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'E-giving' making a positive difference in some parishes' offertories

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Empty collection baskets are seen in a June 18 photo illustration. In today's digital age, some parishes are seeing a shift from parishioners making a weekly donation using an offertory envelope to "e-giving," electronic and automatic deductions from the ir bank account to help pay for the costs of running and maintaining the parish.

WASHINGTON - For generations of Catholics, "E" has stood for envelope -- the Sunday offertory envelope.

In today's digital age, though, that "E" may be shifting to "e-giving," an electronic and automatic deduction from your bank account to help pay for the costs of running and maintaining the parish.

One company, Faith Direct, has said its client parishes are seeing revenue increases as high as 30 percent.

Our Sunday Visitor's Offertory Solutions subsidiary likewise estimates that parishioners who use its "Online Giving" option contribute up to 30 percent more than they would had they stuck with the envelope system.

Vatican plans for Year of Faith include hymn, Mass, packed calendar

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Vatican plans for Year of Faith include hymn, Mass, packed calendar

VATICAN CITY - With a hymn and a prayer, Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella presented the Vatican's initial calendar of events for the Year of Faith, which begins with a Mass Oct. 11 in St. Peter's Square.

Archbishop Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, said the Pope has invited as concelebrants bishops and theologians who, like the pontiff, served as members or experts at the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.

St. Dominic's honours fallen soldiers

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St. Dominic's honours fallen soldiers

The Grade 7 students at Oakville's St. Dominic Catholic Elementary School were the driving force behind the establishment of the Bronte Veterans' Garden along Halton Region's Veterans Highway. For several years, the students have been creating posters as a tribute to Canada's fallen soldiers from the mission in Afghanistan. On June 15, the St. Dominic's students were joined by Canada's Defense Minister Peter McKay, who helped unveil two plaques at the garden dedicated to Trooper Marc Diab and Col. Geoff Parker, two soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan.

(All photos by Boris Hofman)

Bill-13 claims its first victim as trustee opts to resign

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David Goldsmith, a trustee for the Lambton Kent District School Board, will officially step down from his position June 30

It isn’t just members of the Catholic school system being rubbed the wrong way by the Ontario government’s Bill-13.

The passage into law of the province’s anti-bullying legislation was the final straw for David Goldsmith, a trustee for the Lambton Kent District School Board.

“Bill-13 is causing me a lot of heartburn,” said Goldsmith, who will officially step down from his position June 30 after nine years with the southwestern Ontario school board.

At-risk Hamilton school graduates 8

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Some of the at-risk students from Good Shepherd Notre Dame House School in Hamilton, Ont.

Good Shepherd Notre Dame House School in Hamilton, Ont., graduated its largest class yet on June 19, with eight students collecting their high school diploma.

For Loretta Hill-Finamore, director of youth services at Good Shepherd Centres, having a graduating class of eight is very inspiring.

“That’s our goal, for everyone to graduate,” Hill-Finamore said. “We’re so proud of them.

St. Mike’s athletic director Forbes retires

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Paul Forbes, St. Michael's College School's veteran athletic director, is retiring after 36 years

TORONTO - It's not the championships, the money and certainly not the hours that Paul Forbes will miss as St. Michael's College School's veteran athletic director sizes up retirement after 36 years.

"It's the personnel, the people you work with. They started as colleagues, as peers, but many of them are close personal friends now," said Forbes, who was appointed athletic director at the midtown Toronto private Catholic school in 1985. "The staff and students I've been privileged to work with over the years is the best part of the job."

Peace: the challenge to religions

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St. Jerome’s University chancellor James Beingessner, left, presents an honorary doctorate to Douglas Roche June 14 at the school’s convocation.

The following is the address by Douglas Roche, O.C., to the St. Jerome’s University convocation in Waterloo, Ont., June 14. The university honoured Roche, a former Canadian Senator, MP and Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament, with an honorary degree in recognition of his 35-year public career that specialized in peace and human security issues.

Young people at eucharistic congress bring legacy of World Youth Day

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People gather on the lawn of the Royal Dublin Society as they listen to a lecture during the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin June 14.

DUBLIN - As the plainchant of "Tantum Ergo" drew the eucharistic procession to a close, the presiding prelates began to filter away. That's when some trip hop music erupted at the back of the massive assembly of pilgrims, which moments before had been on its knees in prayer and adoration.

Mass confusion: Misunderstanding at root of 'liturgy wars'

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Benedictine Father Jeremy Driscoll is a professor at Rome's Pontifical Athenaeum of San Anselmo and the author of "What Happens at Mass." He said liturgy is a legitimate subject for debate because it remains a work in progress. He is pictured at St. Anse lm Monastery in Rome June 7.

VATICAN CITY - Half a century after the start of the Second Vatican Council, the reform of the liturgy initiated there has not lost its power to stoke controversy.

On June 13, after years of on-again-off-again talks with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, which effectively broke from Rome almost 25 years ago to protest the teachings of Vatican II and subsequent changes to the Mass, the Vatican announced that the traditionalists had been formally offered terms of reconciliation.

Summer institute for teachers aims to bring catechism out of the shadows

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John Paul Meenan, who teaches Theology at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay, Ont., will be teaching the classes on the Catechism at the Wojtyla Summer Institute.

Paul Coates attended the first annual Wojtyla Summer Institute for Catholic teachers last summer at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in Barry’s Bay, Ont., and he wasn’t disappointed by the experience.

“The speakers were interesting, the material … highly learned, and inspired by faith,” Coates, a philosophy teacher and chair of the religion department at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School in Whitby, Ont., said of the institute, which last year was based on the theology of the body.

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