{mosimage}TORONTO - With more than 1,700 tickets sold and 400 high school students expected to attend, this year’s Ordinandi Dinner will be the biggest in its 19-year history.

Among the 1,700 guests for the March 2 dinner will be Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins, several priests and hundreds of Catholics from across the archdiocese.

{mosimage}A new Christian radio station in the Ottawa-Gatineau region could be on the airwaves some time this year, as long as the $100,000 price tag for broadcasting doesn’t stand in the way.

On Sept. 23, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved a request for the archdiocese of Gatineau to broadcast French language programming from Radio Ville-Marie , a station based in Montreal.

{mosimage}TORONTO - After a tremendous campaign to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti, ShareLife has switched gears to now help those in its own backyard.

“Our Catholic community has always responded to the needs and been very generous and now, as we do each year, we are going to turn our attention to the needs of our greater community in the archdiocese of Toronto and the many people who rely on ShareLife social service agencies and ShareLife agencies for help each year,”  said Arthur Peters, executive director of ShareLife.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - A former military Chaplain General, a Roman Catholic, has been charged with sexual assault following alleged incidents 38 years ago at Canadian Forces Base Borden.

Military investigators confirmed the charge on Feb. 16. The current Chaplain General, Brigadier-General David Kettle, issued a statement in which he said his office is co-operating fully in an investigation by the Military Police and the Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada.

{mosimage}TORONTO - It is “astonishing” and “pathetic” that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is advocating that Canada fund overseas abortions as part of a strategy to improve health care for women and children, said Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins and Calgary Bishop Fred Henry.

The bishops were responding to statements made by the opposition leader after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada, as president of the G8, would champion an international initiative to bring basic health care to mothers and children in the world’s poorest countries. Ignatieff declared his party would only support the initiative if Harper’s measures included provisions for abortion and contraception.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A religious sister who survived the January earthquake in Haiti reflected on her experience at a prayer vigil in Nathan Phillips Square Feb. 9.

“When you pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ think of the Haitians,” said Sr. Mary Alban, CSJ.

{mosimage}TORONTO - In prayer and silence, the brains behind Toronto’s Listening Post patiently await visitors to their unique ministry at Danforth and Broadview three times a week. 

Deacon Robert Kinghorn and Eusebia da Silva, both experienced in spiritual direction, have opened a space for the city’s spiritually starved to sit in silence or find a listening ear to their problems.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Valentine’s Day meets with spirituality through a special dinner some parishes have adopted to help couples strengthen their relationship and rekindle romances.

Table for Two surfaced for the first time at St. Patrick’s parish in Toronto this year, hosted by the Redemptorists. It is modelled on a similar event at a Redemptorist parish in Winnipeg.

{mosimage}As February dawned the Games were already on for British Columbia Catholics getting ready to welcome Olympic athletes, media and fans for the XXI Winter Games.

“I was in the athletes’ village this morning, just making sure everything is set up for Mass tomorrow morning,” Msgr. Jerry Desmond told The Catholic Register  just days before the opening ceremonies.

{mosimage}TORONTO - This year’s 40 Days for Life campaign of prayer, fasting, community outreach and peaceful vigil kicks off on Feb. 17, Ash Wednesday, in 162 cities across Canada, the United States, Australia and Northern Ireland.

Toronto will be one of six participating Canadian cities for the pro-life campaign, running to March 28. Participants will gather at the intersection of Dufferin Street and Lawrence Avenue West near the Women’s Care Clinic to pray for an end to abortion, said Nicole Campbell, national director for 40 Days for Life. Other vigils will take place in Montreal, Guelph, Ont., Edmonton, Red Deer, Alta., and Kelowna, B.C.