OTTAWA - The violence plaguing Syria has forced the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) to put many of its projects there on hold, even though Christians so far do not seem to have been specifically targeted.

But support for Iraqi Christians who fled to Iraq, many of whom struggle to survive in the slums of Damascus, is still ongoing, said CNEWA Canada national director Carl Hétu.

Former parishioners of Corpus Christi and St. Rita's parishes in North Bay, Ont., are taking their case against closing their churches to the highest court in the Church.

The Corpus Christi-St. Rita's group will appeal to the Apostolic Signatura to have the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie maintain the two buildings for some form of sacred use. Last year the group asked the Congregation for the Clergy to rule that their churches had been improperly reduced to profane use to facilitate their sale. The Congregation for the Clergy ruled against the North Bay group in February.

OTTAWA - The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is urging the federal government to make families, compassion and charities priorities in its upcoming 2012 budget.

Though the national association for Evangelical Christians does not usually engage in pre-budget consultations, it stressed that “a budget is fundamentally a moral document.” In a budget, political leaders “decide what is ‘right and wrong’ for public expenditure, and as such biblical principles are relevant to the budgeting process.”

The budget should shore up the key building blocks of Canada, it said.

Mississauga, Ont. - Wrapping your head around a number like 13 million can be a daunting task to say the least. But one history teacher from St. Marcellinus Secondary School is trying to make such a figure a reality for students while at the same time teaching them about the Holocaust.

It’s been three years since Susan Carey initiated The Penny Project, which aims to collect and roll one penny for each of the lives lost in the Holocaust.  The money, all $130,000, will be used to fund genocide education programs.

OTTAWA - Shannen Koostachin had a dream for “safe and comfy” culturally sensitive schools for First Nations children like herself.

On Feb. 27, a vote in the House of Commons brought that dream closer to reality.

The House of Commons voted unanimously to “adopt Shannen’s Dream” by declaring First Nations children’s “equal right to high-quality, culturally relevant education” and to provide the necessary policy changes, consultation and funding support to make a First Nations’ education system “at a minimum” equal in quality to provincial systems.

TORONTO - The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has recently encouraged a more widespread effort to get apologetic material into the hands of Catholics, but Toronto’s St. Benedict’s parish is way ahead of the game.

Eliseo Zompanti started the St. Benedict’s Catholic Apologetics and Bible Study group a year-and-a-half ago at St. Benedict’s parish. He said apologetics — being able to explain and defend the faith — is like a 2,000-year-old armoury that the Church has amassed.

TORONTO - The man charged with bringing unity to the body of Christ by 350 churches world-wide is coming to Toronto to speak about “The unity we seek: Exploring the hopes and challenges of modern ecumenism.”

Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, will talk about the state of ecumenism at St. Andrew’s Church, next to Roy Thomson Hall in downtown Toronto, March 14 at 7 p.m.

TORONTO - A Toronto parishioner who wishes to remain anonymous has committed to matching up to $650,000 of donations collected during ShareLife’s 2012 campaign.

“We have a parishioner in the archdiocese  of Toronto who has come forward to offer to match all new and increased gifts to the ShareLife campaign this year,” said ShareLife’s executive director Arthur Peters. “This person’s only goal is to see the campaign succeed.”

After educating Catholic youth for 60 years in the Strathcona Park community in Kingston, Ont., the doors to St. Paul Catholic Elementary School, among others, may permanently close following the local school board’s accommodation review process.

But there is a voice to St. Paul which is not letting the school be put to rest quietly. Shortly after word filtered out in 2011 that St. Paul could be among the schools targetted for closure by the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, Sarah Mignault and several other concerned community members began the Save St. Paul Action Committee.

About 900 guests filled all four halls inside Hamilton’s Carmen’s Banquet Centre Feb. 25 to sip cocktails, enjoy a four-course meal and bust a move at the Bishop’s Charities Dinner Dance.

The annual event with Bishop Douglas Crosby helps raise money for a number of charities.

Organized by the Knights of Columbus’ Fred Miscio, with help from fellow members, this year marked the 27th anniversary of the annual event which Miscio coined successful as always.