TORONTO - The swine flu outbreak in Mexico gave four students from St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba a chance to discover social justice issues in Toronto.

“It was a real blessing,” said Lori Ryan, the national co-ordinator of Canadian Catholic Campus Ministry and Catholic Campus Students Association . “I felt that God strongly wanted us to do this. This trip speaks to the incredible work being done in Toronto.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - Fr. Bressani Catholic High School in Woodbridge has sent students on an after-school trek to help the poor in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood every week for the past 20 years.

One of five Toronto-area schools that commit to helping St. Francis Table on a weekly basis, Fr. Bressani has the longest tenure.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - The Youth Summit, a rally started in Quebec City in 2005 to prepare for the International Eucharistic Congress last year, will take place for the first time in Ottawa next year.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet was to make the announcement during the conclusion of this year’s rally May 18.

Catholic youth in Quebec had requested that the Youth Summit continue as an event to not only draw youth to the Eucharist but empower them in the various aspects of evangelization such as social justice outreach, faith outreach and prayer.

{mosimage}As the World Youth Alliance (WYA) celebrates the tenth anniversary of its founding in New York City, it also prepares to add another committee to its ranks — the first and only Canadian committee.

“This national committee will allow WYA to better respond to the issues the Canadians uniquely face as barriers to further development and allow WYA to be able to communicate more effectively with its members,” said Seanna Magee, a Catholic resident of Toronto who interned with WYA’s headquarters in 2005 and will be spearheading the new committee with the help of WYA’s North American director.

{mosimage}TORONTO - At Neil McNeil High School the popular phrase of “youth empowering youth” is taken seriously.

Not only are senior students at the all-boys school motivated to lead by example as big brothers helping the junior students socially and emotionally, but they have also helped their peers shine academically through their peer support program which recently won their school’s leadership team a Premiers’ Award for Teaching Excellence.

The program was developed several years ago after the school partnered with the Search Institute, a non-profit action research organization in the United States. Search provides leadership, knowledge, resources and a framework of developmental assets as a way to assess the health and well-being of young people.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Two students from Blessed Mother Teresa High School in Scarborough got to follow in the footsteps of their school’s namesake this year as they joined nine other students in a trip to India.

The students visited missionary projects run by the Loretto Sisters and visited locations that had strong ties to Blessed Mother Teresa, who was a Loretto Sister before she founded the Missionaries of Charity. The first-time trip was made in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Lorettos.

{mosimage}The overall picture of teens today is surprisingly positive — teens today are drinking less, smoking less and less inclined to bully each other than teens in the past 20 years — but when it comes to religion, the statistics might seem a little more puzzling, says Reginald Bibby , a sociologist from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta . A growing number of teens are less likely to identify themselves as religious, he said, but the percentage of teens attending weekly hasn’t changed.

“The thing that is concerning is the middle has dropped out,” he told The Catholic Register, referring to the group of teens who would have formerly said they weren’t sure if they believed in God, but attended church occasionally. “It’s as though Canadians just aren’t as ambivalent. It’s either yes or no and the pattern is very much the same in adults.”

{mosimage}ST. RAPHAEL’S, Ont. - Towering ruins of an 18th-century church, large white tents and a procession of the cross led by bagpipes represent for many teens the setting for “a really awesome time.”

At the roots of the English-speaking church in the province, amidst the rolling hills of St. Raphael’s (pronounced locally as St. “Raffles”), 500 teens and almost as many volunteers gather every year for an extreme boost in their faith journey. They come to attend Journey to the Father, a Catholic teen conference hosted by the diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall that features talks, workshops, adoration, Mass, the rosary, music led by The Mustard Seeds from Hanover, Ont., a talent show and more.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Office of Catholic Youth is launching a leadership program this year to strengthen young leaders in their schools, parishes and communities.

The nine-month leadership training program is open to 16- to 19-year-olds in the archdiocese of Toronto and aims to develop their skills and equip them to be active witnesses of the Gospel not only in youth ministry but in all aspects of life.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Fashion and modesty shared the runway at the Pure Exposure fashion show Aug. 20.

The show, created by summer interns at Campaign Life Coalition in Toronto, featured a team of nearly 30 young models at the Woodbine Banquet and Convention Hall, with pulsing music and a classy backdrop for the benefit of pregnant mothers in need.