TORONTO - As Pax Christi members around the globe celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s epochal encyclical Pacem in Terris, the seven-year-old Pax Christi Toronto still has only a dozen regular members, has made no progress toward becoming a national Catholic peace movement and can’t name its international or national priorities.

TORONTO - Come August one of Toronto’s oldest parishes will enter its centenary year and its parishioners are doing what they can to ensure its future for another 100 years.

A high percentage of the 100,000- plus visitors who walked the grounds of Midland, Ont.’s Martyrs’ Shrine last year will begin pouring through the gates again when the shrine reopens on May 4.

A Marian order priest on the cusp of returning to Canada within a week was shot and killed in Haiti's capital April 25.

BOSTON - I was in the foyer of the House of Commons when I learned of the Boston Marathon bombings. Knowing my brother Mike and his wife Sally had friends running, I immediately called his home. Sally said Mike had been shooting video of runners raising money for charity and had called her from near the finish line. “His voice was high. He said: ‘There’s been an explosion. I’m okay. I gotta go.’ ”

TORONTO - The Meera family have endured two wars, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution and a lot of bureaucracy, but with the help of a Catholic parish in Brampton, Ont., the six Iraqi Christian refugees have fought their way into Canada.

CONCORD, ONT. - The Loretto Sisters have a special place in their institute for the Jesuits.

TORONTO - Through a new program at Regis College, Ontario’s Catholic teachers will now have an alternative way to meet their religious education requirements.

Twenty-five women will walk from Montreal to the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa at the end of month to remind Canadians that abortion has had no legal restrictions in this country for the past quarter century.

OTTAWA - Alissa Golob got involved in pro-life activism the old-fashioned way — through snail mail.