UPDATED 22/11/12

TORONTO - As University of St. Michael's College contract lecturers, teaching assistants and continuing education instructors prepare for their second week on strike, union leaders and university administration both say a deal is getting closer.

"Students are feeling an impact," said Celtic Mythology lecturer Daniel Brielmaier, speaking for CUPE Local 3902 Unit 4. "We don't like that they're feeling it."

Papers aren't getting marked, some classes have been cancelled and others are bogging down without the 38 sessional lecturers, teaching assistants and part-time instructors who teach at St. Michael's, said Brielmaier.

St. Mike's administration claims the strike hasn't been felt by very many students.

"Some courses are being taught; some are being rescheduled. The effect is relatively small at this point," said Robert Edgett, the executive director of alumni affairs and development who is acting as media liaison for the Catholic college at the University of Toronto. "But our concern continues to be for students. We want to be sure that their term and exams are held. That's why we're working so hard to come to some resolution."

A rally in front of the Kelly Library at noon Nov. 21 attracted about 60 students and union activists in support of the contract teachers.

Talks were scheduled to continue Thursday afternoon after being put off a day while the administration worked out a new offer.

The union, which represents academic staff on contracts of less than 12 months, has been pushing for a greater degree of job security. The mostly younger academics want a right of first refusal if their course is being offered again.

The system of repeat short-term contracts with no assurance of future work has been hardest on theology lecturers, many of whom have been teaching the same course for years but never know whether they will work again next year, said Brielmaier.

"We're not going to negotiate or talk about the terms of the negotiation in public," said Edgett. "We're going to leave that to the bargaining table."

The union members claim to have Pope Benedict XVI on their side, citing his thoughts in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate on the right to secure and meaningful work.

The administration is confident the two sides will quickly find a solution.

"I hope we'll beat the NHL," said Edgett.

"We just want to get a contract and go back to teaching," said Local 3902 chair Abe Nasirzadeh.

TORONTO - Toronto's Filipino Catholics gathered Nov. 18 to honour one of their own who was last month elevated to sainthood.

About 1,300 people celebrated a Tagalog-language Mass at Our Lady of Assumption Church in honour of St. Pedro Calungsod of Cebu, a saint who shares many similarities with the people who sat in the pews thousands of kilometres from their homeland.

"We can identify with this young man because he came from a poor family and he became a migrant like all of us," said pastor Fr. Ben Ebcas. "The challenges during the time of St. Pedro are similar but different as well because the challenge is now in terms of the work opportunities, the job opportunities and the loneliness."

Ebcas continued by saying that financial stress, religious resistance in popular culture and Toronto's increasing diversity are challenges for the community.

"These are the challenges that sometimes rock our faith but if we have a person who we can draw inspiration from then we can say if (St. Pedro) was able to do it as a young man why not us because we were baptized in the same faith," he said. "It's very challenging to stand up for your faith in times of trials and tribulations and he's a great example for the young people."

Pope Benedict XVI canonized St. Pedro along with six others Oct. 21, including St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

Born in the Philippines in 1654, St. Pedro was chosen at age 14 as an exemplary young catechist to accompany the Spanish Jesuits in their mission to the Ladrones Islands, Philippines, later renamed the Mariana Islands. Inconsistent deliveries of provisions, harsh terrain and devastating typhoons made missionary life on the islands difficult to say the least — not to mention the loneliness from an absence of family which the immigrant parishioners can relate to.

But nature was not the only thing working against St. Pedro and the other missionaries. Influenced by rumours that missionaries had been using poisoned holy water for baptisms, local islanders resisted the Catholic influence. When word spread that the missionaries had performed a baptism on a village chief's child, he rose up against the missionaries and killed Calungsod. He was but 17 years old when he was martyred.

On March 5, 2000 Pope John Paul II beatified Calungsod who became the patron of Filipino youth, overseas Filipino workers and the archdiocese of Cebu, Philippines.

