NEWS

{mosimage}HAMILTON, Ont. - Matthew Francis Ustrzycki says there was basically one reason he decided to become a priest and go on to serve in that vocation for 48 years, including 22 as auxiliary bishop of Hamilton diocese: “I guess I fell in love with Jesus.”

{mosimage}MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - The golfers spent six hours slapping a ball with a stick on a steamy July 9 to raise $92,000 in the annual Classic Golf Tournament sponsored by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. The money will help send up to 900 seven-to-13-year-old boys to summer camp.

{mosimage}The highly publicized accusations of adultery against Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe’s well-known opponent to the harsh regime of President Robert Mugabe, are just another part of the president’s campaign to discredit one of his most powerful critics.

{mosimage}ROME - Anoverwhelming victory for Turkey’s ruling Islamic-oriented party should be a “positive thing” for the nation’s Catholics, said Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic administrator of Anatolia, Turkey.

{mosimage}The moment for Canada to beat its own swords into ploughshares, to transform its own spears into pruning hooks and to work so that nation shall not lift up sword against nation may have finally arrived with the defection of a former chair of Amnesty International into Canada’s nascent Catholic peace camp.

TORONTO - In July 1964, young Carmelina Tarantino arrived in Toronto from Liveri, Italy, seeking medical treatment for an aggressive form of cancer. When she was permanently admitted to Toronto’s Riverdale Hospital in 1969, her prognosis was grim: she was expected to live six months. Eight years later, Carmelina made her profession of faith and became Sr. Carmelina of the Passionist Sisters of the Cross.

{mosimage}CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The lawyer for Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo said his client will deny in court allegations of adultery that are part of a “well-orchestrated campaign” to discredit him.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - A recent Canadian Press-Decima Research Poll shows Canadians are divided on the role God played — or did not play — in the creation of humans. But that does not mean the evolution vs. creationism controversy raging in the United States will come to Canada.

{mosimage}LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles archdiocese July 15 announced the largest church settlement of sexual abuse lawsuits to date, agreeing to pay more than 500 alleged victims a total of $660 million U.S.

John Paul II was a bridge to young people

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I will never forget the scenes in Rome surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005. More than half the crowd of four million-plus people that descended upon Rome were young people from every part of the world. Such a thing would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.