TORONTO - Just two days after being released from a prison in Milton, Ont., at the end of September, longtime pro-life activist Linda Gibbons was ready to return to jail.

And she did, a week later, on Oct. 8. She was to appear before a judge in October.

{mosimage}TORONTO - James Douglas calls himself one of the Good Shepherd Centre’s success stories, and it’s hard to argue with the man.

More than three years ago he arrived in Toronto with too much money in his wallet and a thirst much deeper than his pockets. The money was from an insurance settlement. He had left Los Angeles looking for a connection with his family, hoping for a new start. What he found was the downtown bars and soon realized just trading Toronto for Los Angeles wasn’t going to change his life. He had been drinking long enough to know it was the one constant.

{mosimage}TORONTO - If people of faith are serious about peace, they ought to be serious enough to read, understand and promote the United Nations’ doctrine for promoting peace in the post-9/11 world, retired senator and former United Church moderator Lois Wilson told an interfaith gathering at the University of Toronto Oct. 7.

“We have social and political responsibilities,” Wilson insisted to a small group that included imams, rabbis, priests, ministers and scholars of world religions gathered for a conference on “Religions’ Role in Keeping Peace: Responses to A Common Word Between Us and You.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - An Order of Canada recipient who founded an orphanage for girls in Haiti is continuing his legal challenge to the federal government over Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s award nomination, even though the controversial pro-abortion activist received the country’s highest civilian honour on Oct. 10.

Frank Chauvin, a retired police detective from Windsor, Ont., launched a judicial review application in late July to the Federal Court of Canada through lawyer Gerard Charette. Toronto lawyer Phil Horgan is also helping with the case.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Plunging prices on Bay Street and Wall Street aren’t just a problem for the stock market. Since changes in tax laws governing gifts of stock in 2006, stock market joy has been joy for charities — and stock market trouble will be trouble for charities, including churches.

Beginning in May 2006, donors have been able to deduct 100 per cent of the value of any donations of stock to a registered charity up to a value of 75 per cent of their net annual income. If their gift exceeds that 75-per-cent threshold the donor can carry forward the deduction for up to five years.

{mosimage}TORONTO - When times get tough, the tough get going. That isn’t the theme for this year’s ShareLife corporate campaign, but it could well be.

ShareLife launched its annual campaign to raise funds from the Catholic business community in Toronto Oct. 9 as headlines in newspapers around the world continued to trumpet the gloomy news about economic crisis, bank bailouts and plummeting stock prices.

{mosimage}TORONTO — Since Pope John Paul II launched the term “new evangelization” on a visit to Latin America 25 years ago theologians, pastors and catechists have been trying to more fully understand what a new evangelization entails.

Pastor and theologian Bishop Claude Champagne believes the new evangelization has a lot to do with social justice. The auxiliary bishop of Halifax will outline just how justice and evangelizing are connected in the 2008-2009 Scarboro Missions Lecture. The lecture will be delivered twice — Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, and the next day at 10 a.m. at Scarboro Missions, 2685 Kingston Rd., Scarborough.

The Oblate bishop taught missiology, the branch of theology which researches missionary work, at Saint Paul University in Ottawa until he was called to the episcopacy in 2003.

{mosimage}TORONTO — For those who get science, and for those who don’t, Vatican Observatory astronomer Fr. George V. Coyne has a message about the relationship between the sacred and science.

The Jesuit scientist will be at the Newman Centre chapel on the campus of the University of Toronto Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. to deliver a free public lecture. “The Dance of the Fertile Universe: Searching for God in a Scientific Culture” will be the second lecture in this year’s Jesuit-sponsored “Naming the Holy” series.

Not only is there tea and cookies at the end, but the audience is invited to engage the “Naming the Holy” speakers in conversation.

{mosimage}TORONTO — Jewish-Christian dialogue is what  the Sisters of Sion do, so it should be no surprise that Sr. Lucy Thorson has been doing it for 30 years in Jerusalem, Rome and North America.

Still, every journey is different. So, at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Scarboro Missions headquarters at 2685 Kingston Rd., Thorson will talk about her own journey of faith following the great opening of Christian-Jewish Dialogue at the end of the Second Vatican Council.

The talk will be one of Thorson’s first contributions since joining the Interfaith desk at the Scarboro Mission Society.

{mosimage}On Oct. 14, Canadian voters chose to replace its minority Conservative government in Ottawa with another, slightly larger, minority Conservative government. The Catholic Register asked five Catholics from across Canada who closely observed the election campaign, for their views on how the campaign unfolded and what needs to be done now. Below we present their responses to our questions.