"The values that are worth emulating in the live of St. Pedro, as well the other saints, are still important values of today," said Ebcas. "The virtue of faith and hope and charity, they go beyond the bounds of time constraints."

While Ebcas said St. Pedro is a role model for all Catholics, it is seeing the youth engage with the new saint which really has him excited. Zanaida Yu, secretary for the archdiocese of Toronto's Filipino Catholic Mission, feels likewise. Yu, who organized the post-Mass reception at the parish hall, said the presence of the youth choir, who were organized just for the Mass, really touched her.

"It's a great feeling and very uplifting to see the young boys and girls, the youth, rendering a hymn for St. Pedro. That is very, very inspiring and a gift of God," she said. "We have been praying so hard for his canonization over the last 10 years. Now that he is a saint we have to propagate the devotion especially among the youth."

The parish plans to hold more events to celebrate St. Pedro's canonization.

OTTAWA, Ontario - Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Msgr. Jose Bettencourt, a native of Portugal who grew up in Ottawa, as the Holy See's head of protocol.

Msgr. Bettencourt is only the second non-Italian to hold the position. The post had been held by Msgr. Fortunatus Nwachukwa, a Nigerian diplomat, who was named Nov. 12 as apostolic nuncio to Nicaragua.

"We are very proud of him and the honor the Holy Father has conferred on him in calling him to this charge," Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa said.

"He values his ties with his local church of Ottawa though his duties only permit a short stay at Christmas and a longer break over the summer months," the archbishop said. "He is invariably pleased to receive Canadians when I refer people to him and is kind to a fault."

In his position Msgr. Bettencourt is in charge of the protocol involving the Holy See's relationships with other states, from welcoming visiting heads of state at the airport to dealings with diplomats and ambassadors accredited to the Vatican.

His role includes overseeing how heads of state and others participate in ceremonies such as canonizations and consistories and ensuring that visitors to the Vatican are welcomed and relaxed.

Before his appointment, Msgr. Bettencourt worked closely in organizing papal audiences, briefing the pope and visiting bishops, heads of state and lay people for the visits.

He has served in the Vatican's Secretariat of State since 2002.

Born in 1962 in Velas, Azores, Portugal, Msgr. Bettencourt grew up in Ottawa, where he attended both elementary and secondary school. He graduated from the University of Ottawa before pursuing theological studies at Dominican College and St. Paul University, where he studied for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1993.

OTTAWA - Social conservatives, often blamed for election defeats like that of U.S. Republican Mitt Romney in the Nov. 6 American election, need to find better ways to stress the positives of their message if they want that to change, say members of a Canadian think tank.

“Statistics are on the side of social conservatives when we look at the outcomes for our children, for moms and dads, for families, and the negative consequences of abortion,” said Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) executive director Dave Quist.

But getting the message out is daunting in a climate where “the left has been way out in front” and most people do not engage in elections until the last weeks or days, he said.

As Republicans in the United States are analysing their election defeat, many pundits blame the social conservatives in the party for the loss. Media reports on gaffes made by several Republicans on abortion were plastered across headlines across the United States, and many believe helped President Barack Obama to his second-term as president.

It is no secret that most social conservatives are pro-life, and these views are deemed a liability in Canada. Quist noted abortion has been perceived by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the “third rail” of Canadian politics ever since Stockwell Day’s 2000 campaign where the openly Christian Day was painted as “scary” and ridiculed for his pro-life, creationist and evangelical beliefs.

Yet Quist pointed out “the abortion discussion is alive and well and perhaps thriving in many parts of the country.”

But Andrea Mrozek, IMFC research and communications director, said social conservative principles are about much more than abortion or opposition to same-sex marriage, though they have been “branded” that way. It is about the strength of civil society, promoting the common good and caring for families, the elderly and the vulnerable.

Mrozek predicted social conservative principles will become popular when Western social democracies, especially the United States and its $16-trillion debt and its yearly trillion-dollar deficits, hit the fiscal cliff “and government can’t fund programs any more and suddenly we have to get our act together.”

