NEWS

{mosimage}TORONTO - They sang multilingual songs, carried religious statues representing their former homelands and stopped traffic with a round-the-neighbourhood-block procession marking the 100th anniversary of St. Anthony’s parish.

Pastor Fr. Tiziano Paolazzi, c.s., joined with more than 800 of his parishioners June 14 to celebrate a three-fold anniversary: Corpus Christi Sunday, St. Anthony’s feast day and the parish’s centennial birthday.

{mosimage}TORONTO - While many Catholics continue to struggle with the uncertainty of job security and financial stability, ShareLife continues to see parishioners in the archdiocese generously giving to its campaign this year.

Arthur Peters, executive director for ShareLife, is hopeful of reaching his team’s parish fundraising campaign goal of $12 million, although donations were short of the goal at The Catholic Register’s publication deadline. Peters reported a total of $9.7 million raised after the final campaign weekend June 6-7.

{mosimage}The Jantzi Social Index continued to keep pace with standard market indices through the May climb back to a shaky respectability.

The Jantzi — which picks its 60 Canadian stocks based on environmental sustainability, labour and human rights performance and transparent governance — was up 10.68 per cent in May and 32.2 per cent over the previous three months.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has fired an opening volley in what it sees as a summer-long battle for palliative care and against physician-assisted suicide.

The CCBI has printed 1,600 postcards addressed to Parliament and distributed them to its friends and supporters. The postcards call for the defeat of Bill C-384, a private member’s bill that would remove physician-assisted suicide from the Criminal Code. The bill was introduced to Parliament May 13 by Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde. It’s expected to come up for second reading when Parliament resumes sitting in the fall.

The following clergy appointments have been made for the archdiocese of Toronto. They take place July 1-2 unless otherwise noted.

{mosimage}JERUSALEM  - Although most Arabs did not accept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for accepting Palestinian statehood, in reality he could not have said anything different, said an official of the Jerusalem Interchurch Centre.

“Personally I look at it as everyone trying to take a step forward,” said Yusef Daher, the centre’s executive secretary, reacting to Netanyahu’s June 14 speech. “First (U.S. President Barack) Obama took a step. Netanyahu couldn’t say more than he did. He is in a very delicate condition with the (right-wing) coalition he chose, and he needs to change the coalition or we can’t move.”

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Justice Murray Sinclair has been appointed chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into abuses at Indian residential schools.

“It’s a very daunting task,” Manitoba’s first aboriginal judge said. “We have a long road to walk and we don’t have as much time as we could probably use to get there.”

But Sinclair said he is committed to an accurate commission process that will treat all parties fairly, including those who have a positive story to tell.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged international leaders to turn their attention to the growing problem of world hunger as they deal with the global economic crisis.
Looking ahead to a UN financial summit in New York June 24-25, the Pope said the meeting should be carried out "in a spirit of wisdom and solidarity, so that the current crisis can be transformed into an opportunity."

{mosimage}LAHORE, Pakistan - A Catholic Church centre in Pakistan's cosmopolitan eastern city of Lahore has been threatened with a suicide bomb attack, one of a series of intimidating messages given to Christians as the country's security crisis worsens.

The threat was delivered June 10 to a Christian woman who lives next to Rabita Manzil, National Catholic Centre for Social Communications, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. The centre includes the offices of the Workshop Audio Visual Education studio, Radio Veritas Asia's Urdu service and the UCA News.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - On behalf of Canada’s Catholic bishops, Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher brought a message of solidarity and hope with Canada's First Nations to the National Day of Reconciliation June 11.

The day marked the first anniversary of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s historic apology from the Canadian government for Indian residential schools.

On Parliament Hill, Durocher spoke of Pope Benedict XVI’s words of deep regret, solidarity and hope spoken to aboriginal leaders in a private audience in late April in Rome.