Don Trembley started committing armed robbery when he was 12. He grew up to be an honest-to-God Montreal bank robber. The last time he was incarcerated he split seven years between Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ont., and Warkworth Institution near Campbellford, Ont., for armed robbery, weapons dangerous and assault causing bodily harm.

He’s a big guy in a leather vest with a long grey ponytail and a silver cross hanging by a silver chain around his neck. In a Toronto halfway house now, he will remain under the supervision of the prison system for years to come.

Editor’s note: Restorative Justice Week has been marked for the past 20 years by the ecumenical organization that co-ordinates Christian chaplaincy in Canada’s federal prisons. This year, the Nov. 14-21 event comes on the heals of sweeping changes in how criminals are sentenced and how they are reintegrated into society. The Catholic Register looks at how the Church works with prisoners as they re-enter our world.

As he sat in jail month after month trying to make sense of his life, Bruce Rowe one day knew he wasn’t quite so interested in freedom.

“I realized when I was inside all of that didn’t matter if I didn’t become a better person,” said Rowe.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The picturesque city of Asheville in North Carolina is nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. Among its many tourist attractions is a remarkable spiritual gem — the Basilica of St. Lawrence.

Located in the city’s core, its striking copper-covered dome, which is the focus of attention when first viewing the basilica, and exquisite interior give it a place of honour among American houses of worship.

PETOSKEY, Mich. - Off the picturesque tourist town of Petoskey lays a beautiful white marble crucifix. But you won’t find it in or even near any church.

That’s because it is submerged offshore, in Lake Michigan, in the waters of Little Traverse Bay where it has been since 1962.

How it came to be there is an interesting story.

TORONTO - Michael Carrera knows how vanity driven the fitness industry is. Having worked in gyms for more than a decade, he sees showoffs all the time. And since you can’t change vanity by focusing on vanity, he decided to focus on his faith, pairing it with his profession.

Carrera is a certified exercise physiologist and personal trainer with a masters in exercise physiology. He’s also a parishioner at St. Benedict parish in Toronto.

TORONTO - On TV serious, scientific crime scene investigators appear within hours of a murder to gather minute, detailed evidence. Fr. Patrick Desbois of France and his team of micro-historians show up three generations after 1.5-million murders committed by Nazi Einsatzgruppen soldiers to piece together precisely who was killed, when, how and by whom.

“Each time when we land in Belarus or Ukraine or Russia I tell my team, ‘They are waiting for

us,’ ” Desbois said in an interview from Paris. “Very frequently people ask me, ‘Father, why do you come so late?’ ”

TORONTO - He endured permanent estrangement from most of his relatives after converting to Catholicism and faced suspicions from some of his fellow bishops. But these crosses couldn’t dim the light of faith that guided Cardinal John Henry Newman in living out his ministry as scholar, preacher and teacher.

Today, Newman’s light and legacy are embodied in the Newman Centres and clubs on campuses across North America and Australia which bear his name.

Newman lived a life of prayer, study and sacrifice and his example of faith was to be celebrated and recognized on Sept. 19 when Pope Benedict XVI was to beatify the 19th-century English cardinal in Birmingham, England.

In the hustle and bustle of the University of Toronto’s downtown campus, one of the places students can seek refuge is at the Newman Centre and its chapel just across from the Robarts Library.

TORONTO - This year marks 500 years of the Dominicans fighting for the rights of the underdog in the Americas.

“The Dominican order in the Americas has promoted justice, education and intellectual life all over the Americas,” said Dominican Friar Marcos Ramos, superior of the Dominicans’ Aquinas House in Toronto.

Actor and director Emilio Estevez reluctantly went to Spain to tell a story about how faith, hope and walking are all part of the American way of overcoming hard times.

Estevez told The Catholic Register his new film The Way is about American spirituality. The story follows four characters walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela through Spain.

The pilgrimage is to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galacia, where tradition has it the remains of the apostle St. James are buried.

TORONTO - Aisha Aberdeen wasn’t born on third base, and she doesn’t imagine she hit a triple. But as the school year starts, the former foster child is ready to trot home.

Aberdeen has done what almost no kid who has been through foster care ever does. She’s graduated from the University of Toronto with a double major in forest conservation and Caribbean studies. Now she’s planning graduate studies in the forests of Kenya this year.

Fewer than 44 per cent of children who wind up in foster care complete high school before they’re 21. Only 20 per cent of those (8.8 per cent of the total) go on to any form of post-secondary education.