ottawa-based Jesuit Father William Ryan. “That’s the basic premise. We’re social beings. . . . We believe that you’re social by nature, and for that reason you’re political.”
{mosimage}TORONTO - As several Catholic school boards across Canada prepare to offer the vaccine targeting cervical cancer this year, recent reports suggest a need for more studies.
In a Sept. 1 editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Neal A. Halsley said cases of severe adverse reactions among Australian children to Gardasil — the vaccine targeting the human papillomavirus, also known as HPV, which can cause cervical cancer — was five to 20 times higher than for other school-based vaccines. Of the 12 suspected cases, eight were confirmed as anaphylactoid reactions. There were 269,680 vaccine doses administered in Australian schools starting in April 2007.
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Franca Carella, the centre’s founder, explains that the painting, the handiwork of a former client at the Woodbridge centre, expressed the artist’s struggle with faith while battling addiction — in her case, the belief that Mary had turned her back on her.
Feelings of shame and guilt because of the hurtful things they have done or said during their addiction can make it difficult for recovering addicts to forgive themselves. The concept of a Creator who loves them and wants to help them seems very unlikely.
In September Calgary Catholic District School and St. Thomas Aquinas school board, south of Edmonton,voted against making the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination available in its schools.
“How are we able to find funds to save a broken financial system yet remain unable to find the resources necessary to invest in the development of all regions of the world, beginning with the most destitute?” Migliore, the Holy See’s representative at the United Nations, asked delegates to a high level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals Sept. 27.