NEWS

{mosimage}TORONTO — Jewish-Christian dialogue is what  the Sisters of Sion do, so it should be no surprise that Sr. Lucy Thorson has been doing it for 30 years in Jerusalem, Rome and North America.

Still, every journey is different. So, at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Scarboro Missions headquarters at 2685 Kingston Rd., Thorson will talk about her own journey of faith following the great opening of Christian-Jewish Dialogue at the end of the Second Vatican Council.

The talk will be one of Thorson’s first contributions since joining the Interfaith desk at the Scarboro Mission Society.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - On the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend, Canada’s Governor General invested abortionist Dr. Henry Morgentaler with the Order of Canada.

“The Order of Canada was created in order to acknowledge the great achievements of citizens who desire a better country,” said Archbishop Thomas Collins, archbishop of Toronto.

{mosimage}On Oct. 14, Canadian voters chose to replace its minority Conservative government in Ottawa with another, slightly larger, minority Conservative government. The Catholic Register asked five Catholics from across Canada who closely observed the election campaign, for their views on how the campaign unfolded and what needs to be done now. Below we present their responses to our questions.

{mosimage}The Canadian people woke up Oct. 15 to a new government that looks remarkably like the old government. They could be forgiven for scratching their heads and wondering what all the fuss was for.

As final polls were still being counted, it appeared that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives would once again form a minority government with 143 seats in the House of Commons — 12 short of a majority. They face a Liberal party with 76 seats, the Bloc Quebecois with 50, the New Democrats with 37 and two independents.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Defending doctors’ conscience rights, Catholic groups’ freedom of speech and the anti-euthanasia movement represent the next legal battlegrounds for the pro-life movement, said activists at an international pro-life conference held in Toronto in early October.

Dr. Jack Willke, president of the U.S.-based International Right to Life Federation, told more than 200 conference participants on Oct. 4 that the struggle of the pro-life movement is similar to the anti-slavery movement because of the hostility and opposition that both groups have faced.

{mosimage}TORONTO - War has been in decline since the end of the Cold War, but last year it had a slight rebound, according to Project Ploughshares’ annual Armed Conflicts Report.

In 2007 the world hosted 30 wars, up from the 29 Kitchener-based Project Ploughshares counted in 2006. The new total is the result of adding two new conflicts and removing one brief Middle Eastern clash.

{mosimage}The Social Investment Organization grades the Liberals and the Conservatives with a D and an F on the issue of transparency for investors in Canada's stock markets.

The SIO gives top marks to the Greens and Bloc Quebecois and places the NDP in the middle. The Greens rate an A+, the Bloc a B+ and the NDP a B-.

{mosimage}TORONTO - A retired Liberal MP who resigned from his party over its position on same-sex marriage says pro-life politicians in Ottawa pay a political price for their outspoken views.

Pat O’Brien, a former parliamentary secretary for the minister of international trade, represented the London-Fanshawe riding in Parliament from 1993 until 2005. That’s when he quit the Liberal Party and sat as an independent MP because he opposed the Liberal’s support of legalizing same sex marriage.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The church doesn’t have a mission. Christ’s mission has a church. For 90 years the Scarboro Missions have been convinced the mission comes first.

At 10 a.m., Nov. 9, at the mission society’s main chapel, 2685 Kingston Rd. in Scarborough, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins will lead a Mass of thanksgiving for the 90 years Scarboros have been serving Christ’s mission. The missionaries will give thanks for the likes of Scarboro founder Msgr. John Fraser, first North American priest to take on missionary work in China, and Fr. Art MacKinnon, killed in the Dominican Republic in 1965 for standing up against arbitrary arrest and torture of young men in his parish.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Franciscans have been remembering the death of St. Francis for nearly 900 years, and it’s still a family affair, said Franciscans of all kinds who gathered at St. Bonaventure Church in Toronto for the Transitus Oct. 3.

Celebrated by Franciscans around the world on the eve of the Feast of St. Francis, the Transitus liturgy re-enacts and remembers St. Francis’ passing from this world.