Features

{mosimage}TORONTO - Children’s rights activist Marc Kielburger says being a graduate of the Catholic education system has taught him about the importance of leadership and helped him in advocating for human rights around the world.

Kielburger and his brother, Craig, will join Salt + Light TV CEO Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., as keynote speakers at the Catholic Curriculum Corporation’s When Faith Meets Pedagogy XIV conference Oct. 22 to 24 at Mississauga’s DoubleTree Hilton.

{mosimage}MARATEA, Italy  - Fr. Adelmo Iacovino smiles with pride as he speaks of his parish in the Basilicata region of rural southern Italy.

In this community of fewer than 5,000, scattered across and around Monte San Biagio and overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, Iacovino oversees 30 churches and chapels. Add another 14 private chapels and a visitor might well marvel at the devotion the people of Maratea bring to their Roman Catholicism.

{mosimage}Fr. Damien de Veuster, canonized Oct. 11, understood Christ’s message of caring for others — something we can all learn from, and should. Also worth noting is the impact his canonization has had and will have on the tiny island of Molokai where he ministered to victims of leprosy, now known as Hansen’s Disease.

When I flew out to Hawaii two years ago, I had the surprise of my life. Not only was Molokai Island the home to cowboys, spear-fishers and, believe it or not, thousands of goats living in the mountains, it was also home to a vibrant and rather large Catholic community. Their enthusiasm first hit when when I attended Sunday Mass — I was greeted at the door with a lei made of small seashells and, along with other first-timers, was asked to stand up before Mass so that I could be introduced, by name, to the congregation. 

{mosimage}WATERLOO, Ont. - To St. Jerome’s University President Fr. David Perrin, it was no surprise that an award dinner in honour of Fr. Bernie Hayes drew a sell-out crowd.

“Fr. Bernie has touched countless lives and hearts in this community,” said Perrin in presenting Hayes with the 2009 Chancellor John Sweeney Award for Leadership in Catholic University Education.

{mosimage}With three of his former students struck down by gun violence, teaching veteran James Flaherty says he was driven to try to make a difference.

The graphics and technology teacher has been at Malton, Ont.’s Ascension of Our Lord High School for 15 years and has used his film-making skills to try to make that difference.

{mosimage}TORONTO  - The Ontario government’s proposed bill on student accountability would diminish the powers of democratically elected school trustees, says the president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association.

Paula Peroni told The Catholic Register that if passed in the Ontario legislature, Bill 177 would increase the provincial government’s control over school boards.

{mosimage}Hiring only Catholic teachers at publicly funded Catholic schools is “unfair” and discriminatory, says a Guelph-area teacher who has recently taken the Wellington Catholic District School Board to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

“It’s unfair for a large organization to accept large taxpayer dollars, including my own, and then not being interested in hiring everybody from whom those tax dollars come from,” Jesse Lloyd told The Catholic Register in an interview from Guelph.

{mosimage}BURLINGTON, Ont - Alice Anne LeMay recalls playing the role of “hot dog lady” at a basketball game for special needs students in the Halton Catholic District School Board .

LeMay, whose son has a hearing disability, said it’s activities like these which highlight the Catholic and “inclusive” spirit of the Halton board over the past four decades.

{mosimage}TORONTO - St. Joseph’s Morrow Park High School students can breathe a sigh of relief — at least for the next three years.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board is finalizing a deal with Tyndale College, which has been leasing the property to the board since 2006, that would allow students to remain at the school temporarily. Tyndale bought the 20-hectare property from the Sisters of St. Joseph three years ago. 

{mosimage}TORONTO - Eight years and $5.2 million later, the Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary look on the big blue bank of solar panels gracing the roof of Loretto College and know that it is more than worth the trouble.

“It’s God’s planet and we need to take care of it,” explained mother superior Sr. Evanne Hunter.