Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Michael is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register.

He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.

Follow him on Twitter @MmmSwan, or click here to email him.

TORONTO - Joshua Roldan got his wish May 11. A month ago the archdiocese of Toronto's lone candidate for the priesthood in 2013 told 1,700 well wishers gathered for the annual Serra Club Ordinandi Dinner, "The only thing I want to do is give my life to God."

TORONTO - Immigration hasn't just transformed the Catholic Church in Toronto, it's made the archdiocese of Toronto massively different from Catholic Canada outside the Greater Toronto Area.

On the edges of Mississauga and in the neglected corners of outer Scarborough, survivors of all the world’s tragedies of misrule, economic failure, mob violence and economic dysfunction are hunkered down — waiting to claim their part of the Canadian promise of decency and opportunity.

TORONTO - Once upon a time in Canada, medical bankruptcy was common. Going to the hospital was a financial death sentence for many.

More than 700 bodies have been recovered from the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. Loblaw Cos. Ltd. has stepped forward to offer compensation to families of dead workers at one of the factories that operated inside Rana Plaza where Loblaw’s Joe Fresh clothing line sourced its products.

TORONTO - When the economy becomes a game don’t be surprised if people game the system. The financial crisis of 2008 exposed not just structural and regulatory weakness in global capitalism but the cost of an amoral business ethic detached from the real economy, outgoing Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney told a Bay Street audience.

TORONTO - At 19,811,345 square kilometres the Byzantine-rite Romanian Eparchy of St. George the Martyr based in Canton, Ohio, has likely become the largest Catholic diocese in the world.

A federal government attempt to kill off the Health Council of Canada has Catholic health care advocates upset and disappointed.

TORONTO - Religious persecution, whether by mob violence, popular prejudice or state-imposed restrictions on religious practice, is significant in 163 countries, according to the Pew Research Centre’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, with Christianity being the number one target. The world’s 2.2 billion Christians face significant state or popular persecution in 130 countries, says the Pew Forum, while Aid to the Church in Need estimates 150,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith.

Updated 05/03/13

TORONTO - Toronto’s two large, acute-care Catholic hospitals have written off more than $174,000 in treatment costs for more than 800 refugee patients no longer covered by federal health insurance, The Catholic Register has learned.