“When we contracted everything out to the government we did change our personal way of thinking that personal charity does not need to be done; somebody else takes care of that for me,” she said. “I’m alarmed by what I walk by on the street sometimes, that I think, well, someone else is going to take care of it.”

Social conservatives are used to supporting charities, such as crisis pregnancy centres, that receive no government dollars, she said. This kind of charitable impulse will be needed when government programs cannot be maintained, she said.

“If it crashed we’ll have a whole different conversation. People will either sink or swim and won’t have anybody to rescue them, except people who are prepared to reach out.”
IMFC communications strategist Eloise Cataudella, a Catholic from Toronto, spoke of the transformative nature of personal charity, both for the giver and the receiver. There’s a difference between the government’s social safety net and the giving of time and resources of a small charitable organization. Those who receive government help because they are unable to get a job might say “the government is taking care of me because they have been mandated to do so,” she said.
“This does not inspire the sense that the government cares for me as an individual,” she said. “A small organization, struggling to make ends meet, offers a sense of love behind that charity that is transformative and helps lift people out of poverty.”
Many are now “caught or stuck in a safety net,” she said.
While abortion remains one of the top issues identified with social conservatism, Harper has been able to “remain above the fray” as backbenchers in his caucus use private member’s business and other means to keep the abortion debate alive, Mrozek observed.
Harper’s strategy to push social conservatives aside “is one of the worst I’ve ever seen,” and “backfiring,” she said.
“These social conservative issues keep popping up and (Harper) has no way of dealing with it other than to say ‘stop’ or to use the resources of the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office)” to get Tory caucus members to vote against various Conservative private member’s bills or motions, such as MP Stephen Woodworth’s Motion 312 that would have investigated the personhood of the unborn child, she said.

The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board is using toys in a pilot project aimed at increasing communication skills between students.

The suburban board to the west of Toronto has partnered with Twenty One Toys to introduce its innovative Connexions puzzle packages into the classroom.

Founded by Montrealer Ilana Ben-Ari, the toy company aims to prepare future employees for the job market by teaching them the importance of creativity, collaboration and innovation when problem solving. The Connexions puzzle challenges two participants to configure 10 different three dimensional shapes into the same pattern without the use of their eyes. The aim is to strengthen communication skills.

“It’s an opportunity to work together with fun or play at the centre (but) really with the focus on deepening our understanding of how we work together,” said Shirley Kendrick, the board’s superintendent of special education and support services.

“From a Catholic perspective one of the things that was intriguing to us was the whole concept of honouring the dignity of all students.”

According to Kendrick, the board’s director of education and associate director responsible for instructional services — John Kostoff and Ralph Borrelli respectively — challenged staff this year to look at 21st century learning for all. This led Kendrick and assistant superintendent Les Storey to Twenty One Toys.

“One of our brilliant and leading academic consultants, Stephen Hurley, introduced the concept to me … and that’s how we met Ilana,” said Kendrick. “The artist and designer looked from an industry perspective and she was given a grant to look at supporting students who were nonsighted and trying to get them to work with their sighted peers.”

Of course communicating this way can be frustrating, said Storey, especially for sighted peopled. But that’s part of the learning process.

“It’s also a chance when we do it in schools for kids to reflect on identifying when they got frustrated (and) what’s making you frustrated,” said Storey. “It’s not just about special ed students. This is a chance to level the playing field for everybody. It gives everyone an equal opportunity to be part of the conversation and discussion.”

Staff are presenting the products to schools and gauging the program’s effectiveness as well as ways of introducing it into the classroom. Those participating in the pilot project include teachers, youth workers, dictional resource workers and support staff.

“We’re very excited to hear the feedback from the field,” said Kendrick. “We’re excited to hear how did people use them and to hear the narrative or the stories that come back to us to say, we started with this and it’s grown into something that perhaps we didn’t expect.”

While details about how exactly these toy packages will be introduced, and used, is still to be worked out, the intention is already clear.

