NEWS

VATICAN CITY - Fighting in Aleppo, Syria, has not spared the residences of the local Melkite and Maronite Catholic archbishops, according to the Vatican's Fides news agency.

The residence of Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart was ransacked during clashes Aug. 23. The archbishop and several priests who live in the building had fled a few hours earlier to a Franciscan residence in a safer neighbourhood, Fides reported Aug. 27.

Franciscan Father George Abu Khazen, who cares for the city's Latin-rite Catholics and offered shelter to the Melkites, told Fides that Jeanbart was very worried and shaken.

"He kept repeating one word: 'Why?' ”

The archbishop has gone to Lebanon, but one of his assistants was able to return to the house once the Syrian military regained control of the area. He said the house had been broken into and a variety of objects, including computers and a projector, were missing, Khazen said.

The Maronite archbishop's residence and a museum of Byzantine Christian art in the same neighbourhood were both ransacked as well, Fides said.

Khazen said it still seems like there is no solution to the Syrian conflict in sight because no one, nationally or internationally, seems able to pressure either side into beginning a real dialogue.

The tensions began in March 2011 as part of the pro-democracy Arab Spring movement that swept across North Africa and the Middle East.

Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said it spoke to another member of "the local hierarchy, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons." He told Fides that "groups of jihadists" — militant Islamic fighters — from Chechnya, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Libya have joined the fighting in an attempt to increase "hatred and sectarian conflict."

The groups, he said, "have the sole aim of bringing chaos, destruction, atrocities and paralysing social life. The Syrian civilian population is the victim, but they won't fall for this trap."

TORONTO - It's mid-summer at the MasterCard Centre in south Etobicoke, and a Toronto Maple Leafs' prospect game is about to get underway. Some of the most talented young hockey players in the world are powering across the ice for the pre-game warm up. Sporting the blue and and white of the hometown Leafs, some names are already familiar to fans, and all are currently under the scrutiny of scouts in the National Hockey League's biggest market. Leafs' general manager Brian Burke himself is visible on occasion from a box above the ice, surveying the prodigious talent circling below.

For one player, however, this is a setting that may seem more familiar than to the others. Matt Finn, Toronto born and raised and selected by the Leafs in the second round, 35th overall, in the 2012 draft, is poised to become the hometown hero fans of the franchise have been awaiting.

The middle sibling of three brothers, Finn grew up in central Etobicoke as a Leafs fan, attending St. Gregory's Catholic Elementary School and Michael Power/St. Joseph High School before leaving for Guelph to play for the Storm in the Ontario Hockey League. He played school hockey in both places, and helped to start up the first St. Gregory's intramural team.

"I loved it. Just being out there and playing with them," said Finn of his time in school athletics. "You don’t get many chances to do that often. To be able to play and compete with some of your best friends is pretty special.

“It was really great to have that community supporting not only myself but hockey (development) as well in that neighbourhood,” said Finn, who also attended St. Gregory's Church where he was confirmed.

He also attributes the hockey community in Etobicoke for some his most influential and fond memories of the sport that he hopes to make his career.

“When I was six or seven years old, my team, the West Mall Lightning, won a tournament where the final game was played at the Air Canada Centre. That was a really cool experience for me," said Finn.

"Playing hockey with your friends on the backyard rink at all hours of the night, and being out there doing what you love — it's something that you don't forget,” said Finn, whose childhood friend, Connor Brown, was also drafted by the Leafs.

“We actually grew up playing hockey together, since we were about three or four years old. He’s one of the first friends that I made playing hockey," said Finn of his fellow Michael Power/St. Joseph's alumni.

Finn had a breakout season last year with the Storm — Finn led the Guelph defence in goals, assists and points (48 in total — and is finally coming down from what has been the most exciting time in his young career.

“Things are calming down," he laughs. "It’s been a crazy couple months, for sure."

At six feet tall, Finn is a multi-talented player.

"I think overall, I’ve found my comfort level as a player... I just kind of took it and ran with it,” said Finn of his success this past year. “After my first year we lost a lot of the senior players and they moved on to the American or National leagues so there was a lot of room for young players like myself. I saw an opportunity and did the best that I could.”

