Canadian News

News and events from across the country.

Jesuits honour Lourdes

April 20, 2011

Jim Webb, right, awards the Magis Award to Fr. Bill Addley, who accepted on behalf of Our Lady of Lourdes parish. (Photo by Michael Swan) [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/jesuithonourslourdes.jpg]CONCORD, ONT. - Jesuit Father Bill Addley took one for the Our Lady of Lourdes team at the fifth annual Provincial’s Dinner April 13. In its 125th year in downtown Toronto, the Jesuits awarded their parish with the Magis Award and pastor Addley was there to accept the plaque. “We gratefully and humbly accept it,” said Addley. The award is bestowed annually by Canada’s English-speaking Jesuits on someone or some community that lives out the ideal of the magis. Magis is Latin for more. St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, urged his followers to constantly ask what more they could do for Christ. Jesuits ever since have called this constant search for more the magis.

Ottawa priest’s ‘lifestyle’ prompts financial audit

April 19, 2011

Fr. Joe LeClair of Ottawa's Blessed Sacrament parish [images/stories/canada/canada11/frjoeleclair2.jpg] OTTAWA - The Ottawa archdiocese confirmed it had launched an audit of the finances of Blessed Sacrament parish “some weeks” before two front-page stories appeared in the Ottawa Citizen April 16-17 raising questions about the lifestyle of its popular pastor. The Citizen reported that Fr. Joe Le Clair had cash advances from the Lac-Leamy Casino across the Ottawa River in Quebec of more than $137,000 in 2009-2010, and incurred a credit card debt of more than $490,000 in that time period. It reported Le Clair had repaid Visa $424,000. “How he could afford to repay that much is not known, other than the fact that as a Church pastor, Le Clair earns a net salary of $24,400,” journalists Meghan Hurley and Andrew Duffy wrote. Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., in a statement issued April 16, said stories about Le Clair’s “lifestyle” were brought to the attention of diocesan authorities in late 2010 and early 2011. He instructed his Vicar General, Msgr. Kevin Beach, to “clarify the issues raised by the stories.”

Palm Sunday celebration takes faith to the streets

April 18, 2011

About 300 people wound their way through downtown Toronto April 16 in a Palm Sunday procession. (Photo by Bill Wittman) [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/palmsundaywalking2_blank.jpg]TORONTO - Barbara Kowalski usually walks through the streets of Toronto without showing outward signs of faith. But that changed on Palm Sunday. Walking in a procession from St. Paul’s Basilica to St. Michael’s Cathedral as part of the Office of Catholic Youth’s World Youth Day Palm Sunday event on April 16, she helped to carry the World Youth Day commemorative cross down Queen Street. “It was nice to show others that this is my religion,” said Kowalski, 23, a legal communications clerk at a law firm in Toronto. Palm Sunday is recognized internationally as the World Day of Youth.

Packed church remembers the martyr Shahbaz Bhatti

April 18, 2011

Shabhaz Bhatti's brother, Peter, spoke of his family's shock and grief. He believes 'Pakistan has lost its Martin Luther King'. [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/bhattiservicetoronto.jpg]TORONTO - The life of slain Pakistan minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti is an inspiration to all Christians to live in the footsteps of Jesus, said Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins at an April 16 Memorial Mass at St. Andrew's Catholic Church. "We look to the example of great heroes like Shahbaz Bhatti to show us the way, to share the light of Christ by what they say, how they live and their life of sacrifice," Collins told about 1,800 people, including some politicians and members of the Pakistani community from different faith groups, who packed the church. The challenge is "not to be complacent but be inspired" by Bhatti's martyrdom, he said. Bhatti was gunned down on March 2 by Taliban militants who claimed responsibility for the assassination because of Bhatti's vocal opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Bhatti spoke out against religious discrimination and openly supported the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. He said the blasphemy laws are being used to prosecute innocent people from minority religious groups in the country.

Inside Easter with B.C.'s Benedictines

April 17, 2011

A monk prays in the silence of the Benedictine’s Westminster Abbey in Mission, B.C. Salt+Light Television is airing its look inside the walls of the abbey in This Side of Eden on Palm Sunday, April 17. [images/stories/arts/arts11/thissideofedensltv.jpg]If you strip life down to its essentials you don’t strip out beauty. You produce lives entirely devoted to beauty. In This Side of Eden we’re invited into the lives of Benedictine monks at Westminster Abbey in Mission, B.C., during Holy Week. The simplicity of their daily round of work and prayer feeds into the most solemn and significant liturgies of the Christian calendar — Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil. All this unfolds before the camera in one of the most extraordinary settings. Surrounded by mountains and nestled into the temperate rain forest of the B.C. coast, Westminister Abbey Church is a modern architectural gem constructed in the early 1980s with 7,000 square feet of stained glass. The church and abbey are filled with contemporary frescoes, paintings and sculpture — much of it by one of Mission’s monks, Fr. Dunstan Massey.

