Canadian News

News and events from across the country.

Women abuse: 'It's not OK'

October 24, 2008

TORONTO - Deborah Sinclair’s first introduction to the reality of women’s abuse happened when she was 12, while having lunch at a friend’s house. The friend’s father lifted up the kitchen table in rage despite the fact she, the other six kids and their mother were all present. “I wondered if he knew I was there,” she said. “And you know I didn’t tell my parents because I was fearful they wouldn’t let me go back.”

Church needs to tap laity for preaching

October 24, 2008

TORONTO - While bishop after bishop at the recently wrapped up Synod of Bishops on Scripture has decried the state of preaching in the church, Dominican Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert argues church leaders are ignoring a potential gold mine of superior preaching. At the annual Dominican Family Justice Seminar at the University of Toronto’s Newman Centre Chapel, Hilkert said bishops should commission lay people to preach at parish Masses. A former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, Hilkert led a small group in two days of discussion about the charism of preaching and how it is exercised in the church Oct. 17-18. It was the ninth annual Dominican Justice Seminar in Toronto.

St. Mike's to host Humanae Vitae forum

October 24, 2008

TORONTO - Pope Paul VI’s controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae will be under the microscope at a Toronto conference later this month. “Celebrating the Richness of Humanae Vitae: a buried treasure” is the theme of the Nov. 15 conference. It will examine Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical in light of church teaching on sexuality and marriage, marking the document’s 40th anniversary.

Ethical index takes a hit

October 23, 2008

TORONTO - It was a bad month for just about all investors, but a little bit worse for ethical investors in September. The Jantzi Social Index of 60 Canadian stocks chosen for their environmental, social and governance performance plummeted 15.3 per cent in September, compared with a 13.76-per-cent drop in the S&P/TSX 60 and a 14.45-per-cent slide in the S&P/TSX Composite.

Habitat for Humanity building with faith

October 23, 2008

TORONTO - Women’s work is good work, it’s the work of faith and sometimes it involves power tools. More than 30 women of all faiths came together to do one of the toughest, dirtiest jobs in house construction at a Habitat for Humanity site in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto Oct. 16. They put up vapour barriers and drywall in six units on Kingston Road near Main Street.

Remembering the Holocaust

October 23, 2008

TORONTO - Every year during the world’s largest Holocaust education event the links between Christians and Jews — both now and during the Second World War — are visible. Of the 160 events that make up Toronto’s Holocaust Education Week starting Nov. 2, a dozen will be held in Catholic schools. Most of the presentations at Catholic schools involve Holocaust survivors telling their stories.

Canadian income gap widens

October 23, 2008

TORONTO - The rich are getting richer, poor are getting poorer and even the middle class is losing touch with wealthy Canadians, according to a new report from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. After 20 years of declining inequality from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s, the gap between rich and poor has risen sharply in Canada since 1995, the OECD said in Growing Unequal, released Oct. 21. Canada is now one of the more unequal countries among the 30 rich nations who make up the OECD.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair's resignation "sad"

October 22, 2008

OTTAWA - The sudden resignation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Justice Harry LaForme has surprised and disappointed both Catholic and aboriginal leaders. The commission was formed as a result of the Indian residential schools settlement agreement and has a five-year mandate to allow former students and others who participated in the schools to tell their stories.

Cistercian named Canada's newest bishop

October 21, 2008

OTTAWA - Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Abbot Yvon Moreau of the Cistercian Abbey of Oka, Que., to the episcopate in Quebec. Bishop-elect Moreau will succeed retiring Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière Bishop Clément Fecteau, who turned 75 in April. Canon law requires bishops reaching their 75th birthday to offer their resignation.

Pro-life protest lands Linda Gibbons in jail

October 17, 2008

TORONTO - Just two days after being released from a prison in Milton, Ont., at the end of September, longtime pro-life activist Linda Gibbons was ready to return to jail. And she did, a week later, on Oct. 8. She was to appear before a judge in October.