{mosimage}Toronto - St. Clare’s parish is seeing new faces these days, demonstrating how an aging inner-city parish community can find new life within its young, diverse parishioners.

WINDSOR, Ont. - Next year’s 49th International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City will allow a renewal of faith by connecting with the “source and summit” of Christian life, the Eucharist, said Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

TORONTO - Buoyed by a big bank but pulled down by its lack of oil stocks, the Jantzi Social Index fell off the pace set by mainstream stock indexes in March.

TORONTO - Pastoral care in Ontario’s Catholic high schools is now on the right side of canon law. School  chaplains are now called Co-ordinators of School Chaplaincy Services. The Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops came up with the new name after consulting with the Catholic School Chaplains of Ontario.  Canon 564 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law defines a chaplain as a priest. Since almost no school chaplains in Ontario are ordained, the bishops wanted a new title for the job prior to issuing a statement concerning pastoral care in the schools later this year.

TORONTO - The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has jumped into the debate on whether to abolish the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

TORONTO - William Downe, president and chief executive officer of BMO Financial Group, has been appointed as chair of the 28th annual Cardinal’s Dinner, the largest fund-raising dinner in Canada.

TORONTO - A healthy dose of silence and the discipline of meditation are on tap at St. John’s Convent, 233 Cummer Ave. in Toronto, when the Christian Meditation Community of Toronto hosts its May 11-13 retreat.

OTTAWA - Green Party Leader Elizabeth May hopes to change the conversation in Ottawa.

Though best known for its environmental stance, the Green Party also stresses social justice, fair trade instead of free trade and non-violence. But Mays views on families, communities and the common good may also attract Catholic voters and potential candidates.

Newmarket, Ont. - Inside the main gathering space of Rose of Sharon Services for Young Mothers hangs homemade colourful quilts, boxes of infant toys lay on the carpet, all by a well-used rocking chair. The all-female 15-person staff create a home-away-from-home atmosphere for hundreds of teen mothers and their pre- and post-natal children who use the centre’s services.

Mississauga, Ont. - A Tragic Events Response Team (TERT) arrived at St. Alfred’s Catholic School here April 12 to give support to students and teachers in their time of grief for 10-year-old schoolmate, John Pham, who died as a result of a bus accident on Hwy 410 south of Brampton the day before.