{mosimage}TORONTO - Catholic high school teacher Anthony de Sa is receiving high marks for his first book of short stories. It’s been short-listed for the lucrative Giller Prize.

The 40-year-old father of three and head of the English department at Toronto’s Father John Redmond Catholic High School said he was completely caught off guard when he heard the news in early October.

{mosimage}TORONTO - If sex sells, can a pope’s teachings about marriage and sexuality also appeal to the masses?

Two Catholic musicians are hoping that John Paul II’s “theology of the body” set to music will be able to. Or at least encourage listeners to consider an alternative view to the sexually permissive culture.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Victor Bernardo breakdances in the middle of the room as about a dozen Don Bosco Catholic High School students cheer him on. It’s a retreat day with high school students at St. Jude’s Academy for the Arts on Weston Road.

Bernardo, 25, has been attending the arts academy, which is a non-profit day program for developmentally challenged young adults, for several years.

{mosimage}TORONTO - As you peer through the keyhole, the silent memorial begins. More than 400 names of homeless people who have died on Toronto’s streets flash across the screen inside the graffiti-adorned house, one after the other.

This is the work of “Other,” also known as Montreal street artist Derek Mehaffey. It’s part of the first major street art exhibit at a Canadian museum.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A worn, century-old Bible, powdered blood and butterfly wings aren’t exactly what you’d expect to see in most artwork.

But Kitchener, Ont., artist Paul Roorda says re-using materials in creating his art helps to portray the themes of resurrection and transformation.

In his exhibition “Skeptic’s Gospel and Other Remedies for Truth,” Roorda explores questions about faith and doubt, life and death, humanity and divinity. The exhibition opened March 13 and runs to April 22 at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto.

{mosimage}TORONTO - During his five years as Toronto’s poet laureate, Fr. Pier Giorgio Di Cicco says what’s surprised him the most is the “unspoken need for spirituality” in Canada’s largest and most prosperous city.

Di Cicco told The Register in an e-mail interview that there has been a surprisingly “deep civic hunger” in the city. He said his presentations, talks and city-building initiatives to different community groups echoed “a call to a common spiritual language.”

What does Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson and Malcolm X have to do with teaching children about the Catholic faith?

According two new books for Catholic students, teaching kids about Catholic saints and traditions means teaching them about multiculturalism and social justice, while skimming on details about the Catholic Mass.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with introducing children to the hot-button issues of our time like combating racism. In fact, it’s crucial to make the connection between faith and how it is lived out in society.

But in trying to be all things to all people, Jeanne Hunt’s Celebrating Saints and Seasons: Hundreds of Activities for Catholic Children (St. Anthony Messenger Press) and Lisa Freemantle and Les Miller’s Words for the Journey for Kids: Ten-Minute Prayer Services for Schools (Novalis) may be taking kids on a detour that falls short of teaching kids what their faith is really about.

As Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan ends next year, the need to support returning soldiers and the work of chaplains will increase, says the new director of the Military Christian Fellowship of Canada.

Soldiers will be facing spiritual issues related to “whatever has happened in Afghanistan” once they return to Canada, said  Jane Twohey, who took the helm of the fellowship on Oct. 29.

TORONTO - Eighteen year-old Renata Taragos knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and silently prayed the rosary, joining the more than 300 people who usually attend the annual 40-hour devotion at Holy Family Church.

Parishioners like Taragos say the devotion helps to deepen their relationship with God.

Holy Family Church is one of a few parishes that retains the centuries-old tradition of the special 40-hour period of continuous prayer made before the Blessed Sacrament.