{mosimage}TORONTO - Long-time pro-life activist Jim Hughes says bringing four of his young grandchildren to the annual Mass for the Unborn teaches them an important lesson about human dignity.

“They have to see that children in the womb are the same as children who are not and they need to be protected,” the national president of Campaign Life Coalition Canada told The Catholic Register following the Dec. 28 Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral which drew more than 500 people.

{mosimage}TORONTO - An upcoming revision of the Catholic Health Association of Canada ’s ethics guide will likely specify that early induction of labour is morally and ethically justified in certain cases of high-risk pregnancy, said the president of the Ottawa-based organization.

James Roche told The Catholic Register that a team of ethicists has not finalized its recommendations on the precise circumstances in which early labour can be induced, but the report is expected to include provisions for early induction in some acute-care cases.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A month before her first birthday, Katherine Mary Allen will travel to Ottawa with her parents to attend her first National March for Life.

Her mother, Tanya Granic Allen, says it’s important to bring her daughter on the five-hour trek from Toronto to the pro-life rally on Parliament Hill May 14, the 40th anniversary of an omnibus bill passed in 1969 by Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government that legalized abortion in Canada.

{mosimage}TORONTO - It was supposed to be a summer reunion for Rosa Flores and five of her friends from Mexico.

But the St. Anthony’s Church parishioner says Canada’s new visa rules mean her friends won’t be coming to visit her in Toronto this August.

On July 14, the Canadian government imposed new visa requirements for Mexican and Czech citizens to deal with a heavy caseload of refugee claims by visitors from the two countries. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said imposing these new rules is necessary to guard against fraudulent immigration claims.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Economic experts may say the recession is over, but unemployed workers are still bearing the brunt of the economic crisis, say directors of Catholic-run agencies.

Good Shepherd Centre executive director Br. David Lynch said the centre has been “seeing more and more people than we’ve ever seen before.” He says there has been a 46-per-cent increase in demand for meals this year at his downtown shelter. The centre is serving an average of 1,100 daily meals and snacks, compared to 800 last year.

{mosimage}TORONTO - As Canadians come to grips with an expected H1N1 flu pandemic, Catholic dioceses across Canada are taking extra precautionary steps to guard against the flu that has so far claimed the lives of 95 Canadians.

Steps were in place in many dioceses to stem the spread of H1N1, also known as swine flu. But they are being ramped up in some dioceses.

{mosimage}In response to a poll showing three-quarters of Quebec medical specialists would likely favour legalized euthanasia, Catholic groups say Canada must improve its end-of-life care.

The groups were responding to an Oct. 13 survey by the Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists which suggests that a majority of those surveyed are in favour of supporting legalized euthanasia.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Toronto-born Fr. Michael Brehl has been elected Superior General of the Redemptorists , the first Canadian to hold the top post in the congregation’s 277-year history.

As leader, Brehl’s inspiration will come from the Redemptorists’ mission of reaching out to those in need and promoting peace and justice, he told The Register in his first interview from Rome after being chosen Nov. 4 to lead the order founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori in 1732.

{mosimage}TORONTO - When Carmel Joyce heard that a collection of columns from “The Little World of Fr. Raby” were to be revived in book form, she immediately remembered the rectory washing machine.

Joyce, now 84, was a devoted reader and faithful housekeeper to Msgr. Tom Raby for many decades. Among the many humourous  Raby columns she enjoyed over the years, she recalls one in which she confronted a man selling her a new washing machine. He told Joyce that he used to attend Mass, but stopped, prompting the devout housekeeper to launch into a “real sermon” that ended when he promised to return to church.

To Joyce’s surprise, the scene was replayed with typical Raby humour in a column that told how a shopping trip became a missionary expedition.

{mosimage}Order of Canada recipient Frank Chauvin has said thanks, but no thanks, to the country’s highest civilian honour.

Chauvin will be returning his Order of Canada after a federal court judge dismissed his application on Nov. 24 challenging abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler’s appointment to the order.

“The Order of Canada is nice and all, but give it to somebody who deserves it and wants it,” Chauvin told The Catholic Register from Windsor, Ont.