Faith

Christians need to understand Jewish roots

October 30, 2008

TORONTO - The Catholic Church officially repudiated anti-Jewish teaching and predatory proselytizing of Jews 43 years ago. While violence against Jews, graffiti on synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish cemeteries are still realities in Toronto, such incidents cannot be associated with teaching — official or unofficial — in the Catholic Church. In today’s Toronto, the Muslim community is now about twice as numerous as the Jews and it’s both the integration of Muslims in Canada and armed conflict in Muslim countries around the world that grab headlines. So who cares about Catholic-Jewish relations?

Fine line between politics and faith

September 25, 2008

TORONTO - When he was 23, Liberal Party candidate Gerard Kennedy read Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, touted as the document marking the birth of Catholic social teaching. In it, the pope wrote about the church’s duty to intervene in social matters and help the poor, as well as the state’s responsibility to help those who suffered the most from the economic system.

Ancient prayer draws new interest in Canada

August 29, 2008

ACTON, Ont. - Lee Anne Berry calls herself a “lamb seeker.” Berry, a retired special needs educational assistant, is a member of the contemplative prayer group the Intercessors of the Lamb and leads the group in Acton, west of Toronto. Berry said she named her group the “lamb seekers” because she and her group members want to bring those who are lost back to God through intercessory prayer.

Christian voice can be heard

October 12, 2007

TORONTO - If they were not vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience most members of the Canadian Religious Conference’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation network would be retired, smiling, pleasant, mild-mannered grandparents.

Evangelization gets a (Second) Life

September 6, 2007

Missionaries are all around us, on our streets, in advertisements and infomercials, during the occasional sermon or special parish appeals. And from time to time missionaries make the news. Sometimes dramatically as in the case of the Korean young adults seized off a treacherous highway in Afghanistan and only released after weeks of captivity and serial deaths.

In search of answered prayers

September 6, 2007

Roman Catholic journalist James Risdon is launching a Canada-wide appeal for examples of answered prayers. He hopes that people will write to him with their testimonials, which will serve as material for the book he is writing.

TV Mass allows shut-ins a chance to participate

May 4, 2007

TORONTO - For the past 21 years people from all walks of life in the Greater Toronto Area have enjoyed Sunday morning Mass from the comfort of their own home.

Changing paths on the road to the priesthood

April 25, 2007

TORONTO - Two years ago Ignacio Pinedo was to be ordained a missionary priest with the Scarboro Missions religious community based in Toronto, but close to his ordination date the superior asked him to take some time off to discern his call.

Gratitude to the Lord feeds the priestly call

April 17, 2007

TORONTO - When Jorge Lopez joined Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Toronto nine years ago he didn’t speak a word of English. Still, he left his family behind in Nicaragua to follow his call to the priesthood.

Seminarian feels the need to give back to the Lord

April 17, 2007

TORONTO - It was an overwhelming sense of gratitude that caused Giuseppe Scollo to give up his family and life in Sisley, Italy to follow his call to the priesthood.