TORONTO - More than $233,000 was raised by the Caritas Project’s 16th annual telethon on April 25.

Although the goal of $250,000 was not attained, Caritas’ associate executive director Ramin Deravian said Caritas hopes to hits its target as it is still accepting donations until the end of April.

The telethon was broadcast on CHIN TV and the Telelatino Network. It kicked off with a pre-taped message from Toronto’s Archbishop Thomas Collins. The broadcast also featured words of support from Peterborough Bishop Nicola de Angelis.

TORONTO - Report On Business declares the recession is over. Down at the food bank it’s just getting up a head of steam.

“There are more people going to food banks and less food being donated, both by individuals as well as our corporate partners,” Ontario Association of Food Banks executive director Adam Spence told The Catholic Register. “Those two items come together to make it a very challenging time for food banks.”

Time is running out on people’s hopes for a tolerant Middle East where the Christian minorities can live in peace, said Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., on returning from a trip to Lebanon and Syria.

“We have to create a climate now for the Christians to stay, for the Christians to go back to Iraq and go back to the villages in Galilee. That’s the hope,” said Prendergast.

TORONTO - In the wake of the abuse scandal rocking the worldwide Church, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins will convene a committee of experts to examine and update the archdiocese’s  protocols for dealing with priestly misconduct.

Collins made the announcement in a pastoral letter read at Masses in parishes throughout the archdiocese the weekend of April 17-18.

OTTAWA - Canada’s MPs have overwhelmingly rejected assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Bloc Quebecois MP ’s private member’s Bill C-384 went down to a resounding defeat April 21 by a vote of 228 to 59.

All save one Bloc Quebecois MP supported the motion, while all the Conservatives present, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, voted against it. Most Liberals and NDP MPs also voted against the bill, including NDP Leader Jack Layton. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was not in the House for the vote, but told journalists earlier in the day he did not support it.

OTTAWA - The Conservative government will not support MP Rod Bruinooge’s bill to prevent women from being coerced into having abortions, giving the private member’s bill little chance of passing.

The Winnipeg South MP, who chairs the all-party Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, introduced Bill C-510 into the House of Commons April 14. The  Conservative backbencher told journalists the next day he had support from members of other parties as well as from within Tory ranks.

TORONTO - Some supporters of Nathan Phillips Square’s Peace Garden say moving one of Toronto’s monuments to peace away from the centre of the square as part of a facelift is like pushing to the side the message of nuclear disarmament.

The move is part of the City of Toronto’s $42.7-million, two-year Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Plan.

Order of Canada recipient Setsuko Thurlow, who survived the 1945 Hiroshima nuclear bombing as a 13-year-old, says she’s “disappointed” about the relocation.

TORONTO - The archdiocese of Toronto, in the wake of the abuse scandal the worldwide Church finds itself embroiled in, will examine ways to update its procedures in dealing with such cases.

Archbishop Thomas Collins made the announcement through a letter read during the homily at Masses in parishes throughout the archdiocese the weekend of April 17-18.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican secretary of state told reporters in Chile that no serious study has ever shown a connection between celibacy and pedophilia, but many psychologists and psychiatrists believe there is a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was visiting Chile April 6-12 to participate in events marking the country’s bicentennial and to demonstrate Pope Benedict XVI’s solidarity with victims of a Feb. 27 earthquake, made the remarks to reporters in Santiago.

OTTAWA - Following a poll indicating that 54 per cent of Canadians believe the Vatican has perpetuated a culture of silence on clerical sex abuse, Canada’s Catholic bishops issued a statement saying they share concerns about sexual abuse and continue to improve protocols to deal with the issue.

The survey, conducted by Ispos Reid, also said eight per cent of Canadians over 18 claim to personally know someone sexually assaulted by a priest. However, 37 per cent of Catholics believe Pope Benedict XVI is being unfairly targeted and 80 per cent believe the proportion of abuser priests is small.