{mosimage}TORONTO - Thirty years after the John Paul II Care Centre of Copernicus Lodge opened, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate influence is still strong.

Tracy Kamino, executive director of Copernicus Lodge, said ties between the lodge and the Oblate priests continues. Despite now being a non-profit organization run by a board of directors, the board is continuing the Oblates’ legacy of caring for and looking after the needs of Toronto’s Polish community, though it is also open to non-Polish residents.

{mosimage}A dozen bishops and faith leaders representing a clear majority of Canadian Christians, plus an organization representing Canadian Muslims, has accused Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney of fostering “hostility towards refugees” and fueling xenophobia.

A Nov. 12 letter from faith leaders to Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes issue with Kenney’s assertion that the refugee system has been slowed by “bogus” claims.

{mosimage}ANTIGONISH, N.S. - Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Bishop Brian Dunn to lead the diocese of Antigonish as the Nova Scotia diocese recovers from child pornography charges laid against its former chief shepherd.

The announcement was made Nov. 21 and passed along to parishioners at weekend Masses.

“I look forward to coming to the people of Antigonish even recognizing there is a little difficulty there,” said Dunn, currently auxiliary bishop in the Sault Ste. Marie diocese.

{mosimage}TORONTO - He’s been called the “surviving martyr.” And next spring, 17th-century Italian Jesuit missionary Fr. Francesco Giuseppe Bressani’s sacrifices and contributions will be recognized with a statue at Martyrs’ Shrine near the territory where Bressani narrowly escaped death for his Catholic beliefs.

Fr. Daniele Bertoldi, president of the Italian Pastoral Commission of the archdiocese of Toronto, said Bressani’s importance “has not yet been acknowledged.” 

{mosimage}TORONTO - An inactive priest who claims to have “married” his male partner at their Toronto home Nov. 14 will not be excommunicated but could lose his clerical state if he “continues to give scandal,” said Kingston Archbishop Brendan O’Brien, quoting canon law.

Karl Clemens, a priest almost in his 70s who was dismissed from the archdiocese of Kingston 10 years ago and suspended from ministry, announced in a 2006 interview with Vision TV that he was gay. He said he “retired early” from the priesthood to minister to the gay community in Toronto.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Two leading Catholic prelates expect Canada’s bishops to respond positively to the new structure to welcome Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

“I think it will be well received,” said Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus that will establish personal ordinariates for groups of Anglicans wishing to become Catholic.

{mosimage}OTTAWA  - The Catholic Organization for Life and Family is providing fresh ammunition for the battle against euthanasia and assisted-suicide.

It’s in the form of a downloadable booklet entitled Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Why Not?  Quick Answers to Common Arguments. It can be downloaded from www.colf.ca .

{mosimage}TORONTO - Magnificat, a ministry for Catholic women, is bursting at the seams in Toronto.

After hosting a record 370 people at its October Magnificat breakfast at a banquet hall in Etobicoke, organizers spoke about the possibility of branching off the ministry into one or two more chapters across Toronto.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), feeling “overwhelming joy,” says he hopes to deliver a “yes” before Easter to the Holy See’s offer of Personal Ordinariates that would welcome his members into the Catholic Church.

Archbishop John Hepworth called the apostolic constitution published Nov. 9 by Pope Benedict XVI “generous at every turn” in its description of the Anglican heritage, dogmatic provisions and pastoral language. It followed the Pope’s dramatic October offer to welcome Anglicans into the Catholic Church without abandoning their prayer books or liturgical traditions.

{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.