NEWS

HAMILTON, Ont. - For the past 14 years the Good Shepherd food bank in Hamilton transforms into a Christmas Store for the month of December.

TORONTO - Catholic Family Services — Peel-Dufferin delivers one of the best bargains the Ontario taxpayers ever got.

The agency deals with family breakdown, the after-effects of child abuse, violence against women and more among 1.2 million people living west and northwest of Toronto. For the region's adult survivors of child abuse, the agency collects $53,000 of provincial government funding and magically transforms it into $250,000 in front-line counselling services to some of the most tragically damaged people in our midst.

OTTAWA - Canada's Catholic bishops say the marriage debate is not over, despite the "disappointing" loss of a House of Commons motion to restore the traditional definition.

Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic presided over his last noon Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral as archbishop of Toronto Dec. 17, using the occasion to thank all those who had worked with him and for him.

A new archbishop has been appointed to the Archdiocese of Toronto. Pope Benedict XVI announced Dec. 16 that he has called on Archbishop Thomas Collins of Edmonton to take the place of the retiring Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic.

Collins, 59, told The Catholic Register in a telephone interview from Edmonton that he was "very, very honoured by the confidence the Holy Father had in me" to become the 12th bishop of Toronto, which was established in 1842.

 

TORONTO - The 2007 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was fired in the crucible of AIDS in Umlazi district, near Durban, South Africa.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Closing out a four-day pilgrimage of dialogue in Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass with the tiny Christian community in Istanbul and encouraged it to live in harmony with the Muslim majority.

"Brothers and sisters, your communities walk the humble path of daily companionship with those who do not share our faith, yet profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us adore the one, merciful God," the Pope said in a sermon.

ISTANBUL, Turkey  - During his four-day trip to Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI, known for his precise and incisive words, showed he was also a master of the spontaneous gesture.

While his scholarly words in a September lecture in Germany offended millions of Muslims, his prayer in an Istanbul mosque surprised and delighted many of them.

TORONTO - While the 49th International Eucharistic Congress isn't until June of 2008, planning is well underway. The archdiocese of Toronto plans to send 500 people on a pilgrimage to Quebec City where an expected 15,000 Catholics will gather to gain a deeper appreciation of the Eucharist.

TORONTO - The next secretary general of Pax Christi International wants to see the international Catholic movement gain a foothold in Canada.