WINDSOR, ONT. - The diocese of London will conduct a financial audit of the work of a private company that spearheaded a 10-year national fundraising campaign to renovate this city’s historic Our Lady of Assumption Church.

The church dates from 1847 and belongs to the oldest parish in Canada west of Montreal. But severe deterioration required extensive repairs to various structural parts of the church including the roof, walls and electrical system.

Olympic dreams come true for Toronto students

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TORONTO - Every athlete’s dream is to compete at the Olympics, said Anjelika Reznik, a dream soon to be reality for her and fellow Toronto Catholic student Anastasiya Muntyanu.

The two 17-year-old students — Reznik attends Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts while Muntyana is a student at Bishop Allen Academy — will represent Canada in rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympic Summer Games which begin July 27 in London, England.

“I actually would have never thought I’d be going to the Olympics,” said Reznik, a native of Kazakhstan who spent eight years in Israel prior to immigrating to Canada where her gymnastics career began. “The reason my mom put me in gymnastics was  actually to give me something do instead of just walking around. I started more for fun.”

Federal government appeals B.C. decision striking down euthanasia laws

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OTTAWA- The federal government has announced it will appeal the June 15 British Columbia Supreme Court Carter decision that struck down Canada's laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide.

"After careful consideration of the legal merits," the Government of Canada will appeal the Carter decision to the British Columbia Court of Appeal and seek "a stay of all aspects of the lower court decision," said Justice Minister and Attorney General Rob Nicholson in a July 13 statement, released on a Friday afternoon shortly before the July 16 deadline for filing an appeal.

Romeo Meleca grooming successor for ‘Pilgrimage of Love’ [w/ audio]

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TORONTO - After 31 years Romeo Meleca knows that he won’t be able to make too many more 200-km pilgrimages on foot to the Holy Cross of Teopoli near Gravenhurst, Ont.

“I did this in 1981 by myself and I’m willing still to carry on as long as I live, as long as I can,” said Meleca after beginning his annual journey at All Saints Church in Etobicoke on July 7. “On July 17, two days after the walk, I’ll be 81 years of age so I don’t know how many more years I will be able to walk, but I hope to able to live until I’m 100 and able to walk until I’m 100. That’s quite a wish but it doesn’t cost anything to wish.”

Wishes aside, as the eldest participant in the annual pilgrimage — he is joined this year by nine others — Meleca knows the reality of physical hardships associated with age. At 37 he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and less than a decade later, he needed crutches to walk.

Difficult stories of Old Testament draw us into Triune God

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OTTAWA - It may be tempting to ignore the Old Testament, or spiritualize its more bloodthirsty or seemingly contradictory stories, but wrestling with them can lead to a deeper understanding of the Gospel and the nature of the Triune God, says Scripture scholar Edith Humphrey.

Whether it is the story of Abraham being told to sacrifice his only son Isaac, God’s genocidal ban placed on some of the peoples who already inhabited the Promised Land or God portrayed as angry, jealous or vengeful, these difficulties have sometimes led to heresy and they continue to tempt Christians to avoid the Old Testament.

Union leaders ‘out of touch’ on abortion

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When a union declares itself pro-choice and tries to shut down debate about the legal status of a fetus, its stand is neither progressive nor representative of its membership, said Toronto pro-life feminist Martha Crean.

The Canadian Auto Workers wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper June 7 objecting to any debate in Parliament over the legal definition of a human being, as proposed by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth’s Motion-312. The nation’s largest private sector union, representing over 200,000 workers, also organized counter protests to denounce a series of anti-abortion protests organized by the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform.

The CAW-led protests backfired in Windsor June 24 when more people showed up for a protest against the CAW position, and Local 444 president Dino Chiodo distanced himself from the official CAW protest by telling the media it had been organized above the heads of Windsor union officials.

Short stay ends, 11 years on for Toronto’s John McGrath

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TORONTO - After serving on a host of Catholic boards, including the senate of the University of St. Michael’s College, John McGrath came to the archdiocese of Toronto in 2001 to be chancellor of temporal affairs, a rough equivalent to chief financial officer. He intended to stay five years and had an opt-out clause at two-and-a-half years, just in case. He stayed 11.

Shortly after turning 70, McGrath welcomed his 20th grandchild and let it be known it was time for the archdiocese to start searching for his replacement. After a lengthy search, the changeover took effect on July 1. But retirement won’t change McGrath’s life. He will continue to serve on the boards of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Catholic Charities, the Southdown Institute, the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute and the Patrons of the Arts for the Vatican Museum.

Ground broken on new Southdown

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As the sprawl crawls toward them, the Canadian Church’s first option for helping and healing priests with addictions, depression and other psychological issues is pulling up stakes.

The Southdown Institute has broken ground on a new address at the north end of East Gwillimbury, Ont. Surrounded once again by farm country, the new Southdown facility in Holland Landing will aim to better serve an aging population with up-to-date strategies for dealing with everything from eating disorders to dementia, said Southdown CEO Sr. Miriam Ukeritis of the Congregation of St. Joseph.

Caritas Niger video tells hunger story [w/ video]

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With 18 million people either starving now or facing near term shortage of food, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace and its Caritas partners are ramping up fundraising efforts with a new video that explains the crisis through the eyes of people in Niger and Mali.

The eight-minute video (embedded at the bottom of this article) aims to make people aware of how Caritas is fighting for people’s lives. The English version is called Niger: On the Hunger Frontline.

ShareLife a million shy of campaign goal

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TORONTO - With barely two weeks left in the 2012 ShareLife campaign, parishioners are being called upon to pull together and raise the remaining $1 million needed to reach this year’s $12.3 million goal.

“(We) thank those Catholics who have made a contribution this year and appeal to all Catholics to support the ShareLife campaign before July 31,” said Arthur Peters, ShareLife’s executive director. “Parishioners have been very generous. Over the next few weeks I just hope people will continue to be generous and help us reach our goal.”

Ethics of stem cell treatment debated in Toronto

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TORONTO - Lorraine McCallum was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow, just days after the birth of her third daughter in 2009.

A stem cell recipient, McCallum shared the story of using her own stem cells for treatment at the deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research's Café Scientifique, exploring the realities and ethical questions raised by stem cell research. The event was sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

"I'm not entirely sure why it works, but it does," she told the audience of about 100 gathered at Toronto's Fox and Fiddle pub July 3. "With multiple myeloma, they don't really know where it starts in the body or what triggers it but stem cell transplants are standard  treatment… and it is effective at least for a while in holding the cancer at bay."