{mosimage}TORONTO - In one of the last pictures ever taken of Christina Calayca before she went missing last summer, she stands beside her mother and is all smiles.

It was taken at a 50th birthday party organized by Calayca for her mother.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Chewing gum, wearing strapless tops and receiving Communion in the hand are contributing to increasing irreverence at Mass, argues a 62-year-old mother of two who claims she has been living only on the Eucharist for almost nine years.

Irish-born Olive Dawson spoke at five parishes in the Toronto area and Orangeville, Ont., in mid-August. More than 2,000 people heard Dawson speak at three Catholic churches in Scarborough, Unionville and Brampton, all of which were filled to capacity.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Signatures of 30,000 Canadians demanding that abortionist Henry Morgentaler’s Order of Canada be revoked were delivered to the Governor General’s residence Aug. 20.

“I am here to say there is nothing heroic or award winning about taking the life of an unborn child,” said Silent No More Awareness Campaign national co-ordinator Angelina Steenstra on behalf of Campaign Life Coalition. “As a woman who has suffered an abortion, I know that to be true."

{mosimage}The Catholic Women’s League of Canada (CWL) adopted a resolution this month to “urge the federal government to take action to prevent human trafficking at the 2010 Olympics.”

The resolution was made at the CWL’s 88th annual national convention in Winnipeg Aug. 10-13. The convention drew more than 750 delegates, representing nearly 98,000 women from across Canada.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - The Loomis family of Goshen, N.Y., was honoured earlier this month as the Knights of Columbus Family of the Year.

The Knights of Columbus awarded the Loomis family the lay order’s International Family of the Year Award during its 126th annual Supreme Convention’s awards ceremony Aug. 7 for best displaying the Knights’ main principles of charity, unity and fraternity.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - At its inception in 1882, the Knights of Columbus played an important role in supporting poor Catholic immigrant families in Connecticut. During a difficult social period for Catholics in America, the Knights of Columbus, started by Fr. Michael J. McGivney, offered financial aid benefits and fraternal encouragement in daily life, soon after expanding to Canada in 1897.

Over the years, the Knights have grown to include more than 13,000 councils and 1.7 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Guam and Saipan. And while the order continues to provide Knights and their families with life insurance, the Knights of Columbus have a lot more to offer in today’s society as an organization that raises millions of dollars yearly for charitable causes.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - The Knights of Columbus have vowed to continue speaking out against elected government representatives who challenge life from conception to natural death.

The Knights made this resolution Aug. 7 at the fraternal order’s 126th annual Supreme Convention in Quebec City Aug. 5-7. Two thousand Knights and their families attended the convention, with Knights from across Canada and the United States, as well as from Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Guam, Philippines and Poland.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Dr. Rene Leiva may have to leave his family practice in Ontario if the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario takes away his conscience rights.

{mosimage}TORONTO - As the Taliban issued an explicit threat against Canadian aid workers and killings of NGO staff reached record levels in Afghanistan, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace said it remains committed to its work with women’s groups straddling both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the zone of conflict.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - The CNEWA Canada is appealing for emergency funds to help families in western Ukraine displaced by floods described as the worst in a century.