“We think about the application of these toys or other supports as a way of saying … the types of supports that some students need really can be good types of support for all,” said Kendrick. “We all need to learn to see what others are feeling.”

TORONTO - Fr. Tom Gibbons believes the Catholic Church needs to strengthen its presence in the digital realm of parish life today to connect with the Catholics of tomorrow.

“I constantly have people coming up to me saying the Catholic Church doesn’t seem to talk to me any more. Technology has a role to bridge that gap,” said Gibbons, the associate pastor at Toronto’s St. Peter’s parish. “That being said we also have to be careful that the Mass doesn’t turn into a video game and that we’re worshipping God and not worshipping Google.”

As a former web developer for the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services, and one of the archdiocese of Toronto’s newest priests, having been ordained in May, Gibbons admits he’s likely more open to technology than the majority of his colleagues.

“With any technology I fall somewhere in between the spirit of Steve Jobs, where it is let’s keep on pushing the boundaries, and Jurassic Park where just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should,” he said. “There’s wisdom in navigating between those two, not always necessarily picking the one in the middle.”

What intrigues him is new technology’s potential to educate parishioners on what’s happening during the Mass — something he believes many in the pews don’t understand any more, causing them to feel disconnected.

“There’s no reason that there couldn’t be some (digital) interactive options before and after the Mass,” he said. “I do think that we could be more open to technology than we are, even in the liturgy.”

For this further integration to be successful, both in connecting with contemporary and future Catholics as well as preserving tradition, the conversation needs to start soon, said Gibbons. And that conversation must involve priests, bishops, theologians, academics and parishioners — especially those who feel disconnected from the current language of the Church.

While Gibbons said money keeps him from gently pushing the traditional boundaries by exploring the further integration of technology in the Mass, at least one priest in the archdiocese has overcome the financial hurdle.

When Fr. Mario Salvadori’s parish, St. Joseph the Worker in Thornhill, Ont., underwent a $1.3-million renovation, the businessman-turned-priest had the parish outfitted with a large screen on either side of the altar, a projector and a computer-friendly pulpit so he could reinforce the message of his homilies with digital media.

“If you are going to go beyond the traditional six-minute homily, you can’t keep their attention just verbally, you have to show them something,” said Salvadori. “The video puts an additional value into the message. The video helps to make another link that otherwise wouldn’t have been made.”

Although Salvadori’s willingness to integrate technology into the liturgy differs from that of Gibbons, both priests were able to agree that the Church needs to start speaking the language of the future — digital language.

“I don’t think you’re ever going to get someone with a tablet in the pews,” said Salvadori. “It’s about us as a Church better using technology to evangelize.”

Gibbons cites one factor in particular behind the Church’s deliberate pace — tradition.

“As a Catholic Church we tend to err on the side of tradition,” he said. “We ground our faith in tradition. Advances in technology tend to be a break in tradition.”

Neil McCarthy, director of communications for the archdiocese of Toronto, Ontario’s most digital diocese, understands this.

“Our approach is not to rush things, rather, to do it right than do it quickly,” said MacCarthy. “We are grounded in prayer and that can never be replaced by technology.”

While this sense of traditional stability is what Gibbons said attracted people to the Church in the past, it can create a barrier for younger Catholics who may feel out of touch with traditional methods to celebrate their faith.

“One of the knocks on the Catholic Church is that it’s so busy looking backwards that it forgets to look forward,” said Gibbons. “There are some ways in which I think religion should, needs, to bend to culture.”

It is happening slowly however. Many priests in the Greater Toronto Area are utilizing social media and uploading recordings of their homilies online, while many parishes have developed web sites. And MacCarthy said online fundraising shows great potential for an archdiocese the covers about 13,000 square kilometres, though it isn’t going to fully replace traditional forms of donating.

TORONTO - Three years ago Catholic commitment to refugees took a major step forward with a national conference of Catholic refugee offices. It’s time to take another step forward, Office for Refugees Archdiocese of Toronto director Martin Mark said.

