News/Canada

Midazolam, administered under the tongue, can put a stop to seizures. It also puts a stop to thinking, awareness, all perception of self, the world, pain, anguish and fear.

EDMONTON  - Matthew Hysell became deaf after contracting spinal meningitis when he was 18 months old. He lives in a mostly silent world, but those who know Hysell describe him as a good listener, someone who pays attention to their concerns.

An innovative new program being launched in Ontario schools to discuss vocations is founded on a basic premise.

TORONTO - Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) is finally coming to Toronto.

To coincide with its 25th anniversary, CCO has entered into a partnership to bring the student-focused evangelization movement to Ryerson University starting in the 2013 fall semester.

“As a movement we are very excited to be invited into the archdiocese of Toronto,” said Dan Freeman, district director for Kingston, Ont. “The real excitement is just the opportunity to service Christ and influence the culture in a place as significant as Toronto but also Ryerson University.”

Since forming in 1988 on the University of Sasketchewan’s campus, CCO has spread coast to coast, from Dalhousie University in Halifax to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Ryerson will be the 10th campus to have a CCO ministry and the third in Ontario, joining Queen’s and Ottawa universities.

The new partnership came at the invitation of Cardinal Thomas Collins, the archbishop of Toronto.

“CCO is always on campus at the invitation of the local bishop,” said Freeman. “So in this case we were invited by Cardinal Collins to Ryerson because he deemed it to be the most appropriate location for our ministry.”

Oriana Bertucci, the director of Ryerson’s Catholic Campus Ministry, was thrilled by the announcement.

“We’re really excited because it is an opportunity for us to grow the number of people that are here to support the Catholic population at Ryerson,” she said.

Bertucci says there are 15 faith groups on campus and they currently account for about 25 per cent of the room bookings by the Ryerson Student Union.

“The RSU has been really supportive in realizing that this is a growing need on our campus,” she said, adding space is always a challenge in downtown Toronto. “They’ve worked with the university to find and renovate and open some additional space specifically for faith groups on campus.”

Freeman says the first step in launching CCO is becoming familiar with student needs.

“Our focus in the first months is going to be getting to know the students, who they are, where they come from, what their personal aspirations are, what programs they’re in. We’re going to be very much dependent on their experiences and their observations,” said Freeman. “There will be more strategical tactical goals after that. Leading faith studies and unrolling our programs.”

One of the first programs excpected is Discover Studies, essentially a Bible study, which focuses on a relationship with Jesus to remind students that, through Jesus Christ, Christians connect with God.

OTTAWA - A Hamilton, Ont., father battling to protect his children from anti- Christian indoctrination in the public schools says he is only seeking the same rights of religious accommodation like those already accorded Muslims.

Dr. Steve Tourloukis, a Greek Orthodox believer, is taking the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board to court, seeking a declarative ruling that recognizes his right to be informed when a classroom will be teaching curriculum contrary to his Christian faith, the right to have his children exempted from such teaching and an acknowledgement from the court of parents’ rights to educate their children.

What’s at stake is the “ability to influence the moral development of our children,” he said. “Education is a way to recruit child soldiers. In 20 years there will be no Christians left to fight the battle.” The school system is imposing an “unlearning process” on children to undermine the traditional beliefs they are taught at home.

Ahead of court appearances Nov. 21 and 22 in Hamilton, Tourloukis spoke in two Catholic venues in Ottawa Nov. 17, warning the same provincial equity and inclusiveness strategy is being foisted on Catholic schools.

Tourloukis said he is “heartbroken” about what has happened in Catholic schools, pointing to the province’s forcing gay-straight alliances upon the system in its equity legislation. Taking his children, aged six and eight, out of the public system and into the Catholic schools would not protect them from the kind of indoctrination he is already taking on.

“The Catholic schools are like the Vancouver safe injection site,” he said. “The drugs are the same but the needles are cleaner. As a parent, I want to choose what’s best for my kids, not what causes them the least harm.”

Tourloukis said he is only asking for the same religious accommodation that is accorded Muslims. Muslim students can be exempted from any school discussion of Christmas, Easter or Halloween, while their requests for special prayer time are accommodated as are requests to opt-out of gym for modesty reasons or out of music classes for religious reasons.

“I’m only asking for what other faiths receive,” he said.

The school board was not interested in learning about his concerns as a Christian, he said. Instead, he confronted a “bigoted stereotype” that paints Christians as homophobes.

The board is treating constitutional rights of religious freedom as if they are subject to the Ontario Equity Policy and not the other way around, he said. He said he was told it was too difficult for the board to inform him about when subject matter might come up.

