{mosimage}OTTAWA - The pending departure of Phil Fontaine will not halt the progress towards reconciliation with First Nations peoples, predicted Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) president Archbishop James Weisgerber.

Fontaine, who served three terms since 1997 as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has announced that he will be stepping down at the end of July. A race is underway to select his replacement.

{mosimage}OTTAWA  - Internationally-renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias brought a bold, Christ-centered message to the Canadian National Prayer Breakfast May 28.

To a hotel ballroom filled with Members of Parliament, clergy, and ambassadors, Zacharias said that all our yearnings can be found in Jesus Christ alone.

He recounted a trip to the Middle East with Christian leaders, including former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, where he met with Sheikh Talal Sider, a founder of Hamas.

{mosimage}Filipino Catholics have a great responsibility for evangelization and they should embrace their culture in the faith context, Bishop Mylo Vergara told a group of 540 youth and young adults.

The 46-year-old bishop, from the Philippines diocese of San Jose, Nueva Ecija, reminded the large group that they are children of the only Catholic country in Asia Pacific and represent the third largest Asian-Canadian group. He was in Toronto as the guest speaker at the Office of Catholic Youth’s Filipino-themed Banquet on May 28.

{mosimage}Asking the federal government to develop a poverty reduction plan is just asking them to do their job, according to Citizens for Public Justice executive director Joe Gunn.

Gunn’s ecumenical social justice organization, along with a dozen other church, union and social action organizations have launched Dignity For All: The Campaign for a Poverty-Free Canada . The campaign aims to get the public and all federal political parties talking about a realistic plan for reducing Canada’s 10.8 per cent poverty rate.

{mosimage}EDMONTON - Canadian Church leaders are preparing to bring the voice of Christian faith to bear on controversies surrounding the Alberta tar sands.

Following meetings May 21-27 with people who work and live in northern Alberta, church leaders intend to lobby the federal government for tighter environmental regulation of the huge and controversial source of energy.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Help for parishes is on its way as the archdiocese of Toronto reorganizes how it delivers faith formation programs.

Over the summer the archdiocesan curia will meld its Catholic Office of Religious Education and its Office of Lay Ministry, Chaplaincy, Parish Social Ministry and Stewardship into a single office to support parishes, Archbishop Thomas Collins announced May 25.

{mosimage}TORONTO - As a Ukrainian Catholic community gathered to celebrate 50 years of Fr. John Tataryn’s priesthood, they did so with some kilts and bagpipes added into the mix of performances.

Tataryn, although of Ukrainian descent, grew up in Sydney, N.S., a town he said was diverse, with many religions and cultures. But if you didn’t listen to the bagpipes, he said, quoting his father with a laugh, “you didn’t have any culture.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - Becoming a deacon is more than a way station on the road to priesthood for Vijai Amirtharaj and Jinto Mathew.

“It’s an important stage of our formation and our lives so far. It’s a stage when we are integrated into church ministry,” Amirtharaj said. “It’s part of the whole journey. It’s mystery.”

“It’s not my mission, but it’s the mission of the church,” adds Mathew.

{mosimage}TORONTO - As 10,000 Tamils gathered on University Avenue to mourn their unknown dead with a candlelit vigil, the Tamil Catholic Community of Toronto swung into action to launch a campaign to raise $100,000 to help hundreds of thousands of internally displaced refugees scattered in government-run "welfare centres. "At the same time the Canadian Jesuits International have launched their own campaign to raise $100,000 for Tamil refugees. And the Canadian Council of Churches is demanding that Canada pressure Sri Lanka to allow open and free access to refugee camps for aid workers and the press.

Jude Aloysius of the Tamil Catholic Community believes all kinds of Canadians will get behind efforts to help refugees in Sri Lanka.

"This is outside the political forum," Aloysius said. "Canadians are very much in tune and they are very passionate about helping people who are in need."

{mosimage}The Canadian Council of Churches added some new, Catholic blood at mid-May meetings in Ottawa and began to set the stage for the 2010 G8 meeting of the world's largest economies at the Deerhurst Inn in Huntsville, Ont.

The council admitted the Ukrainian Catholic Church as a full member and elected a new executive which includes a Roman Catholic bishop as vice president. The council now consists of 23 national churches representing 85 per cent of Canada's Christians.