Focus on families in election campaign an encouraging sign

April 13, 2011

This election campaign, political parties are offering a variety of incentives for middle-class families. (Photo courtesy of iStockphoto.com) [images/stories/canada/canada11/family_apr12.jpg]OTTAWA - Pro-family groups are delighted to see a focus on family issues in the election campaign platforms of all three national parties. But some social conservative leaders have expressed disappointment that Stephen Harper refuses to reopen the debate on abortion or marriage even if the Conservatives win a majority. Past elections have seen the “odd snippet” of platform policy directed at family issues so it’s encouraging to see the major parties addressing family matters in this campaign, said Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) executive director Dave Quist. “It’s good,” he said. “It’s time they looked at the foundation of our society and that is the family. “We may disagree on the solutions, that is what democracy is all about, but it’s important that we be discussing these things.”

Swirling D&P controversy raises concerns about fundraising backlash

April 13, 2011

Bishop Grecco [images/stories/canada_bishops/BishopGrecco2.jpg]TORONTO - Ongoing controversy over abortion and the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace may be having a negative effect on overall fundraising for ShareLife. Each time Development and Peace faces public allegations that some of its partners are linked with organizations advocating legal access to abortion, ShareLife is contacted by angry donors threatening not to give, said ShareLife spokesman Bill Steinburg. “Whenever they call we always remind them that by doing so they’re having an impact on the huge family of more than 40 agencies that do a lot of work here on the ground, helping our own communities,” Steinburg said. Early this month, speaking engagements by a Mexican priest to promote Development and Peace’s overseas work were cancelled in Ottawa and Cornwall following allegations that the Jesuit priest’s human rights centre is associated with an organization that supports decriminalization of abortion. In cancelling the Ottawa events, Archbishop Terrance Prendergast said that support by Fr. Luis Arriaga’s centre for groups sympathetic to abortion is “incompatible” with Church teaching.

Astronaut inspires students to aim high

April 13, 2011

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield addresses students at Marshall McLuhan Catholic High School April 11. Hadfield shared his experiences of space travel and preparations for his next mission in 2013. (Photo by Sheila Dabu Nonato) [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/astronautchrishadfield.jpg]TORONTO - Hearing Col. Chris Hadfield’s space odyssey, students at a midtown Toronto high school say they were inspired to aim high to achieve their goals. Seventeen-year-old Marshall McLuhan Catholic High School student Eric Zucchetto was one of more than 1,000 cheering students who heard about the Canadian astronaut’s adventures in space at an April 11 school assembly. Zucchetto said he was struck by Hadfield’s determination to succeed. And just as Hadfield has made Canada proud through his achievements in space, the Grade 12 student said he wants to do likewise on the soccer pitch. “I want to represent Canada, too, just like how he represented Canada as an astronaut,” Zucchetto said.

Residential school truth must be heard

April 13, 2011

Marie Wilson [images/stories/education/education11/mariewilson.jpg]TORONTO - An apology is not the end of it and treaties are not dusty history for Canada’s native people is the message Marie Wilson has for Canadians who would rather not talk about what happened in residential schools. Wilson is one of three commissioners who make up the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The trio have five years to document the history of the national network of schools mandated by the government but mostly run by churches. There may be truth but there won’t be any reconciliation if mainstream, urban Canadians don’t acknowledge the legacy of the schools, Wilson told about 70 people at Toronto’s Regis College April 6, where she delivered the annual Martin Royackers Lecture.

Chalice roadshow aims to raise interest in vocations

April 13, 2011

Lisa and Roy Fernandes, along with children Chantelle and Mark, picking up the chalice at the start of their week at St. Patrick’s parish in Markham, Ont. (Photo courtesy of Fran and Baby Pulumbarit) [images/stories/toronto/toronto11/travellingchalicemarkham.jpg]MARKHAM, Ont. - The Serra Club of Markham and Scarborough has kicked off a travelling vocations chalice program aiming to shine the light on vocations. “The one and only mandate is for families to pray for the vocation to the priesthood and religious life,” said Fran Pulumbarit, chairperson of the travelling vocations chalice program and vice-president of vocations of the Serra Club of Markham and Scarborough. There will be two chalices involved in the program, which will serve as a reminder for families to pray for vocations. The first has been passed among families at St. Patrick’s parish in Markham since April 3. The second chalice begins circulating at St. Barnabas parish in Scarborough next month.