Tourloukis decried the fact there is no organized inter-denominational effort to “stop this madness.”

“Our collective response as parents and as the Body of Christ has been pathetically underwhelming,” he said.

“We have failed to recognize our sacred responsibility to our children. I’m doing nothing heroic. These are my children for crying out loud. I will not be an accomplice in the corruption of my children.”

He pointed out Catholics should not blame their leaders. The gay community is excellent at organization and even though it is relatively small in number, when one speaks up politicians know many more stand behind them.

Tourloukis’ lawyer, Ottawa-based Albertos Polizogopoulos, said the court battle could cost $50,000, but could go up tenfold should the case end up at the Supreme Court of Canada.

More information about Tourloukis’ case can be found at www.defendingparents.com, which is raising money for similar parental rights cases elsewhere in Canada.

MARKHAM, ONT. - After a four-year process, and the amalgamation of four congregations, the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada have emerged.

“We have shifted in our identity from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hamilton, London, Peterborough and Pembroke and now we are the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada,” said Sr. Margo Ritchie, speaking via telephone from the order’s chapter in Markham, Ont., which ran from Nov. 18-24.

“Together, we feel that we can engage the crucial issues in a way that transforms us and the systems in our world and we could perhaps have a larger voice.”

The move actually brings the Sisters of St. Joseph closer to their origins, when there was only one congregation.

“So it’s a natural impulse for becoming one again. But there was an emerging energy in all of us to do something new and we felt we could be that better together.”

Ritchie believes the change will expand the sisters’ consciousness of who they are.

“And some of us may make choices to move if there is a particular job opening in another neighbourhood.”
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto and of Sault Ste. Marie were also a part of the four-year process but decided it was best for them to not take part in the amalgamation at this time.

That said, “All the congregations will continue to work together,” said Ritchie.

With approximately 300 sisters in the newly formed congregation, 137 sisters were in attendance at the chapter.

“People were very eager to be part of this new moment.”

At press time, the chapter had only undergone its initial two days which began exploring the direction the unified sisters will head in for the next four years. The “coalescing of various voices” discussed ecological justice, the growing disparity between the rich and the poor and indigenous rights, said Ritchie.

Sr. Sue Wilson said the conversation focused on the interconnected nature of the sisters’ lives.

“No matter what issue we try to take hold of — whether it’s poverty or environmental damage — you start to see how the issue is connected with our social systems, our economic systems, our political systems and environmental systems,” said Wilson. “So given the interconnected nature, we really see a lot of value in contemplative practice to get at that level of interconnection.”

Through this, the sisters will be better able to see root causes of injustice and how to bring about systemic change, she added.

Sr. Joyce Murray said the discussion tried to better understand what the needs of today mean for the ministry and mission of the sisters.

“We have always tried to respond to the needs around us at the moment and have always been conscious of currents in our world,” said Murray.

One of the objectives of the chapter is to formulate a new direction statement, said Ritchie.

“We’re really clear we don’t want a nice statement that gets framed and put on a wall,” she said. “We want to challenge ourselves.”

Ritchie, who held the position of congregational leader for the Sisters of St. Joseph of London as of press time, said the congregational leadership circle of five women was to be elected during the chapter, after The Register’s press time.

OTTAWA, Ontario - Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Msgr. Jose Bettencourt, a native of Portugal who grew up in Ottawa, as the Holy See's head of protocol.

Msgr. Bettencourt is only the second non-Italian to hold the position. The post had been held by Msgr. Fortunatus Nwachukwa, a Nigerian diplomat, who was named Nov. 12 as apostolic nuncio to Nicaragua.

"We are very proud of him and the honor the Holy Father has conferred on him in calling him to this charge," Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa said.

"He values his ties with his local church of Ottawa though his duties only permit a short stay at Christmas and a longer break over the summer months," the archbishop said. "He is invariably pleased to receive Canadians when I refer people to him and is kind to a fault."

In his position Msgr. Bettencourt is in charge of the protocol involving the Holy See's relationships with other states, from welcoming visiting heads of state at the airport to dealings with diplomats and ambassadors accredited to the Vatican.

His role includes overseeing how heads of state and others participate in ceremonies such as canonizations and consistories and ensuring that visitors to the Vatican are welcomed and relaxed.

Before his appointment, Msgr. Bettencourt worked closely in organizing papal audiences, briefing the pope and visiting bishops, heads of state and lay people for the visits.

He has served in the Vatican's Secretariat of State since 2002.

