News/Canada
TORONTO - Living in the L’Arche community in France and meeting Jean Vanier led John Meehan to discover his call to become a priest.“It changed the way I looked at community, the Church, my faith. I wouldn’t be a Jesuit now if it hadn’t been for L’Arche,” he told The Catholic Register.
Meehan, 42, was ordained June 5, along with Teo Ugaban, at Toronto’s Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, with Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., presiding at the Ordination Mass.
Born in Halifax, Meehan started thinking about the priesthood in his teens. But it was his experience in France that led him to consider the Jesuits. The call came during a European backpacking adventure in 1989 when he decided to volunteer at L’Arche and work with individuals with severe disabilities. His eight months living in community and living “very simply” was what attracted him to the vocation.
CCRL honours Quebec mother's fight for parental rights
By Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - When Susan Lavallée found her children would be forced to take Quebec’s controversial ethics and religious culture course, the 45-year-old felt she had to stand up for her religious rights as a Catholic parent.It’s a fight the Drummondville mother of six is willing to take all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“We’re hoping that they will take the case because it’s a very serious case and it’s a case of national interest,” said Lavallée.
Register wins 13 awards for excellence
By Catholic Register Staff
At a pair of recent galas to recognize excellence in religious media, staff of The Catholic Register took home an impressive 13 prizes, including five first-place awards, covering a wide array of writing and design categories.Six of the awards came at a gala dinner of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada (CPA) held in New Orleans on June 4. Those awards followed seven honours taken by The Register at the Canadian Church Press (CCP) awards dinner in Toronto on May 28.
Burundi AIDS clinic honours slain Canadian Jesuit
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
A Canadian Jesuit gunned down in 2001 standing by his rectory door in Jamaica will have his name attached to an AIDS clinic in Burundi.“The decision to name this clinic after Martin Royackers has been motivated by two things,” said SYM director Jesuit Father Desire Yamuremye in an e-mail to The Catholic Register. “The principal one is that the centre is at the service of the poor living with HIV and AIDS. I think Martin Royackers was murdered while he was at the service of poor people. The second reason is that part of the funds came from the Canadian Jesuit province.”
Pro-life Sisters to open new centre
By Carolyn Girard, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - After nearly three years of getting to know Toronto, the Sisters of Life will celebrate their newly opened Sisters of Life Centre with a special Mass and social gathering on June 12. Visitors to the celebration will get to tour the new centre, formerly the rectory of St. Catherine of Siena parish. Renovations began last fall and the centre contains two parlours on the first floor for meeting with visitors, a kitchen and dining room, and on the second floor a chapel and six offices equipped with phones and computers for the Sisters to connect pregnant women in need with volunteers and important services.
Victims of abuse from years gone by caught in a grey zone
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
In the criminal justice system there are more grey areas than black and white, particularly when it comes to 20- and 30-year-old sex crimes.When an adult tells church officials that as a child he or she was abused in the church, the internal process these days is pretty clear. But what about the police?
When Fr. George Smith was accused this May of inappropriately touching a young person while working in Deer Lake, Nfld., between 1986 and 1991 he was immediately suspended from his duties as a parish priest in Prince Edward Island. An internal investigation was launched in the diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador. Police, however, were left out of the picture.
Teen pregnancies down by a third, study says
By Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - Increased use of birth control and improved sex education in schools may be keys to a 10-year decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate, according to a new study by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate fell by 36.9 per cent from 1996 to 2006, said the study published in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. The study used Statistics Canada figures. The United States saw a drop of 25 per cent compared to 4.75 for England and Wales and a 19.1-per-cent jump for Sweden, according to the study.
Opposition attacks 'anti-Christian bigotry'
By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA - Recent attacks by federal politicians on Opus Dei have raised concerns about efforts to drive Christians out of public life.A number of Opposition politicians accused Opus Dei of being “fundamentalist,” right wing and “creepy” and having an undue influence on the Tory government, attacks that began after Msgr. Fred Dolan, Vicar for Opus Dei in Canada, spoke at a May 26 luncheon at the Parliamentary restaurant for MPs, Senators and Parliament Hill staff.
Canadian archbishops among apostolic visitors to Ireland
By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic NewsOTTAWA - Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins and Ottawa's Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., are among nine church leaders who will join an apostolic visit to Ireland to help the Irish Church reeling from a sexual abuse crisis.
“It’s a common practice when there is a problem or a struggle or a difficulty of any kind for the Holy See to have a visitation,” said Collins.
PEI priest suspended
By Catholic Register Staff
An allegation of abuse in Newfoundland has triggered the immediate suspension of a priest in Prince Edward Island.P.E.I. Bishop Richard Grecco suspended Fr. George Smith from pastoral duties at St. Malachy’s Church in Kinkora, P.E.I. within 24 hours of learning of the allegation against Smith in the diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador.
Vigil supports American soldier
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
As Jeremy Hinzman faced final judgment on whether Canada would keep him, Parliament began debate on a bill that would force the government to respect the conscience of U.S. soldiers like Hinzman who fled to Canada rather than fight in Iraq.The Federal Court of Appeal has reserved judgment on legal issues underpinning Hinzman’s application for humanitarian and compassionate leave to remain in Canada despite a 2008 deportation order. The court’s decision on Hinzman’s case could take months.