![CFS Durham](/images/stories/logos/logos09/CFSDurham.jpg)
Pierce takes over an agency with a $1.3-million annual budget, 19 regular employees and three contract counsellors. Catholic Family Services of Durham deals with families from the eastern edge of Toronto to the Bowmanville area, and as far north as Port Perry. She has been with the agency for more than 14 years, mostly working as senior counselling program manager.
Padre Pio relics entrusted to church named in saint’s honour
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register![The keys and title to Woodbridge, Ont.’s St. Padre Pio Church are handed over to Archbishop Thomas Collins. The project has been underway since 2002, and the new church was inaugurated Sept. 23. (Photo by Michael Swan) Padre Pio Woodbridge](/images/stories/toronto/toronto10/padre_pio_keys.jpg)
The overcapacity crowd that came out to greet three relics of St. Padre Pio and inaugurate a new church named after the 20th-century Italian saint broke out in frequent applause as Archbishop Thomas Collins baptized their new church.
Euthanasia forces target Quebec
By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News![Margaret Somerville Margaret Somerville](/images/stories/canada_people/SomervilleJanet.jpg)
Somerville, founding director of McGill’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, and others are keeping an eye on Quebec, where a legislative committee is holding public hearings on euthanasia.
Court quashes access to information on D&P
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register![D & P and Lifesite](/images/stories/canada/canada10/LifeSite_DP.jpg)
The request was made to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) by LifeSiteNews, an online news organization that has published a series of articles over the past 18 months alleging links between Development and Peace-funded partners and pro-abortion lobbying in Mexico, Bolivia, South Africa and Nigeria. Development and Peace has denied those allegations and an investigation into five of its Mexican partners by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops cleared the Catholic aid agency of wrongdoing while also warning it to be more prudent in selecting its partners. LifeSite called that investigation “deeply flawed.”
Campaign launched to raise awareness of TCDSB elections
By Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register![](/images/stories/schoolB_logos/TCDSBLogo.jpg)
“Lately, the reputation of our board has been badly tarnished in the public eye, and the Minister of Education found it necessary to place the Toronto Catholic District School Board under supervision. It is a time for healing. It is a time for change,” said former principal Mary Ellen Lawless at a Sept. 26 press conference outside St. Paul's Basilica. Lawless is a member of the new group C.U.R.B., Catholics United for a Responsible Ballot.
“It is imperative that we reunite the parent, teacher, principal, priest, trustee and the total Catholic community in carrying out the aims of Catholic education and the mission of the Catholic school,” Lawless said in a statement. The group urged Toronto's Catholic voters to get to know the issues and their trustee candidates as their “right and privilege to do so.”
Bishop Crosby to leave the Rock for Hamilton
By Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo, The Catholic Register![Bishop Douglas Crosby Bishop Crosby](/images/stories/canada_bishops/bishopdouglascrosby.jpg)
“I’m very pleased and honoured by the appointment,” said Crosby, who remains administrator of the diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador until he is installed as bishop of Hamilton at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Nov. 8.
Born in Marathon, Ont., in the diocese of Thunder Bay, all of Crosby's ministry as a bishop has been done in Newfoundland and Labrador. Installed as bishop of Labrador City-Schefferville in 1998, he was also installed as bishop of St George’s, Nfld., in 2003 and retained responsibility for the former diocese. Then, following a realignment of the boundaries of the two dioceses, he became bishop of the diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador in 2007.
A new home for Padre Pio
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterThe mostly Italian parish of Padre Pio in Woodbridge welcomed relics of St. Padre Pio as they inaugurated their new church Sept. 23. It was no small affair, with an overflow crowd peering in the windows from the parking lot to see Archbishop Thomas Collins baptize and anoint the new church.
Photos and commentary by Michael Swan
ShareLife bounces back to have a record year
By Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo, The Catholic Register![ShareLife logo](/images/stories/logos/shareLife_new.jpg)
And it was all inspired by an anonymous donor.
“A generous parishioner in the archdiocese of Toronto came forward last year and offered to match all new or increased donations up to $500,000 to ShareLife during the 2010 campaign,” said Arthur Peters, executive director of ShareLife, the charitable fundraising arm of the archdiocese of Toronto.
A little piece of Don Bosco making its way to Toronto
By Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo, The Catholic Register![The bones and tissue of St. John Bosco’s right hand are with a wax replica of the Italian saint and will be on display at St. Benedict’s parish Oct. 5. St. John Bosco’](/images/stories/toronto/toronto10/donbosco.jpg)
It’s the first stop in Canada for the Don Bosco Among Us Relic Tour through 130 countries that kicked off on Jan. 31, 2009, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The tour will make its way on to Montreal Oct. 6-8 and then to Surrey, B.C., Oct. 8-10, before continuing elsewhere until 2015, the 200th anniversary of his birth in Turin, Italy.
U.S. women religious feel they are under unfair scrutiny
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register![Sr. Donna Markham Sr. Donna Markham](/images/stories/toronto/toronto10/srdonna_markham.jpg)
Sr. Donna Markham is coming to Toronto to talk about it. The Dominican Sister will deliver the annual Dominican Family of Toronto lecture at the University of St. Michael’s College Oct. 15. Markham has titled her talk “Mission, Membership and the Apostolic Visitation” and organizers are promoting it under the banner “Women Religious Under Scrutiny.”
Toronto Paisleyites agree with papal protest
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register![Toronto Free Presbyterian Church senior pastor Larry Saunders Toronto Free Presbyterian Church](/images/stories/toronto/toronto10/toronto_free_presb.jpg)
The tiny Toronto church protested Pope John Paul II's visit in 2002, and would do so again if the Pope were ever to visit Canada, said Toronto Free Presbyterian Church senior pastor Larry Saunders.
"My concern, my opposition to the Pope coming as a representative of the Catholic Church is that he comes not just as a religious leader. He comes as also the head of state," said Saunders.