Born in 1962 in Velas, Azores, Portugal, Msgr. Bettencourt grew up in Ottawa, where he attended both elementary and secondary school. He graduated from the University of Ottawa before pursuing theological studies at Dominican College and St. Paul University, where he studied for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1993.

OTTAWA - Social conservatives, often blamed for election defeats like that of U.S. Republican Mitt Romney in the Nov. 6 American election, need to find better ways to stress the positives of their message if they want that to change, say members of a Canadian think tank.

“Statistics are on the side of social conservatives when we look at the outcomes for our children, for moms and dads, for families, and the negative consequences of abortion,” said Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) executive director Dave Quist.

But getting the message out is daunting in a climate where “the left has been way out in front” and most people do not engage in elections until the last weeks or days, he said.

As Republicans in the United States are analysing their election defeat, many pundits blame the social conservatives in the party for the loss. Media reports on gaffes made by several Republicans on abortion were plastered across headlines across the United States, and many believe helped President Barack Obama to his second-term as president.

It is no secret that most social conservatives are pro-life, and these views are deemed a liability in Canada. Quist noted abortion has been perceived by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the “third rail” of Canadian politics ever since Stockwell Day’s 2000 campaign where the openly Christian Day was painted as “scary” and ridiculed for his pro-life, creationist and evangelical beliefs.

Yet Quist pointed out “the abortion discussion is alive and well and perhaps thriving in many parts of the country.”

But Andrea Mrozek, IMFC research and communications director, said social conservative principles are about much more than abortion or opposition to same-sex marriage, though they have been “branded” that way. It is about the strength of civil society, promoting the common good and caring for families, the elderly and the vulnerable.

Mrozek predicted social conservative principles will become popular when Western social democracies, especially the United States and its $16-trillion debt and its yearly trillion-dollar deficits, hit the fiscal cliff “and government can’t fund programs any more and suddenly we have to get our act together.”

“When we contracted everything out to the government we did change our personal way of thinking that personal charity does not need to be done; somebody else takes care of that for me,” she said. “I’m alarmed by what I walk by on the street sometimes, that I think, well, someone else is going to take care of it.”

Social conservatives are used to supporting charities, such as crisis pregnancy centres, that receive no government dollars, she said. This kind of charitable impulse will be needed when government programs cannot be maintained, she said.

“If it crashed we’ll have a whole different conversation. People will either sink or swim and won’t have anybody to rescue them, except people who are prepared to reach out.”
IMFC communications strategist Eloise Cataudella, a Catholic from Toronto, spoke of the transformative nature of personal charity, both for the giver and the receiver. There’s a difference between the government’s social safety net and the giving of time and resources of a small charitable organization. Those who receive government help because they are unable to get a job might say “the government is taking care of me because they have been mandated to do so,” she said.
“This does not inspire the sense that the government cares for me as an individual,” she said. “A small organization, struggling to make ends meet, offers a sense of love behind that charity that is transformative and helps lift people out of poverty.”
Many are now “caught or stuck in a safety net,” she said.
While abortion remains one of the top issues identified with social conservatism, Harper has been able to “remain above the fray” as backbenchers in his caucus use private member’s business and other means to keep the abortion debate alive, Mrozek observed.
Harper’s strategy to push social conservatives aside “is one of the worst I’ve ever seen,” and “backfiring,” she said.
“These social conservative issues keep popping up and (Harper) has no way of dealing with it other than to say ‘stop’ or to use the resources of the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office)” to get Tory caucus members to vote against various Conservative private member’s bills or motions, such as MP Stephen Woodworth’s Motion 312 that would have investigated the personhood of the unborn child, she said.

A “culture of silence” and deference to “political conservatism” has infected the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), charges the head of the Jesuit-founded Centre Justice et Foi (Justice and Faith) in Montreal.

In an open letter to CCCB president Archbishop Richard Smith, Elisabeth Garant said the elimination of the CCCB’s post of senior advisor for social justice, delaying and blunting the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace’s fall education campaign, inviting Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney to a private meeting and not criticizing refugee policy reforms amount to a “serious step back away from the rich Church tradition of social justice.”

Garant’s letter will be on the agenda of the next CCCB executive committee meeting Nov. 27-28. Until then, the conference has chosen to make no comment.

Garant served five years as a member of the CCCB’s Commission on Justice and Peace. She accuses the bishops of cozying up to the Conservative government because, she said, the CCCB has not engaged the Canadian government on an issue of social justice since December 2010. At that time, Kenney dismissed a letter from the bishops’ justice and peace commission as another in “a long tradition of ideological bureaucrats who work for the bishops’ conference producing political letters signed by pastors who may not have specialized knowledge in certain areas of policy.”

