Canadian News

News and events from across the country.

Multi-faith group wants a vote for parental rights

October 3, 2011

TORONTO - A multi-faith group of parents has banded together to urge voters to be mindful of the importance of parental rights and education when voting in Thursday's Ontario election. “We are looking (towards) the future, what should happen when new government is elected,” Peter Chen of the Toronto Chinese Catholic Task Force (TCCTF) said after a Sept. 29 press conference. “As Catholics, as religious groups, we hope that our parents would have their own basic rights in deciding what they'd like to hear and what should be taught (to their children).”

Planned Parenthood grant draws fire

September 28, 2011

OTTAWA - International Planned Parenthood, which promotes and provides abortions, has received a federal grant under a G8 initiative that Prime Minister Stephen Harper said would not fund Third World abortions. Conservative MP Brad Trost calls the $6 million CIDA grant to Planned Parenthood a “slap in the face” to all social conservatives in Parliament and the Tory caucus. “I am very, very disappointed, very unhappy,” said Trost, the pro-life MP who campaigned last spring on getting Planned Parenthood de-funded.

Baby Joseph, focus of end-of-life debate, dies at home in Windsor

September 28, 2011

TORONTO - Baby Joseph Maraachli, who had been at the centre of a legal battle between his parents and doctors, died on Sept. 27 surrounded by his family. Joseph's father, Moe, told The Catholic Register that the funeral for the 18-month old child was held Sept. 28. Br. Paul O'Donnell, Major Superior of the Minnesota-based Franciscan Brothers of Peace, announced the death on Facebook: "(Baby Joseph) passed away peacefully at home with his parents and family at his side. Praise God he had seven precious months with his family to be surrounded by love and was not put to death at the hands of doctors,” he wrote.

U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia defends Catholic believers

September 28, 2011

TORONTO - Critics often wonder how a Harvard-educated man like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can believe in God. Scalia answers that being a devout Catholic does not mean you forgo your intellect or reason. “A faith that has no reason is not sound,” Scalia said to a packed room of more than 200 lawyers and judges as keynote speaker following the 87th annual Red Mass on Sept. 22 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. “That is why I am not a Branch Davidian,” he joked, with chuckles from the audience. (The Branch Davidians are the infamous sect notorious for the 1993 siege in Waco, Texas, where more than 80 people died during a standoff with the FBI.)

Abuse response not deep enough according to Sr. Kenny

September 28, 2011

OTTAWA - While the protocols and programs dioceses have adopted to combat clerical sexual abuse are necessary, they only treat the symptoms of a systemic problem, according to Sr. Nuala Kenny. A retired pediatrician and Dalhousie University professor emeritus of bioethics, Kenny said there has never been “a Church-wide, deep conversation” about the meaning of the sexual abuse crisis and the widespread harm it has caused and the transformation “where the Lord is calling us,” the people of God. Trauma and Transformation: the Catholic Church and the Sexual Abuse Crisis, a conference Oct. 14-15 at McGill University that Kenny has helped organize, is bringing in some of the top researchers and thinkers from across North America to have that conversation. But Kenny said she is disappointed the registered attendees are not representative of a wide cross-section of the Church.

Linda Gibbons’ lawyer featured speaker at rights’ league meeting

September 28, 2011

TORONTO - Lawyer Daniel Santoro will give a preview of jailed pro-life activist Linda Gibbons’ upcoming Supreme Court hearing at the 26th annual meeting of the Catholic Civil Rights League. Santoro is the featured speaker at the CCRL’s Oct. 13 meeting that begins with a 5:30 p.m. Mass at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Cathedral, followed by the meeting at St. Michael’s Choir School. Santoro said he would present an overall summary of Gibbons’ case before the Supreme Court on Dec. 14 which will challenge a 1994 temporary Ontario court injunction protecting several downtown Toronto abortion clinics. The issue is “whether the Criminal Code can be used to enforce civil injunctions,” he said.

Lawmakers must bear witness to Gospel, Prendergast tells Red Mass

September 28, 2011

OTTAWA - Catholic judges, lawyers and politicians must never divorce their Catholic faith from their public duties, Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast told a group of civic leaders that included Supreme Court Justice Louis LeBel. In a homily given Sept. 22 at the annual Red Mass for the legal profession, Prendergast said lawyers and lawmakers must bear witness to the Gospel in the public square and urged them to infuse the rule of law with the rule of faith. “On matters of who is entitled to live or die, on the status of marriage and the family, on the critical issue of religious liberty, the totalitarian impulse is not absent from Canada,” he warned.

Bishops’ social justice message targets youth

September 28, 2011

OTTAWA - The Canadian Catholic bishops have issued a message on social justice to young Catholics encouraging them to commit themselves to building a “more just and joyful society.” In a message released Sept. 22, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Justice and Peace urged young Catholics to participate in furthering the “Millennium objectives for development.” “The Catholic Church shares all of humanity’s common quest for peace and happiness, and supports efforts of individuals and groups working to eradicate poverty, illness, injustice, inequality, human rights violations and environmental exploitation,” says the Message to Young Catholics on Social Justice. “This witness of solidarity flows from God’s love for humanity as revealed to us in Jesus Christ.”

Whitehorse bishop pitches for priests

September 26, 2011

Bishop Gary Gordon has a one-time, can't-miss, double-your-money-back-guaranteed deal for the priests of the nation. "You want an opportunity to pray? You want an opportunity to connect with God in the vastness of His creation? An opportunity to actually know every single parishioner and have coffee with them, all the time?" begins Gordon's sales pitch to priests in southern Canada. He has just the spot for them — his Whitehorse diocese in the Yukon. Priests in the north get to actually read books, reflect on their work and take a second look at their homilies.

D&P raises $4.7 million for Horn of Africa relief

September 22, 2011

As the curtain came down on 10 weeks of double-your-money matching donations for famine relief in East Africa, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace had raised approximately $4.7 million. More than 13 million people face possible starvation in Horn of Africa countries, including Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. More than two years of drought and crop failure in the region have been compounded by political chaos in Somalia. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are on the move in the region. Development and Peace will put donations to work in both short term, emergency feeding and medical care through the Caritas network and longer term projects to support farming.