TORONTO - People are homeless because we’ve chosen to believe a lie, or perhaps chosen to believe more in the real estate market than the Gospel, says Dion Oxford.

The first lie that rules out affordable housing is “the real estate lie,” said Oxford, who runs the Salvation Army Gateway shelter on Jarvis Street in Toronto.

The Toronto obsession with real estate values and the idea that middle class families can make a killing selling their homes every four or five years is killing our sense of home, neighbourhood and community, said Oxford.

TORONTO - Allegations that a Mexican human rights organization either endorsed or helped efforts pushing for expanded access to legal abortion were never true, its director has told The Catholic Register.

Last March LifeSiteNews.com alleged that the Jesuit-founded Centro Pro Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez and four other human rights organizations that receive funding from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace were signatories to a report calling for legal abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy throughout Mexico. Currently, first trimester abortions are only legal in Mexico City.

OTTAWA - A popular Quebec columnist said he hopes Cardinal Marc Ouellet will die after a long, painful illness because he called abortion a moral crime even in cases of rape.

“Why should we push a woman who has been the victim of a crime to commit one of her own,” Ouellet told a pro-life conference in Quebec City May 15, prompting a province-wide backlash.

TORONTO - Upon the reading of their names, with one small step forward symbolizing years of training and discernment, each of the five men ordained to the priesthood for the archdiocese of Toronto vowed their commitment to the priesthood.

“It's a glorious ceremony, but it all comes down to the giving of self,” Archbishop Thomas Collins, who welcomed the men into the priesthood on May 15  at the ordination ceremony at St. Michael's Cathedral.

OTTAWA  - The largest ever March for Life May 13 marked growing momentum for the pro-life movement.

The crowd estimated at 12,500 celebrated the recent defeat of the euthanasia and assisted suicide Bill C-384 and Parliament’s vote to not include abortion in a Canadian-led G8 maternal and child health initiative.

TORONTO - The culture war between liberal and conservative Catholics in the United States is not a good thing, but it will only end when liberal Catholics embrace conservative principles or leave the Church entirely, says America’s richest and most controversial Catholic philanthropist.

Tom Monaghan, who won a World Series as owner of the Detroit Tigers and who built up Domino’s Pizza to 6,200 franchises world-wide then sold the company to an investment firm for $1 billion in 1998, makes no apology for using his wealth to recreate the Church he remembers from the 1940s and ’50s.

TORONTO - Before rejecting Gustavo Gutierrez’s claim for asylum, a board member of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board asked the decorated police detective why he didn’t just take his concerns about death threats to a higher level of Mexican law enforcement.

Months later Gutierrez is still stunned by the question.

BRAMPTON, Ont. - A man who lost his job is anxious about how to pay the bills. He’s run out of savings, his credit cards are maxed out. This causes anxiety, depression, even domestic abuse as tensions mount at home, taking a toll on the family.

A woman who suffers abuse at the hands of her husband is afraid to file a report with police. Her children who witness the abuse are traumatized.

TORONTO - At least four of the would-be mayors of Toronto want something from the city’s churches, synagogues, mosques and temples.

As mayor, Rocco Rossi would ask for an inventory of all social services offered by faith groups, George Smitherman would ask for a co-ordinated effort from faith groups on homelessness, Joe Pantalone would ask faith communities for help integrating immigrants into the fabric of the city, and Rob Ford wants churches to phone and alert him of any homeless people on the streets so he can personally drive out, pick them up and take them to a shelter.

TORONTO - In today’s era of evangelization, churches need to be armed with the technological know-how and new media savvy to help advance their ministry.

An upcoming North American conference aims to help equip dioceses and parishes in Canada and the United States to navigate and succeed in the world of Facebook, Twitter and electronic giving.