ORAT will host a four-day national gathering of refugee ministries at the Toronto Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel Dec. 3 to 6. Mark predicts more than double the 70 delegates to the last refugee conference in 2010 will attend “With One Voice — We Are the Hope.”

While three years ago the focus was on organizing parishes to help Iraqi refugees, many of them Christian, this time around the refugee ministries will be finding ways to defend the civic sponsorship program as the federal government constantly adjusts its regulations and procedures for sponsoring refugees.

Recently Citizenship and Immigration Canada issued new forms that recognized refugees are expected to fill out if they wish to come to Canada. The guide for how to fill out the forms runs over 50 pages, said Mark. The Canadian government is also making its refugee forms available only over the Internet.

Not many people in refugee camps have access to the Internet and the traumatized and desperate may find a form with a 50-page guide daunting, Mark said.

The history of Catholic sponsorship of refugees has been through emotional waves of boom and bust, beginning with an outpouring of parish-based generosity more than 30 years ago when the plight of Vietnamese boat people inspired Canada’s civic refugee sponsorship system. As the boats faded from the south Pacific seas, Catholic sponsorship waned. The crisis in Iraq which sent two million refugees into Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and elsewhere revived Catholic interest in sponsorship in 2006.

With the upcoming conference, Mark hopes to ensure the sustainability of a national network of Catholic sponsorship agencies.

While there is still a major problem of unsettled Iraqi refugees, more than half the world’s 42 million refugees are in Africa and there are many opportunities for parishes to contribute to solutions — and not all of them will tax a parish’s budget, Mark said.

There are 600 refugees in Ghana, in a UNHCR camp outside of the capital Accra. With a concerted effort, Canadian Catholic refugee sponsors could close that camp, said Mark.

The conference will begin with Mass celebrated with Cardinal Thomas Collins.

To participate in the conference, call Patricia Cross at (905) 889-5724 or e-mail her at pcpat@rogers.com.

TORONTO - The difference between right and wrong could be the difference between life and extinction as Earth’s climate continues to spiral out of control, a Yale University professor of forestry and religious studies told a Toronto audience Nov. 9.

Mary Evelyn Tucker is the director of Yale’s Forum on Religion and Ecology and was a frequent collaborator with the late Passionist father of ecotheology Fr. Thomas Berry. Speaking on “Future Generations and the Ethics of Climate Change” at the invitation of the University of St. Michael’s College’s Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology, Tucker made the case for an alliance between the worlds of religion and science.

While science is more comfortable with descriptive than prescriptive words about nature and cautious scientists have been reluctant to tell politicians what to do, religion has only very recently begun to address the environmental crisis and ecotheology is still rarely spoken of in seminaries. However, the state of the world’s natural systems demands the best thinking of both religion and science, said Tucker.

“We have to say continually that religion is necessary but not sufficient. We have to develop partners in science, in law, in policy,” she said.

“We need humility. We don’t have all the answers because we were late in coming to this.”

Even if there has been a widening gap between science and religion in the modern era, the world now needs the “deep spiritual resources” of world religions that have dedicated millennia to thinking about right, wrong and the common good. Religion has the ability to teach humanity to value nature as the source of life, rather than a collection of resources to be fed into the gross domestic product of nations, she said.

“We have to see environmental degradation as an ethical issue,” she said. “Until now degradation has been seen as the inevitable cost of economic growth.”

The beginnings of an ethics that addresses climate change would be a serious look at distributive justice, according to Tucker. There are already winners and losers around the globe as sea levels rise, droughts devastate farm land and more violent storms create climate refugees from New Jersey to Bangladesh. But distributive justice should also mean extending the reach of human rights to future generations who will have to live in the environment this generation leaves them.

While an ethic of rights might set minimum standards, drawing lines which must not be crossed, a true environmental ethic would concern itself with much more than the minimum. As nature always seeks flourishing, so should our ethics.

