Canadian News

News and events from across the country.

Chalice gives kids a chance in life

December 23, 2010

Fr. Pat Cosgrove [images/stories/canada/canada10/cosgrove.jpg]In the 25 years since he became a priest, one accomplishment Fr. Pat Cosgrove looks back on with particular fondness is the establishment of Chalice. “When I started doing this, I never thought that we needed another developmental organization in the world,” Cosgrove told The Catholic Register. “What I really thought we were doing was expressing God’s love and passion for the poor and I still feel that more than anything else. We try to give Catholics in Canada a way to express their faith and their love for Christ.”

Not your grandmother's natural family planning

December 23, 2010

ultrasound [images/stories/misc/misc08/ultrasound.jpg]TORONTO - Former mountain bike racer Leslie Greene isn’t your typical advocate for natural family planning. The United Church member is a natural family planning (NFP) practitioner with Toronto’s Marguerite Bourgeoys Family Centre who supports the Catholic Church’s teachings favouring natural methods of achieving or avoiding pregnancy, and is against birth control pills and artificial fertility treatments. Greene prefers to steer clear of the NFP label. Instead, she says it’s more accurate to call it “fertility care,” a natural method of looking after a woman’s reproductive health.

Lebanese parish won't forget sick, poor at Christmas

December 22, 2010

Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/ourlady_of_lebanon.jpg]TORONTO - For parishioners at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church on Queen Street West, the annual Christmas traditions include helping poor families and those who are ill in the community. This year, the parish is raising money for St. Joseph’s Healthcare.

A shining star for Filipinos

December 22, 2010

St. Augustine Cathedral [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/filipino-christmas.jpg]TORONTO - Christmas stars, known as Filipino Christmas lanterns, adorn Our Lady of the Assumption Church this Advent season. Our Lady of Assumption, the archdiocese’s Filipino Catholic Mission, is home to about 7,000 Filipino Catholic families.

A homemade rosary made of love

December 22, 2010

Christina Panzini [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/panzini3.jpg]TORONTO - This Christmas, Christina Panzini is going to be making Christmas gifts for her grandparents using the nicest beads she can find. But she won’t be making bracelets or necklaces. This year, Panzini will be making homemade rosaries. “I never know what to buy my grandparents and I want to give them things that are sentimental,” she said. “Something they’ll use and appreciate.” Panzini, a third-year geography student at York University, said it’s easy to make beautiful rosaries at reasonable prices. She buys all materials at art supply stores, like Michaels, which stock all the required parts.

Maltese creativity for the nativity

December 22, 2010

Anthony Camilleri [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/camilleribest.jpg]TORONTO - There’s no mention of a donkey loaded with pomegranates, windmills or a group of musicians playing the zaqq, the tanbur and the safzava in Gospel stories of the birth of Jesus. But for the Maltese it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them. Traditional Maltese Christmas nativity scenes, called presepju, contain all these Maltese elements and more. At Toronto’s Maltese parish, St. Paul the Apostle, the Maltese tradition is on display in a big way.

St. Joseph's Sisters will be caring for soles this Christmas

December 22, 2010

Sr. Gwen Smith [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/sr_gwensmith.jpg]TORONTO - With Christmas coming, it’s socks, not Christmas stockings, that the Sisters of St. Joseph are hoping will come by way of gifts for people living on the streets. “On Holy Thursday, when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and said, ‘Do likewise,’ it’s always a privilege for us to do that. It reminds us of who we’re called to be,” said Sr. Gwen Smith, director at Mustard Seed, the Sisters’ ministry to help the homeless and individuals at risk.

Haitian relief ongoing in Dufferin-Peel

December 17, 2010

haiti camp [images/stories/international/international10/haiti0710.jpg]MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Amid the sights and smells of death and tragedy, volunteers from the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board found hope and resilience in the people they met in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Maria Masucci told The Catholic Register that the volunteer trips by a team of teachers, university students, plus a doctor and dentist from Woodbridge’s St. Peter’s parish to Haiti in April and then again in July were inspired by the Gospel of Matthew about feeding and clothing the poor, welcoming strangers and visiting prisoners. They were helping in the aftermath of the January earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left millions homeless.

Bruinooge believes Roxanne's Law still has some life in it

December 17, 2010

Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge [images/stories/canada/canada10/bruinooge.jpg]OTTAWA - Roxanne’s Law may have gone down to defeat, but Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge sees signs a version of his anti-abortion coercion bill might succeed some day. “I was not too disappointed,” said Bruinooge, who chairs the Parliamentary Pro-life Caucus, after the 178-97 defeat Dec. 15 of Bill C-510. Roxanne’s Law would make it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion. It was named for a constituent in Bruinooge's Winnipeg riding who was beaten with a hockey stick by three men and left to die in a snow bank because she refused to have an abortion. Bruinooge said he “learned a lot about Canada” in telling her story, which also attracted international interest.

Atheist ad campaign set to hit Toronto streets in new year

December 16, 2010

athiest poster [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/poster2.jpg]TORONTO - The new ad campaign from the atheist group behind last year’s “there’s probably no God” campaign suggests that Christ and Allah have the same amount of credibility as UFOs, Big Foot, psychics, Zeus and homeopathy. “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence” reads the new campaign poster set to run on TTC vehicles in Toronto. While the ads are still pending approval, they are expected to make their debut on streetcars in January, said Justin Trottier, national executive director of the Centre for Inquiry, the group behind the campaign. If all goes according to plan, Trottier said the ads will then run in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal. “Broadening our focus from just God, we’ll now call for skepticism and rational inquiry into any conceivable extraordinary claim,” said Trottier.