For now, Finn expects he will return to the Storm for another season or two, where he hopes to work on his strength and skating to allow him to fulfill his dream of playing for the Leafs.

“That’s always been the goal," he said, "and I was fortunate enough for that to become a reality this summer.”

Now 18, he also relishes the potential opportunity to be selected for Team Canada for this year's World Junior championships in Russia.

"To represent Team Canada and play in the World Juniors, that would be a dream come true for me.”

Despite the often strained relationship between the fans of Leafs Nation and the sometimes beleaguered Leafs, Finn welcomes the opportunity to become a part of the historic franchise.

“Growing up in Toronto... I think I know more of what to expect. I’m extremely excited to be a part of the organization.”

For now, Finn intends to work hard and dedicate himself to earning a place in the NHL, and speaks earnestly about his love and enthusiasm for the game.

“I think it speaks volumes about the sport, how passionate you have to be to play it.”

WASHINGTON - While media images of the Syrian civil war are mainly those of men with guns, workers from Catholic Relief Services have seen "predominantly women and children, fleeing," said a communications officer who recently returned from the Middle East.

Syrian women, hailing from a society that gives them little chance to make their voices heard, were "tugging on my sleeve, begging me to tell their stories" in the United States, said the manager, Caroline Brennan, who visited with the refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.

The 250,000 Syrian refugees, part of a larger group of 1.5 million Syrians displaced from their homes due to the fierce fighting enveloping their country, have been "blindsided by what is happening to them," she said.

These Syrians were "viewing (the war) from a distance, never thinking this would affect their lives," Brennan said. "Many of these people, literally fleeing for their lives, are middle class. They have nice homes. The country has no debt. They never expected to see this happening."

Brennan told of a pregnant Syrian refugee who got a job as a maid in exchange for shelter for her and her sons. She worked until she gave birth and went back to work again shortly thereafter.

"She had no way to see a doctor or pediatrician" until CRS stepped in," she said. "Many of these women have bullet wounds. Their children need care.

"One woman I met in Jordan ... she was with her mother and they heard gunshots and they scurried around a corner. And the woman saw her mother, lying next to her, on the ground," felled by a bullet.

"Families are trying desperately to stay together," but not always succeeding, Brennan added. Sometimes, men "stay home trying to protect their land, or they're fighting — or worse, they've been kidnapped. The women are left to lead the family. They think: What is happening to the people they love in this world?"

But she also told of a Syrian husband and father named Faizad.

"He came across the border, but his wife and (most of their) children weren't allowed to make it. But then he has a son he has to care for. He (the son) cries at night, he misses his mom," Brennan said. Workers can tell from the boy's drawings that he has seen "people with guns killing innocent people," she added.

"This is a humanitarian crisis at its heart," she said.

There are "huge social needs of the people, especially children and mothers," said Vivian Manneh, a 20-year CRS veteran currently serving as a regional program manager for the Middle East. "Kids are starting to think, 'What is going to happen to us? Where are we going to be?' There are lots of psychosocial needs, lots of basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter."

Manneh said she sees people "who are in need of food, who are praying and lacking lots of the basics. They are leaving their homes with nothing. Their children are out of school. They have no clothing. They are using fruit trees to chop as cooking gas. Their situation is dire. The humanitarian crisis is increasing a lot."

She added, "If you see people coming out with babies, they have nothing to cross (the border) with, no sustenance — they had to flee quickly."

The shelter issue is complicated. Because of the Syrian refugees' impressions of Palestinian refugee camps, they resist as long as possible going to the camps set up for them.

"There are not a lot of places to go to. The rents are increasing," Manneh said.

Because of the prior long-term stability of their country, few Syrians have relatives in other countries who can take them in.

"They will come back (to Syria) as long as they feel safe. They will go back even if they know their home is laying right on the ground and they know they don't have a place," Manneh said.

Brennan concurred. She said refugees have told her, "I'd rather sleep on the dirt of my home" as long as there was peace.

"They don't see themselves as long-term refugees," she said. "They want to go home."

