Luc Rinaldi, The Catholic Register

Luc Rinaldi, The Catholic Register

Luc Rinaldi is a freelance writer from Toronto. He studied journalism at Ryerson University.

TORONTO - Craig Cameron’s “great high school rebellion” began one evening after a confirmation class at his local parish in Halifax. The frustrated 17-year-old came home, convinced that he did not want or need to be confirmed. After expressing his frustration and voicing his decision to his mother, he stormed to his bedroom “like only a teenager can” and — this is where the archetypal narrative breaks — began to pray.

It wasn’t that Cameron had a problem with the morality that the Church taught, it was that he had a problem with the morality that the members of the Church were living.

“This discrepancy was a bit of an obstacle for me to receive the sacrament,” he said.

TORONTO - Ten years ago, no one in Chris Lemieux’s world — not his parents, not his closest friends, not the guys on his softball team — would have imagined him as a priest. That’s because 10 years ago, he wasn’t even a Catholic.

Lemieux, now 40, was working as a bus driver for Mississauga Transit at the time, and planning to do so, eventually as a married man with a family, for a long time.

“But it seems now that God had another plan,” said Lemieux. “A plan that led me to baptism — to become Catholic first — and then to priesthood.”

TORONTO - Michael Goring’s father likely knew his son had a unique spiritual maturity when Michael asked something along the lines of: “Is this all there is to the faith — to pray the rosary, to go to Mass? Can we come to know God in a more personal way in our lives?”

That’s big talk for a preteen.

A self-proclaimed “valley boy” from Pembroke, Ont., the now 38-year-old Goring said it was his Catholic family — and especially a particular suggestion from his father — that fostered in him, from a young age, a love for the Church and priesthood.

In response to his young son’s questions, Goring’s father advised him to read the lives of the saints. So Goring read the stories of men and women whose lives were transformed by Christ and who transformed others’ lives through Him. He developed a fitting fascination with St. John Vianney.

“Someone who had trouble getting through school, couldn’t even learn the Latin to become a priest, and now he’s the patron saint of all priests throughout the world,” said Goring. “Quite an inspiration.”

Equally inspiring was an invitation from one of Goring’s high school religion teachers, who told Goring and his classmates that, when they were having difficulties in their lives or felt isolated, they could call on God and that He would be faithful.

“Why should I wait to invite God into my life when things are going badly?” Goring asked himself.

So that night, he knelt and said a simple prayer.

“I sensed at that moment that the Lord had come into my heart and He was telling me that He was with me,” said Goring.

It wasn’t until a few years later, in university, that that sense translated into a direct encounter with the possibility of priesthood. After an evening Mass that he had attended with his brother Mark — who has since become a priest — Goring met the late Fr. Robert Bedard, the founder of the Companions of the Cross. Bedard invited them to share dinner with him. While his brother left his studies to pursue priestly formation soon thereafter, Goring continued his engineering studies and eventually became a software engineer in Ottawa.

But thoughts of the priesthood didn’t entirely leave Goring. After several years of studies and work, Goring decided to take a silent, week-long Ignatian guided retreat.

“I look at it almost like a vacation with the Lord,” said Goring. “And about halfway through that retreat, I sensed that God was offering me a gift, and it was the gift to become a priest.”

That gift will come to fruition on May 12 when Goring will be ordained a priest for Pembroke.

“I always thought myself more drawn to married life (than the priesthood),” Goring admitted. “But I couldn’t resist such a generous offer from God.”

TORONTO - Francesco Marrone believes his call to the priesthood began in his mother’s womb.

The oldest child in his family, he has nine younger siblings, and another eight — including a twin brother — who didn’t make it. It was clear to him that God wanted him alive, and for a reason.

For a while, however, that reason wasn’t entirely clear to the native of Verona, Italy. Growing up, his large family endured a myriad of difficulties, from financial problems to parental marital woes. Furniture began to disappear from Marrone’s home as his family grew deeper in debt, which only worsened his parents’ already troubled marriage. Nevertheless, Marrone recalls his father sharing a lesson that would stick with him to this day.

TORONTO - Ten years ago, Chris Lemieux sat amidst a crowd of Catholics listening to the vocation stories of a group of young men on the brink of entering the priesthood. Though it was only a few months after his baptism, he knew then that he was being called to religious life.

So on March 6, it was only fitting that Lemieux would follow in the footsteps of those men and become one of this year's four priestly candidates to share their stories with a crowd of more than 1,900 at the 22nd annual Ordinandi Dinner. Serra International, an organization promoting vocations to Catholic religious life, hosted the evening, which was held at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton, Ont.

TORONTO - The separation of church and state is a concept engrained in the identity and culture of Western democracy as a means of protecting religion, not eliminating it, according to the Very Rev. Lois Wilson.

But that definition has become less and less believable, Wilson told a few dozen young adults gathered in downtown Toronto at a Theology on Tap event that questioned what role religion should play in forming the public policy of a secular state.

TORONTO - Terence Sheridan, the newly appointed president of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School, may be the first layperson to lead the school, but he’s no stranger to the Basilian tradition of the community.

An alumnus of the Toronto all-boys private school, Sheridan has spent the last 15 years as a teacher, administrator and coach at St. Michael’s. And in July 2012, he will succeed Fr. Joseph Redican, C.S.B., as president. During his two-year term, Sheridan will also continue to serve as principal of the school, a role he has held since January.

TORONTO - Three days after Christmas, the altar and pulpit of St. Michael's Cathedral were still adorned with wreaths and festive decorations. Parishioners and visitors filled the pews for a Wednesday evening Mass, only two blocks from the mid-Boxing Week rush at the Toronto Eaton Centre and other downtown retailers.

But the congregation wasn't gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus — the people were there to pray for those yet to be born.

TORONTO - Hundreds of people gathered at Queen’s Park Oct. 22 to send a message to the newly elected provincial government: stop using taxpayers’ dollars to fund abortions.

“This is outrageous that we are forced to fund an elective, medically unnecessary procedure,” said Alissa Golob, the youth co-ordinator for Campaign Life Coalition and organizer of the Defund Abortion Rally.

In Ontario, abortions are funded by taxpayer dollars. That’s about $30 million for at least 30,000 abortions a year, at a cost of $1,000 each, Golob said.

September 28, 2011

We are all called to serve

TORONTO - With the first words of his homily, Fr. Len Altilia, S.J., made the Sunday congregation at St. Rose of Lima parish in Scarborough sink in the pews.

“How many of you have a vocation?” the Jesuit vocations director asked.

A scattered collection of brave hands rose hesitantly as others looked around.

“How many of you are baptized?” was the next question from the guest homilist.

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