“From that moment we observe a silence,” said Garant. “Why are we silent on things that are not our personal issues but that we think for the common good we need to talk about?”

She also questions the CCCB for laying off social justice advisor Francois Poitras in order to help get its finances in order.

CCCB General Secretary Msgr. Patrick Powers has said layoffs were necessary. “We have had to rethink the way we do things, to do more and to cost less,” he told Canadian Catholic News.

“When Msgr. Powers said that this responsibility (for social justice) will be spread among other lay people at the conference, I don’t know any of them who have the experience or the competence to deal with social justice,” she said.

Garant also disputes the CCCB’s explanation behind the delay of the Development and Peace fall campaign. In a joint letter, the CCCB and Development and Peace explained that the campaign was delayed and modified because “concern was expressed that elements of the original materials could be a source of division among bishops, priests, parishioners and donors.”

“They are saying they do that for the sake of some faithful who will be hurt,” said Garant. “There’s no real proof of what they are talking about.”

Garant has yet to receive acknowledgment of her letter from the CCCB or Smith. Smith was in Rome in early November.

Though the Centre Justice et Foi has autonomy, it remains a Jesuit apostolate with the full confidence of Canada’s French-speaking Jesuit fathers, said Garant.

OTTAWA - The federal government is soliciting ideas from the business and charitable sector on how to best solve intractable social problems such as homelessness, hunger and drug abuse.

“Here’s the straight talk: we can’t fund every single, solitary service that people want, without regard for the taxpayers’ ability pay for it,” Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley told a group of business and NGO leaders in Toronto Nov. 8.

“It’s time for us to unleash individual initiative so that those who are motivated can help others and those who need help are given the opportunity to take more responsibility to help themselves,” she told the fifth annual Social Finance Forum sponsored by MaRS, a pioneer organization bringing business and NGO leaders together to find innovative ways of tackling social issues.

Finley asked for ideas on how to leverage business and NGO expertise with government funding that would reward measurable results in achieving goals. The government also proposes rewarding “social finance” from the private sector in the form of Social Impact Bonds. These are contracts where the government agrees to pay a charity or NGO an amount of money if agreed upon results are achieved.

“Payment from the government is tied to program outcomes,” Finley said. “If — and only if — the agreed upon outcomes are achieved, the government pays the investors the agreed premium, as well as the original investment.”

Finley announced the launch of a web site to receive innovative ideas for tackling social needs at www.actionplan.gc.ca.

“This is an interesting model,” said Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) executive director Joe Gunn.

“Will it add anything to what we’re all doing to work against poverty?”

The projects likely to be taken on by the private sector would tend towards those which have more of a possibility of success, leaving behind more difficult projects where, over the short term, it is more difficult to see progress, he said.

Gunn challenged the view government programs do not work in addressing poverty. The CPJ’s Poverty Trends Scorecard — Canada 2012 released in October showed government intervention makes a difference, particularly in rates of seniors living in poverty. A generation ago 30 per cent of seniors lived in poverty, but after government programs targeted this issue, only five per cent of today’s seniors are poor, he noted. Single women with children are also faring better, he said.
It is good that the government recognizes the need charitable organizations and NGOs have for government support in accomplishing their missions, Gunn said, and he would like churches to push for higher levels of taxation to cover the cost.

“Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society and how we care for each other,” Gunn said, noting higher taxes could pay for better home care, pharmacare and other programs to bring about more equity. “I don’t think the private sector or charitable sector can get us there.”

Dave Quist, executive director of the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC), said Finley’s approach recognizes that charitable organizations can do a better job as they are more specialized in helping the downtrodden. But he warned rates of charity are declining as are rates of volunteerism. Families are under stress trying to pay the mortgage and buy groceries, he said, and parents often don’t have much free time.

Christians differ in how best to address social problems, he said, indicating some concern that big government programs and high levels of taxation have contributed to the decline in private charitable giving and volunteering.

There is a “social gospel” view that looks to generously financed social programs that has prevailed in Canada, he said. Other Christians, such as those who are centreright, support a more capitalist or free-enterprise approach that sees the best solution to poverty in supporting conditions that help people get a good paying job, he said. “We look at the same problem but through different lenses,” said Quist. “The best poverty program is a good job and we see that in family life. When mom and dad have a stable income that family is much more stable; their marriage is much more stable. That doesn’t mean giving them money, but allowing them the dignity of meeting their own needs.”

Many Western countries have realized their generous social programs are not sustainable, he said.