News/Toronto-GTA

{mosimage}TORONTO - Toronto is 14,000 kilometres from Sri Lanka, but the war between Tamils and Sinhalese on the island nation is never far away for Toronto’s 100,000-strong Tamil community.

Margaret Jegasothy found herself standing at the end of a memorial Mass April 26 to thank the community for their prayers for her brother, Fr. M.X. Karunaratnam. He was killed in a roadside bomb attack April 19.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Toronto’s first real warm spring day welcomed 36 glove-clad volunteers carrying plastic garbage bags or brooms throughout a downtown section of the city April 18.

{mosimage}TORONTO - St. Basil's Church in downtown Toronto hosted the ordination of two young men to the priesthood for the Basilian order on April 19.

It was a significant day for the Basilians, as Fr. Glenn McDonald and Fr. Andrew Leung, both 29 and from Alberta, were two of only three men ordained as priests within the Basilian order in North America since 2001. The third was ordained earlier this year in Houston, Texas.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Vocations in Toronto might seem healthier from the perspective of other Canadian dioceses. Where some areas of the country generate zero priestly vocations on a yearly basis, the archdiocese of Toronto’s mean average is four or five. In fact, Toronto will  be ordaining seven priests for the archdiocese in May.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Italian priests of the archdiocese of Toronto and their parishes are preparing for the 100th anniversary of the first Italian church of Toronto. On Nov. 8, 1908, Archbishop Fergus McEvay gave the old St. Patrick’s Church to the Italian community, under the new name of “Our Lady of Mount Carmel.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - Using her imagination and passion for the truth, Toronto-based author Claudette Francis takes the story of Christ’s resurrection to the courtroom in a fast-paced drama meant to inspire.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The 2008 ShareLife campaign is hoping to make up lost ground on the weekend of April 12-13 when the second collection takes place for the archdiocese of Toronto’s charitable appeal.

{mosimage}THORNHILL, Ont. - Fifty wax candles flickered in the semi-darkness of St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Thornhill, Ont., on March 29. Aside from the candles, which congregants used to follow along in their song books, the only other light source came from a dim spotlight shining on the sanctuary’s large wooden cross.

{mosimage}TORONTO — The people who want to hold Ontario’s Liberal government to its poverty reduction promises are plotting their strategy April 14.

{mosimage}TORONTO — If ecology isn’t a religious issue that will be news to Toronto poet laureate Fr. Giorgio Di Cicco, who will open a day-long forum sponsored by Faith and the Common Good’s Greening Sacred Spaces program April 12.