{mosimage} When Fr. Eugene Funken was faced with 10 orphans whose homes had burned down in St. Agatha, Ont., in 1858, he started a charity.

When Sonya Pouyat took over leadership of Funken’s charity in the midst of “slash and burn” Ontario government policies in the 1990s, she started a business.

WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush June 20 vetoed a bill to expand federal funding for medical research on human embryonic stem cells, saying it “would compel American taxpayers, for the first time in our history, to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos.”

{mosimage}RICHMOND HILL, Ont. - When I arrived at a Richmond Hill house where a cash donation was being made to a Catholic organization for abused children in the Philippines, I was met by young lady in red skirt and black top. I noticed she was petite and beautiful but as soon as she handed me a name tag, I forgot about her.

The state of our environment has captured the attention of Canadian investors.

A Harris/Decima poll of more than 2,000 Canadians for Investors Group found 56 per cent thought environmental considerations are an important part of socially responsible investment decisions. Environment out-polled such traditional ethical investment factors as alcohol and tobacco at 43 per cent, and weapons at 53 per cent. Only substandard human rights practices at 70 per cent and child labour named by 79 per cent were more likely to determine ethical investment decisions.

TORONTO - Grade 9 students at Pope John Paul II Catholic Secondary School probably won’t learn anything about Bali in their geography class this week. The Indonesian island might get a passing mention from their science teacher, but it’s not on the exam. But in religion class, Bali will definitely be a focus.

{mosimage}Sex sells. That seems obvious enough to anyone who owns a television. But cultural critic Paul Rutherford has looked behind this most obvious truth about advertising to figure out how and why we have been sold so much stuff using so much sex.

When the news broke early in 2007 that a new vaccine (Gardasil) was available that would protect young girls from the effects of the human papillomavirus (HPV), the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute issued a press report outlining our objections to the way in which this vaccine was being promoted. In the United States, some states had urged mandatory vaccination for girls from Grade 6 onwards. The main reason given was that HPV has been shown to be one of the causes of cervical cancer in women.

{mosimage}Editor's note: The following speech was presented by Archbishop Thomas Collins to the Thomas More Lawyers' Guild of Toronto at their annual Red Mass dinner on Sept. 13. It describes how St. Thomas More is a worthy model for today of a Christian responding to God's call.

It’s 93 years since the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to three peasant children, Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco, at Fatima, Portugal. Mary appeared six times entrusting to the youngsters three “secrets.” The first two, when revealed, urged the necessity of prayer and sacrifice so that Russia and the forces of atheism could be converted. At the last apparition, thousands witnessed the miracle promised to the three children: the sun, resembling a silver disc, could be gazed at without difficulty and, whirling on itself like a wheel of fire, seemed about to fall upon the Earth.

Since that time pilgrims, now up to seven million per year, have thronged to Fatima for prayers of petition and seeking miracles. Pope Benedict XVI will be one of them, making his first visit to Fatima May 13.

{mosimage}MONTREAL - What kind of society won’t admit religion? Apparently Canada.

Douglas Farrow believes Canada’s grand experiment in multiculturalism is doomed. Or rather that it dooms its citizens to cultural relativism, a moral quagmire and the absence of true community.