TORONTO - Once a Liberal bastion thanks to immigrants, ethnic voters in Toronto have given Conservatives the majority they sought.

"The Conservative ethnic ground game paid off in the end," said Jonathan Luk, the graduating president of the University of Toronto Chinese Catholic Community.

Chinese voters in both the 416 and 905 regions responded to values the Conservative Party championed, Luk said. The party took 30 of 44 Greater Toronto Area seats, a key component in gaining a majority government after Stephen Harper presided over two consecutive minority governments.

"When we talk about basic issues — the safety of our society, being tough on crime, respect for tradition and respect for hard work — these are values that Chinese people value," Luk said. "I also see Catholic voters are no different when it comes to those things."

For Tamils, who found themselves featured in an early Conservative attack ad, the community is hoping the new NDP official opposition and the first-ever Tamil Member of Parliament can hold the Conservatives to account for its immigration policies, said Jessica Devi Chandrashekar.

"Those who came out and voted were people who have bared the brunt of the recession and have been unable to reunite with their families because of the Conservative immigration policies," said Chandrashekar. "In Scarborough-Rouge River, a riding comprised mostly of the ethnic vote, (voters) made history in electing Rathika Sitsaiebasan for the NDP. Rathika is the first Sri Lankan Tamil MP elected outside of Sri Lanka. This has enormous significance for Tamil Canadians."

Chandrashekar is one of a new generation of voters, some of whom responded in this election in ways never seen before. Vote mobs organized on Twitter and Facebook swept university campuses, demanding young people seize the power of the ballot.

"I am 27 years old and born in Canada. This was my first time voting," said Chandrashekar. "I am looking forward to becoming more involved in the political process in Canada and the continued changes that the election in 2015 will bring."

The peace vote in Toronto was not overjoyed with the Conservative majority.

"A Conservative majority would be a bad thing for the cause of peace," wrote Deacon Steve Barringer of Pax Christi Toronto in an e-mail as results came in on election night. "They have a poor record of listening to interest groups of any kind."

Pax Christi plans to ramp up its protests in response to Conservative military and foreign policy.

"We will be looking at more aggressive programs, up to and including demonstrations and even civil disobedience against what we believe may be immoral policies," Barringer said.

Barringer puts his hope in a strong opposition from the New Democrats.

"We believe that Mr. Layton will listen," he said.

Catholic eco-theologian and University of Toronto religious studies professor Stephen Bede Sharper is also putting his hope in the NDP opposition, bolstered by the first-ever Green Party seat in Parliament.

"With the NDP's emergence, we now have a solid shot at a party that constitutes a real opposition to the Harper government, with the issues of social justice, workers' rights and the widening gap between rich and poor constituting central, rather than ancillary, political concerns," Sharper wrote in an e-mail to The Catholic Register.

Alberta missionary bishop headlines Tastes of Heaven gala

By

TORONTO - Grouard-McLennan Archbishop Gérard Pettipas, C.Ss.R., headlines Catholic Missions In Canada's 10th anniversary Tastes of Heaven Gala May 5.

Pettipas will be  the event's keynote speaker at the dinner to be held at the Paramount Event Centre in Woodbridge, Ont. The annual dinner helps to raise funds for the Catholic Church in Canada's missionary territories.

Pettipas will recount the faith journeys of the First Nations peoples living in Northern Alberta missions. He said in Canada's northern dioceses, “the needs of doing ministry are greater than the revenue that we take in to be able to serve those places.”

Many are isolated by distance and other missionary bishops have spoken of the challenge priests face in celebrating Mass in these communities.

Fr. Colleton was a pro-life hero

By
Father Edward (Ted) ColletonTORONTO - A hero to many in Canada's pro-life movement, Spiritan Father Edward (Ted) Colleton leaves behind a legacy of life, said Fr. Bob Cobourne, provincial superior of the Spiritans.

At 97 years old, Fr. Colleton passed away peacefully April 26 at La Salle Manor in Scarborough, Ont., where he had lived since 2007.

“He worked tirelessly for the unborn, for the pro-life movement and worked to ensure that the unborn would be protected and that life from the moment of conception to death would be sacred,” Cobourne told The Catholic Register.