Seeing the "sad sequence of deaths and injuries, including among civilians, and a huge number of people internally displaced or seeking refuge in neighbouring countries," Pope Benedict XVI appealed July 29 for an end to "all violence and bloodshed" in Syria, which has seen thousands of civilian deaths since protests against the Bashar Assad regime started in March 2011.

One irony in the situation is that an estimated one million Iraqi refugees currently live in Syria. Now, some Syrians are fleeting to Iraq.

"They (Iraqis) are very hospitable, opening their doors," Manneh said, but "we don't know how many (refugees) they are going to take."

The London diocese will be participating in Saturday's Walk for Jesus despite recent media reports claiming the walk's co-organizer is anti-Muslim.

At 9 a.m. Bishop Ronald Fabbro will give the opening blessing and prayer to an expected 5,000 people before the 1.7-km journey across Dundas Street to Victoria Park where Prayer Fest — a mixture of guest speakers, live music and symbolic ceremonies — will be held.

But the diocese first reconsidered its participation after the media storm in the southwestern Ontario city caused some headaches for the diocese. Media reports framed G.J. Rancourt, who is co-organizing the Walk for Jesus and is director of Prayer Fest, as anti-Muslim for comments he made in 2010 when he was a candidate for the Christian Heritage Party. Rancourt said the quotes that caused the controversy were strategically selected to "sell papers" and characterized him unjustly. He said he spoke out against sharia law, and not Muslims.

"We were seeking to get some clarification on what our involvement was ... and whether or not it would be something that the bishop would continue to do," said Mark Adkinson, spokesperson for the London diocese. "The bishop is just doing the opening prayer at the Walk for Jesus. That's basically the extent of the bishop's involvement and the diocese's involvement."

The diocese became involved with this year's walk after a parishioner, who helped organize the event last year, mentioned his role to his priest. Word then travelled up through the ranks eventually catching Fabbro's interest. The bishop agreed to open the Walk for Jesus but didn't commit to Prayer Fest because it had no Catholic-specific link.

Although separate events, the similarities between them, primarily the theme of unifying Christian faiths by praising Jesus, and their close proximity helped develop the perception that the two were one and the same.

"At that point there wasn't a clear distinction between the two events," said Adkinson, explaining why the diocese originally reconsidered its participation.

Concerns arose early in the week when a local paper published old quotes from Rancourt.

Rancourt said people may be confused over his comments because he didn't draw the distinction between Islam and sharia clearly.

"I'm not beating up on Muslims because to beat up on Muslims wouldn't be fair," said Rancourt. It is sharia law that he thinks shouldn't be allowed in Canada, not Muslims. "Let's not confuse Muslims with sharia because there are Muslims that don't practise sharia."

Rancourt says the practise of sharia law — a moral code and religious law of Islam — is a massive human rights violation, contradictory to Canada's Christian principle-based laws and a lifestyle unwelcome in this nation. He said 170 million people, mostly Hindus and Christians, have been killed around the world because of sharia law.

But at the end of the day Rancourt said his 2010 comments should have nothing to do with Prayer Fest or the Walk for Jesus.

Call it what you want, a misunderstanding, misrepresentation or innocent ignorance, London's bishop didn't want the Church to suffer a black eye, Adkinson said.

"The bishop was taking the reports quite seriously and felt that he had to come out and clarify what his involvement was and also put out a public statement just to be clear on what he was going to be and what he was going to emphasizing this weekend," said Adkinson.

TORONTO - Toronto parishes are being encouraged to reach out to Africa and the Philippines.

The archdiocese of Toronto is channeling parish collections to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace to help people suffering food shortages in the Sahel region of northwest Africa and flood victims in the Philippines.

In the case of the Sahel drought, which threatens the lives of 18.7 million people, collections sent in before Sept. 30 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Canadian government.

Funds contributed to Development and Peace for the Philippine floods are immediately available to Caritas NASSA — the main Catholic relief agency in the Philippines.

Parishes can make cheques payable to "Parish Name - Sahel Crisis Relief" or "Parish Name - Philippine Flood Relief." Cheques should be mailed to the Development Office, Catholic Pastoral Centre, 1155 Yonge St., Toronto, Ont., M4T 1W2.

Individuals can also contribute through the archdiocese, either by calling the Development Office at 1-800-263-2595 or (416) 934-3411 or online at www.archtoronto.org/humanitarian.

