The Loretto Sisters’ pioneering legacy in Toronto’s early beginnings has come alive in a new citywide walking tour.

“Women in time to come will do much,” Mary Ward said 400 years ago, and for 175 years in Toronto, the Loretto Sisters have proved their founder a prophet.

The Loretto Sisters want some answers and some accountability from Canada’s largest for-profit operator of retirement homes and private long-term care facilities.

It took a trip to Peru for Grade 12 student Carolyn Lee to gain a new appreciation for her classroom in Toronto.

There are two types of foundations that support a cathedral like St. Michael’s. There is the stone and mortar laid by dedicated workers. And there is the foundation of faith that, in the case of Toronto’s mother church, was cemented by a fledgling Catholic population that included Loretto sisters who gave their lives to help establish the Church in Upper Canada.

In a nation where violence is no stranger to its youth, a group of Salvadoran teenagers stand as a hope for their country’s future.

TORONTO - Volunteering with the Loretto Sisters community in India is not an experience that students easily forget. For many participants in the program, the trip has a life-changing impact.

OTTAWA - Religious congregations and faith groups from across Canada have urged Canada’s finance minister to put a price on carbon emissions to combat climate change.

TORONTO - For 400 years Loretto Sisters have been working to raise the dignity of women. It started with girls’ schools in 17th-century England, but now the Sisters want to take on criminals who sell girls into sexual slavery.

“We have to read the signs of the times, so we have to say ‘What would (Loretto founder Mary Ward) think was needed now if she were here today?’ ” said Sr. Maria Lanthier, co-ordinator of a March 24 conference on human trafficking. “This is one of the biggest issues that keeps women down — trafficking. It’s the second biggest criminal industry in the world.”