Although Fr. Colleton spent the first 30 years of his priesthood as a missionary in Kenya, the most important work he did was in Canada for the rights of the unborn, said Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition.

New adoption rules could help find homes for children

By
TORONTO - Proposed changes to Ontario’s adoption laws will make more children in care eligible for adoption, said Dina MacPhail of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CCAS).

“I think it can only benefit the children who are crown wards and in our care,” said MacPhail, speaking of the Building Families and Supporting Youth to be Successful Act 2011.

The changes to the Child and Family Services Act, brought forth in mid-April by Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten and still to be voted upon, include removing access orders that prevent 75 per cent of children and youth in children’s aid care from being eligible for adoption.

“You might have a child who is in a group home or a foster home and his adoption is blocked because he sees his birth parents once every year,” said MacPhail, a child protection worker in the adoption department at CCAS. “We cannot do an adoption for a child that has an access order.”

Right to Life ads hit subway

By
TORONTO - A Toronto Right to Life campaign has taken to the subway system to promote adoption as a life-affirming alternative to abortion.

The ads began running April 18 and will continue til May 15.

“I wanted my baby to have a Dad and Mom,” reads the ad from a birth mother. The ad features the silhouette of a family.

“The purpose of the ad is to raise awareness and understanding about infant adoption,” said Toronto Right to Life in a statement. “All of this can help women make an informed, pressure-free decision about adoption as a life-affirming choice.”

The ad also features the AdoptioninCanada.ca web site that contains information about open adoption, testimonials from women who chose to place their children for adoption and pregnancy assistance organizations.


Toronto Right to Life's TTC advertisement















ShareLife campaign coming in ahead of last year’s record pace, so far

By
Anna Pavan, executive director of Rose of Sharon, says the ShareLife money it receives goes directly into aiding the young mothers and their children that Rose of Sharon serves. (Photo by Michael Swan)TORONTO - All the money that Rose of Sharon sees through the generosity of donors to ShareLife goes a long way in supporting young mothers and their children in York Region, said executive director Anna Pavan.

“We provide services to pre-natal and parenting teens,” Pavan, the executive director of the not-for-profit charitable organization, told The Catholic Register. “So it’s allowing us to have five counsellors, to be able to provide parenting programs to our young mothers and a child development centre where babies are cared for while the mothers are attending school or parenting programs.”

Rose of Sharon is one of the more than 30 agencies supported by ShareLife, the charitable fundraising arm of the archdiocese of Toronto.

As part of its parish campaign — with a goal of $12.3 million this year — the first ShareLife Sunday took place on April 3. The reported results added up to $4.16 million, an increase of about 10 per cent over the same reporting time last year, according to Bill Steinburg, communications manager at ShareLife.

Brand new cathedral for Ethiopian Orthodox to open at the end of the month

By
An architectect's drawing of the New Church Building of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Saint Mary Cathedral in Toronto, CanadaTORONTO - For Canada’s Ethiopian Orthodox community there can be no better symbol of faith in the Risen Christ this Eastertide than watching the rise of its new cathedral in west-end Toronto.

Decades in the making, the magnificent structure has begun to soar majestically above an industrial-commercial neighbourhood northwest of Eglinton Avenue West and Dufferin Street. The completion of each new stage of the cathedral is cause for many hundreds of faithful hearts to beat with growing pride and anticipation.

Since 1984, the congregation of St. Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has dreamed of building a cathedral to house its growing numbers. They have been worshipping in a converted factory. All that prevents a visitor from driving right past it is a small sign in front of the building and a modest cross above it.

Golden Rule lecture

By
Fr. Harry J. GenslerFr. Harry J. Gensler is a Golden Rule junkie.

In fact, the Jesuit priest and professor of philosophy at John Carroll University in Cleveland wrote both an MA thesis and PhD dissertation on the Golden Rule. He’s also published 12 books on ethics and logic —  most involving the Golden Rule.

And on May 11, he’ll be sharing his knowledge on the Golden Rule in a lecture at Scarboro Missions. He’ll be discussing how to use it wisely and avoid fallacies.