VATICAN CITY - Pakistani institutions and religious leaders are working together for the release of a Christian girl accused of blasphemy and to reduce the risk of Muslim-Christian violence over the incident, said the Pakistani prime minister's special advisor on minorities.

Paul Bhatti, the Catholic advisor, told the Vatican's Fides news agency Aug. 23 that those working to secure the girl's release included Muslim leaders.

Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has reported that the girl, Rimsha Masih, is an 11-year-old with Down syndrome. She was taken into custody Aug. 18 after allegedly being found with burned pages of the Quran, the Muslim holy book. When the police took her away, hundreds of angry Muslims were reportedly gathering in the mainly poor Christian neighbourhood of Islamabad where she lived.

Hundreds of families have fled the neighbourhood, and the police presence has increased.

"The situation is under control," Bhatti told Fides.

Catholic leaders in Pakistan and human rights activists have said the country's anti-blasphemy law, which includes offenses against the Quran, has been misused to persecute Christians and other minorities in the country.

Daughter of St. Paul Sister Daniela Baronchelli, who works in Pakistan, told Vatican Radio Aug. 20: "We have been told that the girl cannot respond to the interrogation. They found her with a bag that had parts of a burned Quran inside. They don't know, however, who gave it to her or where she got it; they don't know anything."

Sr. Daniela said the angry crowd "wanted to burn her alive because they say it was a great offense against the Quran."

The unjust use of the anti-blasphemy law "unfortunately is becoming all too common. The fact is that the extremists don't want the Christians here any more, so any little thing — true or not — is enough to incite a revolt," she said.

OTTAWA - The Ottawa Catholic District School Board has been fined $275,000 for its role in a 2011 classroom explosion that killed student Eric Leighton.

“As a school board ultimately we’re responsible for what happens in the schools,” said Julian Hanlon, director of education. “We’ve accepted that responsibility all along and this process will hopefully help bring some closure to the case, in particular for the Leighton family themselves.”

When Leighton tried cutting a 55-gallon drum in half with an angle grinder during his morning shop-class on May 26, 2011, the steel barrel exploded. The blast sent five students and A teacher to hospital, all of whom left with minor injuries except for Leighton. The Grade 12 student later passed away. He was 18.  

Charged in January under the Occupational Health and Safety Act with failing to provide instruction or supervision, failing to take every reasonable precaution to protect the workplace and failing to properly acquaint a supervisor with the handling of equipment, the board faced up to $500,000 in fines.

A media release from the Ministry of Labour stated that “the barrel the student was using had been washed out with flammable cleaner ... the barrel had been stored with its caps closed prior to the class project, allowing flammable cleaning vapour to accumulate.”

The family has called for a coroner’s inquest which is still being considered according to Dr. Roger Skinner, regional supervising coroner for Ontario east.

AURORA, ONT. - Trustees from the York Catholic District School Board agreed on Aug. 21 to accept the province's Memorandum of Understanding as a framework for local collective bargaining with their teachers' union.

The York board joins the Toronto Catholic board as the only ones to date to sign on to the province's plan to freeze teacher wages for two years, alter sick leave benefits and cut sick days, all part of the government's austerity measures to deal with a $15-billion budget deficit. In July, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association was the first of the education stakeholders to sign on to the deal.

"Adoption of the MOU will help provide labour stability and peace of mind," said board chair Elizabeth Crowe. "We have always worked in a spirit of collaboration with all our employee groups and we greatly value those relationships."

By approving the MOU it ensures there will be no labour disruption this year in York Catholic schools.

That looks like it may not be the case across the province. No other union has accepted the provincial deal and other school boards have voiced their concerns about collective bargaining being taken away from them. Premier Dalton McGuinty, however, has vowed to bring in legislation to prevent a labour disruption and has recalled MPPs from their summer break for a session beginning Aug. 27 to deal with the issue.

The York board, with 55,000 students and 103 schools, now has until Dec. 31 to sign contracts under the agreed upon guidelines.

EDMONTON - The Catholic Women’s League of Canada, in partnership with the Sisters of Service of Toronto, is setting up a $1-million private charitable foundation to train women in leadership in the Church and in society.

