Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register

Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register

Sheila was a reporter for The Catholic Register from 2008-2011.

A graduate of the University of Toronto's international relations program (M.A.) and Carleton University's School of Journalism (M.J.),  she has worked at The Canadian Press, CBC Ottawa, The Toronto Star, The Jordan Times and IRIN Middle East.

meagans walkTORONTO - It’s been nine years since Toronto’s Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School community lost Meagan Bebenek.

But the five-year-old junior kindergarten student has left a lasting legacy which was commemorated in the April 27 “Circle of Angels with Hope,” an annual event started after Meagan’s death from brain cancer.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A non-profit group of Toronto-based religious sisters is looking to fill more than a dozen spots for its long-awaited and controversial affordable housing project.

There are 17 spots left for the project being run by 40 Toronto-based women religious congregations that is expected to be ready for occupancy next spring.

TORONTO  - She’s been to a thousand birth days as a former midwife in Nigeria.

Now living in Canada, Stella George’s friends and family have planned multiple parties to celebrate a milestone birthday of her own: George turned 100 earlier this month.

August 25, 2008

Filipino Mass launched

{mosimage}TORONTO- The first weekly Filipino-language Mass in Toronto begins at the end of this month in the new home of the city’s Filipino Catholic Mission.

{mosimage}TORONTO - In one of the last pictures ever taken of Christina Calayca before she went missing last summer, she stands beside her mother and is all smiles.

It was taken at a 50th birthday party organized by Calayca for her mother.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Chewing gum, wearing strapless tops and receiving Communion in the hand are contributing to increasing irreverence at Mass, argues a 62-year-old mother of two who claims she has been living only on the Eucharist for almost nine years.

Irish-born Olive Dawson spoke at five parishes in the Toronto area and Orangeville, Ont., in mid-August. More than 2,000 people heard Dawson speak at three Catholic churches in Scarborough, Unionville and Brampton, all of which were filled to capacity.

{mosimage}MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - All eight of Helen Steffler’s children celebrated their First Communion and Confirmation at St. Joseph’s Church in Mississauga, Ont., just a few of the thousands who have done the same over the parish’s 150-year history.

The parish was to mark its 150th anniversary with an Oct. 5 Mass celebrated by Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins.
{mosimage}TORONTO  - Close to 500 people are expected at an upcoming international pro-life conference in Toronto.

The conference, entitled “Creating a Culture of Life Around the Globe,” will run from Oct. 2 to 4 and is sponsored by Campaign Life Coalition .

{mosimage}TORONTO - One year after implementing the papal decree paving the way for celebration of the traditional Latin Mass, the archdiocese of Toronto has invited the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter to help pave the way for the first mission parish for the Tridentine Mass in the archdiocese.

Fr. Howard Venette, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, is the new chaplain for the Tridentine Mass community at St. Theresa’s parish and Holy Cross parish. Venette said he hopes the Mass will be accessible to all those interested in the old rite.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Filipino-Canadian Rafael Nebres remembers when the late-September procession on Lake Ontario in honour of Our Lady of Penafrancia started as a small prayer group gathering in his home 36 years ago.

This year on Sept. 20, six yachts, one carrying a statue of Our Lady of Penafrancia, the patron saint of the Bicol region where Nebres is originally from, sailed on Lake Ontario from Bluffers Park in Scarborough.