For more information, call (416) 261-7135 ext. 296 or e-mail interfaith@scarboromissions.ca.

KAIROS hosts mining conference

By
Church leaders from Canada, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America will gather in Toronto for an ecumenical conference on mining from May 1-3.

Hosted by KAIROS and several of its member institutions in partnership with Norwegian Church Aid, they will be joined by indigenous partners, social partners from the Global South, Church members and agency staff.

The gathering is meant to develop alliances between leaders from the North and South in an effort to achieve mining justice around the world.

Faith-based framework will deal with sexual-orientation bullying

By

TORONTO - Ontario’s bishops and school trustees are encouraging Catholic high schools to enhance existing anti-bullying policies by establishing support groups for students being bullied due to sexual orientation.

Under the direction of the bishops and the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, a committee will be formed to draft a framework for how such groups would operate within the teachings of the Church. The committee, to  include a bishop, students, parents, trustees, clergy and other educators, will work with the Institute for Catholic Education to have a policy prepared by September.

In a memorandum addressed to Catholic educators, the bishops and trustees acknowledged that recently there has been “much discussion” about this issue. That public discussion, which included news reports about Catholic school boards opposing so-called gay-straight alliance clubs, led to a decision to enhance the broad anti-bullying protocols that have been in place for almost a decade. The expanded framework to deal with bullying due to sexual orientation will be available to any Ontario Catholic board that wishes to implement it.

Nancy Kirby, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, emphasized that the proposed groups are not gay-straight alliances (GSA), which are prominent across North America. GSAs deal with lifestyle issues. The enhanced Catholic framework, which builds on existing anti-bullying protocols, will deal exclusively with the issue of bullying and complement the existing teaching that “bullying is wrong under any circumstances, at any age.”

“After speaking to our students, the supports that we do have in place, some students who are of same-sex orientation feel they are not adequate for the support they require,” Kirby said.

“Compassion, care and service to the most vulnerable in our communities are vital and important tenets of our Catholic faith,” said the April 15 memo prepared by the bishops and trustees. “We are not aware of an increase in harassment of this type, but any type of bullying or harassment in Catholic schools will not be tolerated.”

A committee, to be chaired by an Ontario bishop, will convene this month to develop a province-wide policy for Catholic schools. Kirby said topics on dating, marriage and relationships could be discussed in the support groups but “everything would be based on our faith, with that perspective in mind.”

The new framework is “requesting (all) boards to implement this when it comes forward,” Kirby said, but it will not be mandatory for schools.

Although the committee will be convened to examine one specific type of bullying, its work will be based on existing policies that strive to ensure all students are educated in a safe and caring environment that does not tolerate any type of bullying or harassment.  To that end, in addition to addressing bullying due to sexual orientation, the committee will “collect and share the best resources and practices” from across the province to combat all forms of bullying so as to ensure that Catholic schools “are places of welcome according to the Gospel.”

Belleville parish grows where others decline

By
 Fr. Richard Whalen, pastor of Belleville, Ont.’s St. Michael the Archangel parish, stands outside the newly opened parish centre. (Photo by Melchizedek Maquiso)BELLEVILLE, Ont. - At a time when many Canadian parishes are facing shrinking resources, St. Michael the Archangel in Belleville has opened a new parish centre that is quickly becoming a busy pastoral and social hub for a lively and engaged congregation.

“Belleville has a reputation as a strong Roman Catholic community although we are only about 20 per cent of the city’s total population,” said Fr. Richard Whalen, pastor of St. Michael’s.

Certainly the opening of a new parish centre speaks to the vibrant spiritual life of Belleville. This southeastern Ontario city already had busy church halls at the parishes of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary and St. Joseph and, when available, schools also offered space to assist St. Michael’s. But demand kept growing in the downtown parish, the oldest in Belleville.

“St. Michael’s is in one of the more established neighbourhoods of the city. It has strong Irish Catholic and French Canadian roots,” said Whalen of the parish founded in 1829. “That included many rural residents who have now moved into town and retained that strong tradition.