Feature

D&P funds raised via postage stamps

April 5, 2012

MONTREAL - Francois Gloutnay is stamping out poverty — one stamp at a time. Gloutnay, communications officer at the Montreal office of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada, is an avid stamp collector. He also sells them. Every year he helps organize stamp sales at Montreal-area shows to raise money for D&P. The stamps sell for a few cents each, but it all adds up. Since 1992, when Gloutnay became involved in the fundraising effort, he has helped raise over $335,000 for D&P programs around the world.

iMary app joins mobile industry

March 31, 2012

Mother Mary has gone mobile in the form of an app on iTunes. To coincide with the release of the VisionTV documentary “Our Lady,” Tell Tale Productions has released an iMary app that locates all 83 Marian shrines across Canada. - DOWNLOAD THE APP ON ITUNES NOW “These two productions kind of evolved together as sister productions,” said Tell Tale Productions’ president Edward Peill. “There are a number of apps for the rosary and there are a number of apps available for devotions and there are probably a number of apps for the calendar. We decided to combine all of these into one package so you wouldn’t need three or four apps.”

Irish bishops: God not missed in lives of many Europeans

March 30, 2012

DUBLIN - Europe today is a culture in which God appears to be "silent and unmissed in the lives of many" the Irish bishops warn in a new pastoral letter issued March 29. The 12-page document, "Repent and Believe the Good News," deals with the importance of repentance for the Irish Catholic Church. In their discussion of the European context in which the Irish church is forging its path, the bishops said that today there are "many spheres of life in which even believers rarely recognize the relevance of the Gospel."

‘Myth of prostitution as a choice must be challenged’ - human trafficking conference

March 30, 2012

Legalizing prostitution won’t make women safer, a sex-trade survivor told about 200 women and 20 men at a one-day conference on human trafficking. Just two days before the Ontario Court of Appeal released a ruling that legalized brothels while maintaining laws against pimping in the Criminal Code, Bridget Perrier told conference delegates the myth of prostitution as a choice must be challenged. The March 24 conference was organized by themy Loretto Sisters. “We always hear that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. I always say it’s the world’s oldest oppression,” Perrier said. “Really, it’s paid rape. It’s child abuse.”

Brazil’s fight against modern slavery

March 30, 2012

Brazil is now the world’s sixth largest economy and economists project it will be the fifth largest by the end of this year. It has an advanced aerospace industry, some of the most sophisticated telecommunications companies in the world and more billionaires than Japan. It also has slaves. Between 25,000 and 40,000 Brazilians every year are trafficked into slavery. On average, government anti-slavery teams free 4,500 people per year. “When I went to Brazil for the first time (in the 1990s) I was far from imagining that slavery was still existing,” said French-born Dominican Brother Xavier Plassat. “For me it was a discovery.”

Connecting with nature in Cobourg, Ontario

March 29, 2012

Not many retreat houses can boast that guests will be greeted by Noah himself. But, then, there aren’t many retreat houses like the Villa St. Joseph Spirituality Centre in Cobourg, Ont. Noah is the Centre’s friendly golden retriever. He is seen regularly patrolling the spacious grounds, providing emotional and spiritual warmth but also reminding visitors of the Villa’s deep connection to nature. Situated on the bank of Lake Ontario about an hour’s drive from Toronto, the Villa was originally purchased to provide a home for orphaned girls. It later became the summer home of the sisters and is now a vibrant place of prayer and spiritual growth.

Rise in tech use by congregations mirrors that in society, survey shows

March 16, 2012

WASHINGTON - The rise in congregations' use of technology over the past decade mirrors its use in the wider society, according to the results of a survey released March 14. Email usage by congregations, gauged at 22 percent in 1998, had soared to 90 percent by 2010, according to the study, "Virtually Religious: Technology and Internet Use in American Congregations."

Catholic blogosphere is out there — and that’s a good thing

March 10, 2012

OTTAWA - Colin Kerr used to believe Catholic bloggers in Canada were “a bunch of cranks.” But then he looked more closely and had to think again. Kerr, an assistant professor of theology at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay, Ont., found more than 100 English- language blogs in his investigation of the Canadian Catholic blogosphere. They included blogs by bishops (Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and Montreal Bishop Thomas Dowd), blogs by priests and religious, blogs by organizations such as the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Catholic Register and Salt + Light TV, blogs by homeschooling moms, blogs by pro-lifers, blogs on liturgy, theological reflections, parenthood and religious life inside a monastery.

Moving beyond the Mideast headlines in "Persecuted Christians"

March 9, 2012

TORONTO - Every reporter wants what Martin Himel has — a story that could shift how people think and talk about global politics, a story rich with human drama, suffering, heartbreak and redemption. Himel found that story among Christian refugees in Toronto and among the huddled and fearful Christians of Cairo and Baghdad where he filmed Persecuted Christians. The hour-long documentary will get its world premiere on VisionTV March 14.

Canadian refugee reform makes it us vs. them

March 8, 2012

Vilmos Csikja, his wife Beata and their four children from Hungary are the kind of people Immigration Minister Jason Kenney calls “bogus refugees.” They have been in Canada three years. Their application for refugee protection was denied by the Immigration and Refugee Board, an appeal to the federal court was unsuccessful, the IRB’s appeal division turned them down and the Federal Court has now declined to overturn that decision. Their last hope is an appeal to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Only about three per cent of Hungarian Roma refugee applications are successful at the IRB. Roma refugee cases have exploded over the last five years. In 2007 there were just 34. In 2011 there were almost 5,000. The Roma refugee boom coincides with two factors — the 2007 lifting of visa requirements for Hungary and increasing prominence of the extreme right wing Jobbik party in the Hungarian parliament.