NEWS

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - An international gathering of Catholics to focus on the Eucharist would be missing something essential if there were no sacrament of Reconciliation.

To that end, Quebec City's exposition grounds, where the 49th International Eucharistic Congress is taking place all week, were turned into a massive “City of Forgiveness” June 19 in order to prepare the hearts of the faithful for the Eucharist. Hundreds of priests heard countless confessions, seated in nooks and crannies around the Expo City, and thousands of pilgrims availed themselves of the sacrament.

{mosimage}TORONTO - After retiring from the priesthood, Fr. Edwin Platt had his connection with Corpus Christi parish come full circle when he was appointed interim administrator of the parish in Toronto’s Beach area. He was now running the parish that he had grown up in.

That was one of the highlights of Platt’s 60 years in the priesthood, which was celebrated June 8 at Corpus Christi Church. A Mass of celebration attended by Auxiliary Bishop Peter Hundt, current pastor Fr. Henry Menezes and his brother Fr. Phillip Wallace Platt, CSB, was celebrated and then about 400 friends and relatives joined in the parish hall to congratulate the 86-year old priest. 

{mosimage}TORONTO - Events and features for the World Youth Day 2008 Ontario Regional Celebration at the Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, Ont., keep adding on.

This event, organized by the Office of Catholic Youth, is meant to serve those unable to attend WYD festivities in Sydney Australia. It will take place July 17-20, and will host the icon of St. Paul. This icon was commissioned for the year of St. Paul by Archbishop Thomas Collins to be displayed in different parishes in the archdiocese of Toronto.

{mosimage}When G8 leaders meet in Japan July 7-9, they won’t be alone with their diplomatic and economic advisors. Fifty-nine religious leaders, including Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ president Archbishop James Weisgerber, will be in Japan tackling the same agenda.

It will be the second Religious Leaders Summit held in parallel with a G8 Summit. At Cologne in 2007 the religious leaders pointed out that the world’s leading economies were not on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and that sub-Saharan Africa has been left out of the benefits of globalization.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Fr. Pier Giorgio di Cicco wants everybody to get out of the house and play. He swears it will be good for us.

The “play” he’s talking about is the ordinary creativity of living with neighbours, friends, family — even strangers. It is a form of creativity which creates “civil encounter,” he said.

It should not be suprising that here in Quebec City, the cradle of Christendom in North America, that the liturgies have been surpassingly beautiful. There is a veritable cornucopia of worship services to attend, from the large daily Masses in the Pepsi Colliseum at the Expo City to the Adoration chapels, to the many Vespers and prayer services that happen daily at many of Quebec's historic churches.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - Pilgrims who venture away from the International Eucharistic Congress grounds in this city are getting some living lessons in church history — almost 400 years of it.

Quebec City is celebrating the fourth centennial of its founding in 2008. And since the Catholic Church was there in the earliest years of this colony of France, it too is looking back into its own history and finding much to be proud of.

Looking for bright young, spirited and inspirational priests? In despair because you believe the media mantra about the dying priesthood? Have a little faith. They're out there, believe me. I keep tripping over them, especially here at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City.

{mosimage}QUEBEC CITY - Human beings may be fallible but the Catholic Church as an institution remains sanctified through the Eucharist, says Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J.

And it is this sanctified institution that always deserves defending, even if its individual members err, the archbishop of Buenos Aires and primate of Argentina explained in a large catechesis session here at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress June 18.

{mosimage}ORLANDO, Fla. - Declaring that stem-cell research does not present a conflict between science and religion, the U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved a statement June 13 calling the use of human embryos in such research “gravely immoral” and unnecessary.

In the last vote of the public session of their June 12-14 spring general assembly in Orlando, the bishops voted 191-1 in favour of the document titled “On Embryonic Stem-Cell Research: A Statement of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. ”