The following clergy appointments have been made for the archdiocese of Toronto. They take place July 1-2 unless otherwise noted.

{mosimage}TORONTO - While many Catholics continue to struggle with the uncertainty of job security and financial stability, ShareLife continues to see parishioners in the archdiocese generously giving to its campaign this year.

Arthur Peters, executive director for ShareLife, is hopeful of reaching his team’s parish fundraising campaign goal of $12 million, although donations were short of the goal at The Catholic Register’s publication deadline. Peters reported a total of $9.7 million raised after the final campaign weekend June 6-7.

{mosimage}TORONTO - In response to controversy over the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace partners in Mexico, the archdiocese of Toronto is putting D&P on a funding leash and calling for a comprehensive review of the Catholic aid organization.

Archbishop Thomas Collins announced in a July 23 statement that the archdiocese will “set aside” $1.125 million this year from ShareLife to be available to D&P on a case-by-case basis solely for projects run by organizations that are endorsed by local bishops. That is the same amount as 2008, but last year’s funds were allocated directly to D&P’s general revenues to be dispersed as they saw fit.  

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Canadian economy has tumbled this year but it hasn’t taken ShareLife down with it.

Heading into the final week of the annual campaign to raise essential funding for a host of charitable agencies, ShareLife organizers are heartened that parish donations are on par with last year.  There were fears the recession might cut into donations.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Twenty-five years after Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau turned the sod to launch the Peace Garden at Nathan Phillips Square, his son Justin Trudeau will deliver a keynote address on Sept. 29 to more than 6,000 Catholic students as part of silver anniversary celebrations.

Trudeau’s presentation —  “Peace and Harmony in our Communities and the World” — will highlight a day dedicated to peace, race relations and multiculturalism that has been organized by the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Archbishop Thomas Collins, Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor David Miller will also speak. A special address will be given by Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow.

{mosimage}TORONTO - What can a penny buy today? More than you think.

Twenty-five ago, when Mary Hughes was a youthful 75-year-old, she heard her grandchildren teasing their father about having a sore back because he couldn’t pass a penny on the sidewalk without bending to pick it up. It got her thinking about all the stray pennies people pass by without notice or exile to their piggy banks. What if all those pennies could be collected and put towards a good cause, she wondered.

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.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - You can shake hands at Mass again in Toronto.

As the threat of the H1N1 flu virus retreats, Archbishop Thomas Collins has removed temporary restrictions that asked people to bow or otherwise make the sign of peace without shaking hands. He’s also cleared the way for people to begin receiving communion directly on the tongue again.

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.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, archbishop of Toronto from 1990 to 2007, turns 80 Jan. 27.

Ambrozic, a resident at Providence Healthcare in Scarborough, has always valued his privacy and no public celebrations are planned for his birthday. The 5:30 p.m. Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral on Jan. 27 will be offered for the intentions of the Cardinal.