{mosimage}TORONTO - A committee that laid the blueprints for race and ethnicity policies across the city and province 30 years ago will be honoured May 7 at the North York Civic Centre.

A memorial wall designed in the council chamber will feature a tribute to the original members who served North York’s Committee on Community and Race Relations, including Fr. Massey Lombardi, pastor of St. Wilfred’s parish in northwest Toronto. Lombardi, one time director of the office of social action office for the archdiocese of Toronto, was to speak about the committee’s contribution to public institutions of the Greater Toronto Area like the Catholic school boards and beyond.

{mosimage}TORONTO - After the second ShareLife Sunday May 2-3, the charitable fundraising arm of the Toronto archdiocese is halfway through its parish campaign and more than halfway to reaching its goal of $12 million.

So far, more than $7.1 million has been raised by Toronto parishes, said Arthur Peters, ShareLife’s executive director. He hopes to raise the remaining $5 million to effectively support those in need through its 33 charitable agencies.

{mosimage}TORONTO - North York Community Council voted unanimously against an application by the Toronto District Catholic School Board to demolish the historic home of the late Senator Frank O’Connor.

The May 20 decision came as a relief to community members who have been raising money to restore the home, but as a setback to the board which is responsible for the old farm house.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Nearly a thousand Catholics flooded Toronto's Dundas Square on May 17, rosaries in hand, heads bowed or arms raised for their most public event since World Youth Day 2002.

"It's hard to put into words," said Paul Klotz, a parishioner of St. Michael's Cathedral. "(Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins) showed us that in praying a little and reading a little you can learn so much more than by just reading the Bible (by itself)."

{mosimage}Filipino Catholics have a great responsibility for evangelization and they should embrace their culture in the faith context, Bishop Mylo Vergara told a group of 540 youth and young adults.

The 46-year-old bishop, from the Philippines diocese of San Jose, Nueva Ecija, reminded the large group that they are children of the only Catholic country in Asia Pacific and represent the third largest Asian-Canadian group. He was in Toronto as the guest speaker at the Office of Catholic Youth’s Filipino-themed Banquet on May 28.

{mosimage}TORONTO - As a Ukrainian Catholic community gathered to celebrate 50 years of Fr. John Tataryn’s priesthood, they did so with some kilts and bagpipes added into the mix of performances.

Tataryn, although of Ukrainian descent, grew up in Sydney, N.S., a town he said was diverse, with many religions and cultures. But if you didn’t listen to the bagpipes, he said, quoting his father with a laugh, “you didn’t have any culture.”

TORONTO – When Julia Corridon arrived in Toronto five years ago, she found herself being referred, through a shelter, to an unexpected beacon of hope in the form of the Furniture Bank.

{mosimage} TORONTO - Who ever thought the Bible could be improved? Well, as Hebrew Scriptures Professor Eugene Ulrich told a packed audience June 23, it has been. And it took the unearthing of the now famous Dead Sea Scrolls, on display at the Royal Ontario Museum until Jan. 3, to do so.

“The Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate that the text of the Bible was remarkably faithfully transmitted over the past 2,000 years. So we all can breathe a big sigh of relief,” Ulrich said during his lecture, The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Bible, one of fourteen presentations in a special lecture series about the scrolls that will feature a variety of scholars until Dec. 15.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The day peace-building became a professional goal for Dr. Sara Schleien, she was watching a soccer game at a leadership camp for teens from countries engulfed in conflict.

It took a minute for the reality of the moment to sink in, she said — a boy from Egypt had scored a winning goal and his teammates, from Israel, Gaza, Egypt, Afghanistan and India ran up to him, picked him up and twirled him around.