Our ethics should be based on a clear-eyed view of human beings as a “small but indispensable part of a 14-billion-year evolution,” she said. “We need an ethic that is culturally aware but also universally compelling.”

TORONTO - Irish singing sensations The Priests will headline the Venite Adoremus 2012 Christmas Concert to celebrate 10 years of media ministry by Salt + Light Catholic Media Foundation.

The Priests became global stars after their debut album in 2008 became the fastest selling classical debut of all time.

“As we enter our 10th year, I could think of no better way to celebrate this milestone than with a musical concert that features The Priests of Ireland,” said Fr. Tom Rosica, Salt + Light CEO.

“Several years ago, when we were asked at Salt + Light to promote (The Priests) in Canada, I gladly accepted and got to know the three men well. They are living examples of the New Evangelization and their message and music fit in very well with our mission at Salt and Light.”

According to Daniel Torchia, Salt + Light’s director of partnerships, “We’ve held two concerts with them (The Priests) at St. Paul’s Basilica in the past, which would be considered almost a warm up to this event.”

He describes these past performances as “smaller” and “more brief.” But the Dec. 6 concert at Toronto’s Koerner Hall “is really a full-fledged concert for classical music lovers, as well as the Catholic community.”

Rosanna Riverso and The Amabile Youth Singers, a group of about 40 girls ages 12 to 18 from London, Ont., will also be performing.

“It has been in incredible period of hard work, growth, evangelization, creativity and hope for the Church in Canada and far beyond,” Rosica said reflecting on Salt + Light’s first decade. “I would have never believed 10 years ago all that the Lord has been able to do through us this past decade.”

For tickets and information see www.saltandlighttv.org.

A “culture of silence” and deference to “political conservatism” has infected the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), charges the head of the Jesuit-founded Centre Justice et Foi (Justice and Faith) in Montreal.

In an open letter to CCCB president Archbishop Richard Smith, Elisabeth Garant said the elimination of the CCCB’s post of senior advisor for social justice, delaying and blunting the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace’s fall education campaign, inviting Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney to a private meeting and not criticizing refugee policy reforms amount to a “serious step back away from the rich Church tradition of social justice.”

Garant’s letter will be on the agenda of the next CCCB executive committee meeting Nov. 27-28. Until then, the conference has chosen to make no comment.

Garant served five years as a member of the CCCB’s Commission on Justice and Peace. She accuses the bishops of cozying up to the Conservative government because, she said, the CCCB has not engaged the Canadian government on an issue of social justice since December 2010. At that time, Kenney dismissed a letter from the bishops’ justice and peace commission as another in “a long tradition of ideological bureaucrats who work for the bishops’ conference producing political letters signed by pastors who may not have specialized knowledge in certain areas of policy.”

“From that moment we observe a silence,” said Garant. “Why are we silent on things that are not our personal issues but that we think for the common good we need to talk about?”

She also questions the CCCB for laying off social justice advisor Francois Poitras in order to help get its finances in order.

CCCB General Secretary Msgr. Patrick Powers has said layoffs were necessary. “We have had to rethink the way we do things, to do more and to cost less,” he told Canadian Catholic News.

“When Msgr. Powers said that this responsibility (for social justice) will be spread among other lay people at the conference, I don’t know any of them who have the experience or the competence to deal with social justice,” she said.

Garant also disputes the CCCB’s explanation behind the delay of the Development and Peace fall campaign. In a joint letter, the CCCB and Development and Peace explained that the campaign was delayed and modified because “concern was expressed that elements of the original materials could be a source of division among bishops, priests, parishioners and donors.”

“They are saying they do that for the sake of some faithful who will be hurt,” said Garant. “There’s no real proof of what they are talking about.”

Garant has yet to receive acknowledgment of her letter from the CCCB or Smith. Smith was in Rome in early November.

Though the Centre Justice et Foi has autonomy, it remains a Jesuit apostolate with the full confidence of Canada’s French-speaking Jesuit fathers, said Garant.