As part of their legacy, the Sisters of Service are giving $500,000 to begin the foundation which will train about 24 women a year.

The CWL has vowed to match the Sisters’ donation. At its 92nd annual national convention in Edmonton, the CWL voted to take $100,000 from its treasury to get the foundation rolling and to raise the remaining $400,000 from donations across Canada.

Outgoing national president Velma Harasen made the announcement at a news conference Aug. 15, just hours before she completed her two-year term.

“We feel there is a real need to speak up for our Christian values and therefore be out there in the community, on school boards, on hospital boards, on parish councils and in society at large,” she said.

“This will hopefully help our women be a little more empowered to speak up and feel a bit more confident to do that. So with the blessing of the convention, we will proceed with this charitable foundation.”

The CWL has worked in partnership with the Sisters of Service since the 1920s. Today, only 20 Sisters of Service remain in Canada and the youngest is 78. The congregation was established to help meet the spiritual and social needs of immigrants settling in rural areas of the Canadian Prairies.

“So they are planning for their future when they are no longer with us,” said Harasen.

A board of directors will run the foundation, which will be incorporated and therefore able to ask for donations and issue tax receipts, noted president Betty Anne Brown Davidson of Wellington, Ont., who took over the reins of the CWL following the news conference.

“The foundation will be separate from the league and will have a totally separate board,” she said. It should be up and running in about a year.

At the convention, delegates also approved a resolution urging the federal government “to strongly enforce the criminalization of the purchase of sexual services.” Also approved was a resolution urging the government to provide for an extra 15 weeks of Employment Insurance benefits for adoptive mothers.  

The convention also approved two motions to send letters to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and opposition parties on social justice issues.  One letter opposes the federal government’s funding cuts to faith-based development agencies; the other expresses concern about poor living conditions on First Nations reserves.

The Aug. 15 closing Mass at St. Joseph’s Basilica was offered for the repose of the soul of Fr. Joseph Christenson, spiritual advisor for the CWL in Halifax-Yarmouth. Christenson died suddenly while attending the convention.

(Western Catholic Reporter)

VATICAN CITY - The president of the Nigerian bishops' conference called for the international community to help his country improve its security operations to stop the "fundamentalist, fanatic" Boko Haram terrorist group.

The day after a Catholic church, an elementary school and a police station in Damagun were attacked, presumably by Boko Haram members, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos told Vatican Radio: "There is high religious tension in Nigeria, but we are not at war between Christians and Muslims. The Boko Haram is at war with Christians, because they have vowed they will kill Christians because they are 'infidels.' This is a fact, but it is not the whole Islamic community."

In its two-year campaign to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the entire country, Boko Haram has been blamed for more than 1,400 deaths of Christians, Muslims and police officers.

Kaigama, who was interviewed Aug. 20 in Rimini, Italy, where he addressed a meeting of the Communion and Liberation lay movement, told Vatican Radio that in his country, where the population is about half Muslim and half Christian, "there is no neat division between political problems and religious problems. They are intertwined."

"It is erroneous to always reduce every crisis in Nigeria to religion. Religion does a lot of good; we shouldn't see it as always generating crisis," the archbishop said.

In addition, he said, people must look for the root causes of tensions in Nigeria, including the economic, political and social issues that "trigger these crises, but somehow eventually they always become Christian-Muslim crises."

The vast majority of Nigerians — Christians and Muslims — want to live in peace and are frightened by the actions and agenda of Boko Haram, he said, "but somehow the violence continues to grow."

"The government seems helpless. The security agents, even though they are all over the place, don't seem to provide the security that would allow people to go about their normal business peacefully," Kaigama said.

"People are afraid that if this conflict situation continues, the consequences will be disastrous: There will be either an open, very terrible religious conflict or even a civil war that will pit the North against the South," he said.

The majority of people in the North are Muslim, while the majority of people in the South are Christian.

If there is war in Nigeria, he said, it will affect other West African nations and, perhaps, the whole continent.

"We don't want a war in Africa, that is why we are asking the international community to assist in a way that we can resolve the problems of security so that we can live happily in peace," the archbishop said.