TORONTO - An overwhelming majority of Canadians prefer more palliative care to legalizing euthanasia, according to a new Environics poll.                                                                     

When presented with a choice of palliative care or legalized euthanasia, 71 per cent of respondents nationwide said they preferred investing in “more and better palliative and hospice care” over legalizing euthanasia (19 per cent), according to the poll commissioned by Life Canada. The other 10 per cent had no opinion or supported neither.

The study says that a majority of Canadians “want to kill the pain, not the patient,” said Monica Roddis, president of Life Canada.

TORONTO - He’s a Third Order Franciscan friar with an iPhone.

And through his music ministry, top-selling Catholic musician John Michael Talbot embraces new ways of evangelization while keeping his ministry grounded in the roots of prayer and Catholic tradition.

One of the ways Talbot is part of the “new evangelization” is through his latest album Worship and Bow Down. Seventeen tracks include choral background harmonies and the songs for the new “Mass of Rebirth” which he composed in contemporary chant style for the new Roman Missal. (Talbot is one of several musicians around the world who have been commissioned to compose new settings for the new Missal which will be launched at Masses the first week of Advent.)

The arrival of a newborn baby usually brings cheers, not a doomsday prediction for the world.

But that’s how Philippine-born Danica May Camacho, symbolically called the world’s seven billionth baby, was introduced by international media on Oct. 31. Her birth was used in news stories to indicate the UN’s concerns about global overpopulation.

Overpopulation theorists charge that there are not enough resources to feed and care for seven billion people. They advocate for “population control” like contraception and abortion especially for Third World countries.

The Niagara Catholic District School Board and King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario have signed a partnership agreement to promote the life-long process of Catholic education. 

The partnership reflects the Niagara Catholic board’s focus on “building a strong Catholic identity and community to nurture the distinctiveness of Catholic education,” said John Crocco, the NCDSB’s director of education.

Crocco said the agreement will provide faith formation for the adult faith community at King’s College and the Niagara Catholic board, including individuals at the diocesan level.

TORONTO - Pro-life activist Linda Gibbons was freed from a maximum security Ontario prison on Nov. 4 after charges of disobeying a 17-year-old temporary court injunction prohibiting protests at several downtown Toronto abortion clinics were dismissed.

Gibbons’ lawyer, Daniel Santoro, told The Catholic Register the charges were dismissed by Ontario Justice Alphonse T. Lacavera because the sheriff read an outdated injunction to Gibbons when he arrested her on Aug. 4 for breaching the 1994 temporary injunction.

TORONTO - A new archdiocese of Toronto “Planned Giving” poster campaign is using the Apostle’s Creed to inspire legacy gifts to the Catholic Church.

It has a twist however. Instead of just words, the campaign features a poster of children’s drawings which brings the Creed to life.

The poster encourages parishioners to consider legacy gifts in the form of donations through bequests or donations through an insurance policy or family endowment.

TORONTO - “He was always there for me.” “He anointed her.” These are just a few of the words Catholics Maria Silva-Alton and Betty Klauke have to say about priests who have meant so much to them over the years.

Silva-Alton, a parishioner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Brampton, Ont., says priests like Fr. Vid Vlasic have been invaluable to her and her family. Not only was he a mentor to her as a student when he was chaplain at Toronto’s Notre Dame High School, Silva-Alton said, Vlasic was also a friend.

TORONTO - The 50th anniversary of the International Eucharistic Congress will be a time of communion, reflection and renewal of faith, says Fr. Kevin Doran, secretary general of the congress to be held next year in Dublin.

With the theme “The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another,” the congress will be held June 10 to 17, 2011 in the Irish capital.

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - Teachers should address homophobia in Catholic schools and embrace the objective of gay-straight alliances, two presenters told delegates at a major education conference.

Kevin Welbes Godin, chair of the Catholic Association of Religious and Family Life Educators, and co-presenter Dave Szolloy, religious department head at Scarborough’s Mother Teresa Catholic High School, said GSAs are necessary to combat bullying in Catholic schools. They were speaking to about 30 teachers Oct. 28 at the When Faith Meets Pedagogy conference.

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - Catholic teachers, in their “noble and ethical task” of educating youth about the Catholic faith, can help create a more “just” Canadian society by welcoming refugees, social justice activist Mary Jo Leddy told the 15th annual When Faith Meets Pedagogy conference. 

The Oct. 27 to 29 conference, which was sponsored by the Catholic Curriculum Corporation, featured workshops for Catholic school teachers across the province.

In keeping with the conference's theme “Room for all at the table: Gathered, Nourished and Sent Forth,” Leddy spoke on welcoming refugees in Canada.