NEWS

TORONTO - Canada’s Maltese communities will roll out the red carpet this month for a special visit by Maltese Archbishop Paul Cremona, O.P.

Cremona was to first visit Windsor, London and Michigan from April 30-May 3 before spending May 7-14 in Toronto, home to the largest Maltese-Canadian population.

“This is an opportunity for the community to have their faith renewed and confirmed by his presence,” said Fr. Carmelo Borg, MSSP, pastor at Toronto’s only Maltese parish, St. Paul the Apostle Church.

OTTAWA - Canada will not include abortion in its G8 maternal health initiative, despite pressure from Opposition parties and foreign governments.

“Canadians want to see the foreign aid money used for things to help save the lives of women and children in ways that unite the Canadian people,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said April 27 in response to a question from Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff who accused the government of reversing Canada’s 25-year-old “consensus” on the issue.

TORONTO - The archdiocese of Toronto is giving 20-per-cent less to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace this year because ShareLife fell short of its fundraising goal last year and the recession has hit local Catholic agencies with increased demand for services.

The ShareLife advisory board cut its allocation to Development and Peace to $900,000 this year, a $225,000 reduction from last year’s contribution of $1.125 million.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is a moral imperative and a necessary step toward the eventual goal of total nuclear disarmament, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore said.

Speaking during an April 26 panel discussion on the ethics of President Barack Obama’s nuclear weapons policy hosted by The Catholic University of America, O’Brien urged senators to cast aside partisan differences and approve the START agreement, which calls for what he described as “modest reductions” in American and Russian nuclear arsenals.

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.

VATICAN CITY - Three days after promising sex-abuse victims in Malta that he would do all he could to bring offenders to justice, Pope Benedict XVI told a Vatican audience that he “assured” the Maltese men of  “Church action” to address priestly sexual abuse.

In a rare public statement April 21 on the sex-abuse scandal, Benedict recounted his meeting with eight Maltese men who were molested as children by priests.

“I shared their suffering and emotionally prayed with them,” the Pope told pilgrims and tourists during his weekly public audience at St. Peter’s Square.

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.