Mississauga, Ont. - It will be a special Christmas for the family of Dina Al-Sammak and Fawaz Fatohi; their son, David, turns a year old this Christmas season, which marks the family’s two-year anniversary in Canada.

Like many Catholic families in the multicultural Greater Toronto Area, the family will be celebrating with Christmas Mass and family get-togethers, integrating some of the cultural traditions of their Iraqi homeland into the festivities.

Before being sponsored as refugees by Mississauga’s St. Dominic Catholic Church in 2009, Al-Sammak says attending Christmas Mass and celebrating with family in Baghdad were luxuries they could not participate in because of the post-war violence in Iraq.

Christmas ornaments featuring a kneeling soldier and the words “Never Alone/Jamais Seul” are being sold in a campaign to raise awareness of Canada’s new war veterans.

The campaign is run by Jane Twohey, a Military Christian Fellowship of Canada volunteer from Port Perry, Ont., northeast of Toronto.

Twohey wants to commemorate the service of Canadian soldiers and chaplains serving in missions around the world through the Christmas ornaments.

WASHINGTON - Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Cuba in the spring will have multiple layers of meaning for the church and for Cuban society, said a U.S. archbishop who pays close attention to Cuba.

The pope will go there as a symbol of peace and hope, as a pilgrim participating in "a springtime of faith," and as part of the church's efforts at creating the climate for a "soft landing" for the country to come out from under 50 years of communist rule, said Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski in a Dec. 14 interview with Catholic News Service.

A glance at the mantle this time of year can give the average Catholic entirely the wrong idea about the Bible.

“You see creche scenes — they cram everything from both Gospels (Matthew and Luke) in there, not realizing that if you line up both those Nativity stories there are inconsistencies and contradictions,” said Jesuit New Testament scholar Fr. Scott Lewis. “Don’t try to mix the four Gospels together. Then you just get a meaningless glop.”

The popular mash up of sentimental baby imagery found everywhere from creches to Christmas cards to movies on TV is a problem for priests preaching on Christmas morning, said St. Peter’s Seminary Scripture professor Fr. Richard Charrette.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Santa Maria la Menor, the oldest cathedral in the Americas, sits just off a busy plaza in this Caribbean city’s colonial district. However, it’s the nearby bronze Christopher Columbus statue, Hard Rock Cafe and cigar shops that draw the lines of tourists in the plaza.

“We came to see the colonial area. The churches are a nice part of that. But they’re not the reason we came,” said Maria Torres, who perused the shops that ring the plaza after snapping a photo of the statue.

A life-long Catholic, Torres, who was visiting from Spain, asked, “The oldest in the Americas? I had no idea.”

TORONTO - Close to 7,000 Catholic elementary students could lose their breakfast program if proposed City of Toronto budget cuts are passed, says Trustee Maria Rizzo.

Without the breakfast program, kids will be going to school hungry, she said, and would be detrimental to student learning.

“I hope (Mayor) Rob Ford can make sure they'll give them a little bit of gravy,” Rizzo told The Catholic Register.

TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Laurel Broten praised the anti-bullying initiatives undertaken by Ontario Catholic school boards and said she is “very confident” that Catholic schools can fulfill new government requirements to make schools safer.

Broten told The Catholic Register that she was “pleased when we launched the comprehensive action plan last week” and “standing side by side with Catholic teachers and trustees, each and every one of them was standing up against bullying.”

TORONTO - It's a hallway and a museum and an innovative therapy all at the same time. Providence Healthcare unveiled its Memory Lane to three dozen Sisters of St. Joseph, benefactors and friends Nov. 30.

The hallway is full of memorabilia from the history of the Toronto hospital and the Sisters who built it up from nothing in 1851 to one of Canada's leading rehabilitation hospitals. Providence Healthcare patients battling memory loss are often encouraged to spend time with the Memory Lane's interactive displays to discover what memories old typewriters, nuns' habits, furniture, etc. will stir up.

This weekend we've got reviews of two oscar contenders. Alexander Payne's The Descendants and Michelle Williams' homage to Marily Monroe, My Week with Marilyn.

TORONTO - Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees re-elected board chair Ann Andrachuk for a second term at their Dec. 1 board meeting.

Andrachuk spoke of the board's accomplishments in the past year, including balancing its budget, establishing committees on governance and student achievement and selecting a new director of education.

“We have been riding the crest of a wave,” she said. “I look forward to leading this board as we continue to move together with a strong and unified voice and shared wisdom, always focused on student success and achievement.”