WINDSOR, Ont. - People from across the country who may have had an association with Our Lady of Assumption Church in Windsor are being asked to contribute personal stories or artifacts about what is one of Canada’s oldest parishes.

The memorabilia will be featured in a heritage centre that will be part of a major restoration of the church, which has now officially begun.

Assumption is the oldest Catholic parish west of Montreal. It was established by the Jesuits in 1761. The current church dates from 1845 and was the major Catholic institution in its era in Upper Canada.

Citizens, business, government and civil society would do well to strengthen the family because the wealth of nations and the economy is tied to the fortunes of the family, says a new international report.

The bigger your family, the better for the economy, according to the Sustainable Demographic Dividend, co-sponsored by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. The report examines the connections between marriage, family and the economy. Published by the Social Trends Institute on Oct. 3, the international report looked at 29 countries.

OTTAWA - Alexandria-Cornwall Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher looks to Jesus on the road to Emmaus as a model guiding him in his new appointment as archbishop of Gatineau, a major Quebec See opposite Ottawa in the National Capital Region.

Just as Jesus asked the travellers on the road what they were talking about and what concerned them before he opened up the Scripture and broke bread with them, Durocher sees his task as one of discovering the hungers and spiritual needs of the people in his new archdiocese and hearing their stories.

Fluent in French and English, Durocher said that despite his familiarity with the Franco-Ontarian community, he expects to encounter some cultural differences in Quebec. A “different style of belonging to the Catholic Church” has developed in Quebec over the last 40 years, he said. The great majority consider themselves Roman Catholic, but it “is not typically exhibited by weekly attendance at Mass.”

TORONTO - The foundation that supports Catholic Family Services of Toronto doesn’t know how to solve the problem of men beating up and bullying their wives and girlfriends, but they know one thing we should be doing about it. They want us to pray.

Catholic Family Services of Toronto Foundation is bringing Catholics together to pray for victims, families and even the abusers at its second annual Mass to End Woman Abuse Nov. 3. This year the Mass will be held 6 p.m. at St. Clare’s Church, 1118 St. Clair Ave. W., with Fr. Vito Marziliano presiding.

The Mass will offer prayers for women and for healing, said Mary Benincasa of St. Clare’s parish.

TORONTO - When Gail Ward started answering phones at Our Lady of Lourdes parish the first of Mackenzie King’s three Liberal governments was in its last days, the nation was still mourning nearly 70,000 dead from the First World War, the Scopes monkey trial was just underway in the United States, Pope Pius XI was establishing the Vatican as a sovereign state and the Great Depression was unthinkable.

She was 14 years old in 1925 and enjoying a game of tennis outside the rectory when she was asked to fill in for the missing parish secretary. It was the beginning of a career in parishes that spanned 80 years.

TORONTO - Armed with the lessons he learned from the Second World War, Polish army veteran Kaz Chomko, who is approaching a milestone 100th birthday, has been spreading the message of peace and the gift of human life in his 35-year hospital ministry as a deacon with the archdiocese of Toronto.

Chomko’s call to the diaconate came in 1976, and he made hospital ministry his call.

“My idea was to (highlight) the value of life. I chose to work with the sick and suffering,” he said.

When speaking to patients, Chomko spoke of how he coped with his own struggles and found inner peace with God.

TORONTO - Ninety-one per cent of Ontarians are unaware publicly subsidized abortions in the province cost taxpayers at least $30 million a year, according to an Abacus Data poll published Oct. 10.

Commissioned by Campaign Life Coalition, LifeSiteNews.com and The Interim, the poll Public Funding of Abortion in Ontario also found that 40 per cent of respondents believe abortion should be available but only publicly funded in medical emergencies and 11 per cent feel abortion should be available but not paid for by the province in any situation.

OTTAWA - Hate-speech language in human rights codes is “impossibly vague” and has a chilling affect on robust debate, lawyer Iain Benson argued before the Supreme Court of Canada.

“The place for hate speech is in the Criminal Code,” said Benson.

He was arguing Oct. 12 on behalf of William Whatcott in a religious-freedom case that is challenging the constitutional validity of clauses in provincial and federal human rights acts that prohibit expression “likely” to harm groups by exposing them to hatred, contempt or discrimination.

OTTAWA - When Canada’s Catholic bishops meet for their annual plenary Oct. 17-21, they will face ongoing budgetary concerns and decisions on how to bring closure to the more than two-decades-old clerical sexual abuse crisis.

The bishops will also reflect on freedom and conscience formation, another area where Catholic institutions, especially schools and health care facilities, are experiencing pressure from provincial governments. They will also consider controversial immigration issues as well as ecumenism and interfaith relations.

OTTAWA - The Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) and the Catholic Civil Rights League have blasted International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda’s $6 million grant to the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

In an Oct. 4 letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, COLF board chairman Bishop Gerald Wiesner expressed “dismay” that “the world’s largest abortion provider and promoter” would receive the Canadian International Development Agency grant over the next three years.

Planned Parenthood “works aggressively to dismantle abortion laws in countries where abortion is prohibited and to have abortion recognized as a universal human ‘right,’ ” Wiesner wrote.