NEWS

TORONTO - Though some were due back in class in an hour or two and others were generations removed from their last lecture, everybody at Fr. Robert J. Madden’s funeral Feb. 20 was there as a student paying respect to a great teacher.

TORONTO - You won’t find the word “savagery” in most economic textbooks, but neither will you find the word “faith.” But savagery and faith are the words Jesuit Archbishop Ricardo Barreto of Huancayo, Peru, uses to describe the economic choices before Latin America.

TORONTO - The Catholic Civil Rights League of Canada has joined with other upset people in condemning a satirical skit that mocked one of the Church’s holiest sacraments.

TORONTO - When it comes to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the mainstream media has been filled with a troubling number of errors and misrepresentations, said the head of an organization committed to combating anti-Catholic defamation.

TORONTO - If food be the music of love and of life, why should the elderly be stuck with Muzak? Why another bland tray of dietician-approved starch, protein, carbohydrates, fats and fibre?

VATICAN CITY - The world's cardinals were to begin meetings at the Vatican March 4, and while onlookers are focused on who may be the next pope, the cardinals have business to deal with.

OTTAWA - A growing group of Quebec physicians is rallying opposition to a plan to include euthanasia as part of health care under the euphemism “medical aid in dying.”

TORONTO - When Chaminade College School football coach Pat Diodati met James Bodanis, he immediately knew playing football would pay off for the then Grade 9 student. Convincing Bodanis of that, however, proved to be less instantaneous.

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal-electors are caught in a Catch-22. They are eager to give the world a new pope; however, they need time to pick the right leader, said South Africa's cardinal.

Joyce de Gooijer is on the lookout. As the first lay director of the Volunteer International Christian Service (VICS), de Gooijer is eager to increase the organization’s recruits through improved public awareness.