TORONTO - Fr. Frank Portelli is embracing a new challenge in his priestly life, taking the reins as the director of the archdiocese of Toronto’s Office of Catholic Youth.

“Successful youth ministry is when you’ve engaged the young person,” Portelli told The Catholic Register. “Not imposing something but finding out what their desire is, what their questions are and trying to meet that need.”

Portelli was assigned as director of the OCY Nov. 1 and is currently in a transition period as he works between his new post and as associate pastor at St. Luke’s parish in Thornhill. As of January, he will be able to focus his efforts solely on his new ministry. Replacing Christian Elia, his posting is for three years.

Catholic agencies that help immigrants and refugees settle in Ontario don’t know how they will cope with their share of a $31.5-million funding cut to settlement agencies in Ontario.

This year’s cuts come on top of $42.5 million shaved off Ontario’s allotment for settling and retraining immigrants last year. Over two years, Ontario has lost 20 per cent of its funding from Citizenship and Immigration for services to newcomers, according to the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.

“We’re trying to make some plans and think through how we would react to a variety of different levels of cutbacks,” said Catholic Cross-Cultural Services executive director Carolyne Davis.

OTTAWA - A Conservative MP’s private member’s bill to repeal the controversial hate crimes section of the Canadian Human Rights Act is facing opposition in the House of Commons.

Though Justice Minister Rob Nicholson recently threw his support behind Brian Storseth’s private member’s Bill C-304, when it came up for second reading Nov. 22 Storseth was unable to find anyone from the NDP or the Liberal Party to speak in its favour. Members of both parties spoke against the bill, with NDP Associate Justice Critic Francoise Boivin accusing the government of scaring people and “leading them to believe that good citizens will be cheerfully brought before the courts to have their right to freedom of expression challenged and that it will cost them a fortune.”

OTTAWA - Pro-family groups have welcomed a Nov. 23 British Columbia Supreme Court decision that upholds Canada’s anti-polygamy law.

“Anything that supports traditional, monogamous marriage is good and I think (the decision) sends a very clear message that our relationships are not exclusively personal and private,” said Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) assistant director Peter Murphy. “They have implications for those with whom we live and for society in general, so for that reason we’re very pleased with the decision.”

The province of B.C. had asked the court whether the anti-polygamy law was constitutional after charges against a fundamentalist Mormon sect in Bountiful, B.C., were dropped based on concerns they would not stand up to a Charter religious freedom test.

TORONTO - Ales Michalevic wants people to know that torture still exists in 21st-century Europe. A candidate in the 2010 presidential election in Belarus, he knows from firsthand experience.

"Just one year ago, I was in prison," he told an audience of about 20 people at the University of Toronto Nov. 24. "And we had hot water and showers once a week."

TORONTO - After two decades of annual report cards on child and family poverty, Campaign 2000 is still waiting for the federal government to play a role in poverty reduction, said Laurel Rothman as she unveiled the 2011 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty Nov. 23.

"Don't let anybody tell you that it really is any better than in 1989 when the Parliament of Canada vowed to come up with an immediate plan," said Campaign 2000 director Rothman.

OTTAWA - Catholic human rights advocates welcome federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's support for a bill that would repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Nicholson announced his support for Conservative MP Brian Storseth’s private member’s Bill C-304 during question period Nov. 16, when Storseth asked what the government’s position would be.

“Canadians across the country are increasingly concerned that Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act infringes upon our most important human right, namely the freedom of expression,” Storseth told the House.

OTTAWA - Opponents of euthanasia have slammed a Royal Society of Canada expert panel report advocating decriminalization of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.

Margaret Somerville, founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, called the “End-of-Life Decision Making” report “a “pro-euthanasia manifesto” and “thinly veiled euthanasia and assisted suicide propaganda.”

The report, released Nov. 15, failed its mandate to provide a balanced review of arguments pro and con, Somerville said, adding five of the six authors are well-known euthanasia advocates.

TORONTO - A new report says the number of abortions in Canada has fallen below 100,000, but instead of being pleased with the numbers, pro-lifers are doubting their accuracy.

Campaign Life Coalition project manager  Jack Fonseca says the studies don’t represent the national picture because there are no statistics from British Columbia, New Brunswick and Manitoba. Also, reporting is voluntary for private abortion clinics, he said.

Fonseca believes a more accurate estiamte is 106,000 abortions annually in Canada.

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI - Pro-lifers in Prince Edward Island are taking on an aggressive campaign that aims to restore abortion services in Canada’s island province.

The PEI Reproductive Rights Organization has launched the campaign to allow abortion in PEI, a province that has been officially abortion-free since 1986. In a compromise solution reached at the time, off-island, in-hospital abortion costs are covered if the procedure is recommended by two doctors, while abortions at the private Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton, N.B., which cost roughly $800, are not covered. Travel is a personal expense.