OTTAWA - Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Collins is throwing out the welcome mat for all Anglicans in Canada who wish to become Catholic.

The archbishop has been named the liaison for groups of Anglicans who might want to avail themselves of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (AC). The AC offers a special structure so Anglicans can join the Roman Catholic Church corporately, while retaining aspects of their identity and patrimony, such as their liturgy.

“This is not an initiative by the Catholic Church,” said Collins. “It’s a response to groups of Anglicans that have indicated an interest in doing this.”

Published in Canada

OTTAWA - 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.

 

Published in Canada

TORONTO - Torontonians will not be flocking to shopping malls this Christmas, or any other statutory holidays, after city council voted to kill a proposal to extend shopping on holidays.

Council voted against the proposal May 12 and have sent it back to committee for more study.

Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins published an open letter to council May 11 urging councillors to "strongly oppose" the proposal that would have seen stores allowed to open on Christmas, Easter Sunday, Good Friday and other holidays.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins has published an open letter to Toronto city council to “strongly oppose” a proposal to permit shopping on holidays, including Christmas and Good Friday.

“Our whole community is made poorer when times sacred to the human spirit are sacrificed so that the last drop of profit may be extracted,” wrote Collins.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

It is astonishing and sad that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is advocating that Canada fund overseas abortions, charged Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins.

Collins released a statement on Feb. 4 in response to Ignatieff's public calls for the government to include contraception and abortion funding as basic components of a new foreign aid strategy to improve maternal and childhood health.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

TORONTO - With Haiti yet to emerge from the rubble, Christians didn't have to think hard to come up with a reason to pray hard and pray together at the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ecumenical prayer service Jan. 24.

"We're called to reach out to assist those who suffer and to pray together (for the people of Haiti)," declared Archbishop Thomas Collins in his sermon at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, part of the ecumenical grouping of mid-town Toronto churches called the "Churches on the Hill." Along with two Anglican and five Protestant churches, the Yonge and St. Clair neighbourhood churches include Holy Rosary and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Churches.

 

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

TORONTO - Toronto’s Archbishop Thomas Collins says being a bishop means being a good spiritual father and shepherd of the community.

Collins is entering his third year as archbishop of Canada’s largest archdiocese.

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TORONTO - Pope Benedict XVI appointed Toronto’s Archbishop Thomas Collins a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications on Jan. 5. He joins Fr. Tom Rosica of Salt+Light TV on the council.

“I look forward to the opportunity to learn more about how the church can communicate and evangelize both locally and globally,” Collins told The Catholic Register in an e-mail.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

TORONTO - Canada's first non-white bishop along with a man who has spent 20 years forming young priests are ready to share in the leadership of Canada's biggest, richest and most diverse diocese.

Fr. Vincent Nguyen (Nguyen Manh Hieu), who came to Canada as a teenaged refugee in 1984 and is a great-grandson of one of 117 Vietnamese Martyrs canonized in 1988, will make the transition from chancellor of spiritual affairs and moderator of the curia to auxiliary bishop with a Toronto ordination likely some time in January

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

TORONTO - Archbishop Thomas Collins, in his first public comment on the scandal following the arrest of Nova Scotia Bishop Raymond Lahey on child pornography charges, challenged church leaders to be diligent in selecting suitable priests and bishops and to uphold their “solemn obligation” to act immediately when an offence occurs.

Speaking to 1,700 people at the 30th annual Cardinal’s Dinner Oct. 29, he called pornography “a scourge upon our society” and said he is enraged by the proliferation of this multi-billion-dollar industry. And society’s outrage is more intense when a priest or bishop uses pornography, and “rightly so,” he said, because they are entrusted by God so “any abuse of that trust is a betrayal of our vows to God.”

“To me, as a bishop, the pain of any priestly scandal is a sharp personal reminder that I need to do all that I can to be sure that those who are ordained, for all their inescapable human frailty, are living their vocation with integrity.”

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

OTTAWA - Despite driving rain and howling winds, the National March for Life May 12 drew more than 12,300 people — the largest crowd in its 11-year history.

Dubbed Exodus 2009, the March marked the 40th anniversary of the Omnibus Bill that decriminalized abortion in Canada, paving the way to abortion on demand.

On the steps to the Peace Tower, Quebec's Cardinal Marc Ouellet called upon Parliamentarians to address the juridical void that leaves abortion permissible right through nine months of pregnancy. He also called on all Canadians to build a culture of life that guards the family and welcomes human life. We are all responsible for the respect for human rights in our land, he said, especially the rights of the most fragile — infants in the womb, the elderly and the handicapped.

Published in Canada

TORONTO - Friends and family packed St. Michael’s Cathedral May 9 to support, pray for and celebrate with the seven men ordained to the priesthood to serve the archdiocese of Toronto.

“All together we as a people of God, we pray to all the angels and saints that God’s blessings be upon them, that they be good and faithful priests,” Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins said during his homily. “It is a moment of total surrender to the Lord and that is what the priesthood is meant to be. It is to say ‘here I am Lord, I’ve come to do your will.’ ”

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

OTTAWA - This year’s National March for Life to Parliament Hill on May 14 will see an unprecedented number of Catholic bishops taking part.

“It’s a wonderful occasion,” said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, who has invited other bishops to attend.

Prendergast attended the March for the first time last spring.

Published in Canada

TORONTO - Frank McKenna, the former premier of New Brunswick and ambassador to the United States, will be chairman for this year’s Cardinal’s Dinner, to be held Oct. 30 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

TORONTO - Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins is leading a battle to prevent abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler from receiving an Order of Canada.

In a July 1 statement, the archbishop called on all Catholics in Toronto — and “all people of good will” — to write to the Governor General, to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and to members of Parliament to ask that the decision be revoked.

Published in Canada