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Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is about to unleash a new dimension in a spiritual crisis that already grips nearly 80,000 problem gamblers in Ontario, addiction counsellors say.

Duncan announced in August that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation will be “extending its brand” into the Internet. By 2012 the province will deal poker, sell lottery tickets and run bingo games online. The province worries its citizens already spend $400 million a year on unregulated, off-shore gambling sites. It expects the provincial take from OLG-run web sites will be in the neighbourhood of $100 million. Charities may be given the opportunity to fundraise directly by running online bingo games.

But the toll in addiction will be high, particularly for young males most at risk for Internet gambling addictions, said Christiana Ashabo, Southdown Institute’s addiction and relapse prevention therapist.

It’s been 13 years since Mother Teresa died of a heart attack at age 87 on Sept. 5, 1997 in Calcutta. Aug. 26 marks her 100th birthday.

How well I remember those days . . . my own father died on Aug. 27 that year. One week later, Mother Teresa was called home to God. I provided commentary of her funeral for several networks in Canada. The pomp, precision and sombre majesty of Princess Diana’s London farewell one week earlier were hardly visible in the turbulent scenes of Mother Teresa’s simple wooden casket riding on a gun carriage through the streets of Calcutta for her state funeral.

Mother Teresa’s life was not a sound byte, but rather a metaphor for selfless devotion and holiness. Her most famous work began in 1950 with the opening of the first Nirmal Hriday (Tender Heart) home for the dying and destitute in Calcutta. Her words remain inscribed on the walls of that home: “Nowadays the most horrible disease is not leprosy or tuberculosis. It is the feeling to be undesirable, rejected, abandoned by all.”

TORONTO - At Northmount Catholic School for Boys, a replica of a medieval knight’s metallic armour stands in the hallway as students process into class.

The days of chivalry and valour may seem like lessons for young men from a bygone era. But at Toronto’s Northmount, teachers are aiming to form tomorrow’s leaders as young men of faith and virtue.

Principal Carmen Mombourquette said the school’s mission is to provide a well-rounded education based upon Catholic teachings and values.

TORONTO - Catholic parents are looking forward to the Oct. 25 municipal elections so they can elect a new slate of trustees, says the head of a Toronto parents’ group.

Parents are “fed up” with hearing of another trustee scandal, said Murielle Boudreau, chair of the Greater Toronto Catholic Parent Network, in response to news that Toronto Catholic District School Board chair Angela Kennedy had been found guilty of conflict-of-interest charges.

“We want Catholic supporters to be really ready and do something about it, to recognize that these trustees failed and that (voters) can bring about change through their vote,” Boudreau told The Catholic Register.

Michael Duggan has been appointed the first CWL Chair for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University College in Calgary.

This is the first endowed chair of its kind in Western Canada and is funded by the Catholic Women’s League. The permanent, senior academic position was established to encourage the advancement of Catholic education through exemplary teaching and research.

St. Mary’s is a Catholic, student-focused liberal arts and science teaching institute.

BRAMPTON, Ont. - For Notre Dame Catholic High School student Don Marcial Ragot, moving to Canada from the Philippines came with some hurdles, including adjusting to a new culture and learning a new language.

But it took just two years for Ragot, who was enrolled for a semester in the Brampton school’s English as a Second Language class, to finish with the highest marks at the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board. He ended his high school career with a 98.83-per-cent average.

Canada is not like Calcutta. Mother Teresa was not like most Canadians. But somehow the life of the tiny Albanian nun who ministered to the abandoned, the forgotten and the dying in Calcutta speaks to Canadians.

August 26 is the centenary anniversary of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa and events are taking place worldwide to honour the occasion.

At a July showing of relics of Mother Teresa at St. Barnabus parish in Toronto, Sr. Mary Frank of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity saw people standing in line with tears in their eyes.

TORONTO - Brianna Smrke had a perfect ending to her year final year of high school.

The 18-year-old Michael Power/St. Joseph High School student graduated as the top student in the Toronto Catholic District School Board with a flawless mark of 100 per cent in all six of her courses.

The secret to her success? Smrke says it’s been a supportive family and a positive school environment that helped her develop as a well-rounded student and person.

“I didn’t know I would be the best,” Smrke said, adding she just kept working hard, a habit she developed early. Her diverse experiences in sports, arts and community work also helped build up her skills, she said.

When his grandfather needed eye surgery, St. Robert Catholic High School student Albert Chiang was there to accompany him.

During the hospital visit, Chiang spoke to his grandfather’s doctor and was fascinated by the process and the profession. So this summer, Chiang is volunteering at North York General Hospital. He will be studying at McMaster University in the health sciences program in the fall.

Chiang, who’s 99.33 average at the Thornhill, Ont., school was just shy of Charis Lam’s 99.83 average for tops with the York Catholic District School Board, said this experience sparked his motivation to pursue a career as an eye surgeon. (Lam declined interview requests from The Catholic Register).

Whether it’s studying physics, her toughest subject, or being a member of the “Ecosaders,” Assumption High School student Eszter Gereb says she likes to challenge herself in everything she does.

Gereb, 17, graduated as Halton Catholic District School Board’s top student with an average of 97.2 per cent.

The Burlington, Ont., student hopes to add physicist to her list of accomplishments. Gereb said she found physics to be her most difficult subject, but adds it also turned out to be her favourite.