TORONTO - A 13-hour flight to Toronto was nothing after three years spent living as refugees in Amman, Jordan, as an Armenian Orthodox family from Aleppo, Syria, launched its Canadian odyssey.

TORONTO - To curb the commercialization of Christmas, Alice Chan has made a tradition of volunteering with her two sons over the Christmas holidays.

TORONTO - A renovated four-bedroom house in Riverdale recently sold for $2.1 million. Half of 176 houses sold in the Toronto neighbourhood earlier this year went for more than $716,000. The traffic on the neighbourhood streets is backed up with high-end Mercedes, Lexuses and other exotic brands. Coffee in the neighbourhood will set you back the better part of a $5 bill.

TORONTO - Syria’s civil war has seen families pulling their children out of school as they escape the growing violence and persecution in the area. Many have not been back to school since the war started in 2012.

Among the first planeload of Syrian refugees to land at Toronto Pearson International Airport around 9 p.m. Dec. 10, at least one family has made it to Canada thanks to Catholic refugee sponsorship.

TORONTO -  St. Michael’s Cathedral will soon be filled with Christmas worshippers but in the early days of Advent the empty church is in the care of artists and craftsmen whose skilled hands are restoring the cathedral to it former splendour.

TORONTO - For many Torontonians, regardless of religion, the St. Michael’s Choir School Christmas concert marks the beginning of the excitement and anticipation surrounding the Christmas season.

TORONTO - Toronto area Catholics are getting new destinations of pilgrimage with the designation of seven Holy Doors in parishes across the archdiocese for the upcoming Year of Mercy.

Members of Toronto’s jazz community are coming together for one night of swingin’ and scattin’ to help end violence against women and their families.

TORONTO - Almost 20 years after his death, the extent of Fr. Henri Nouwen’s influence in the Catholic community is still being discovered.

A year ago, Patrick was a struggling Grade 2 student in Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic school system. But after switching to a private school in September he is thriving in an environment that his mother says is smaller and more attentive to individual needs.

TORONTO - About 150 high school students took to the streets of Toronto to answer the annual A Catholic Call to Serve (ACCTS).

Eagle River, Alaska, is a wilderness paradise with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and clear rivers. In the 1970s it was a remote town where the closest grocery store was an hour’s drive on a partially paved road. It was the ideal location to inspire a young woman to pursue a career in wildlife biology.

TORONTO - Limitless is the word to describe the future of the Catholic Church after downtown Toronto was witness to more than 1,600 youth in prayer and celebration at the second annual Steubenville Toronto conference.

Steubenville Toronto is Canada's largest Catholic youth conference. More than 1,500 youths will be at Roy Thomson Hall from Aug. 7-9, celebrating our God who is limitless.

Youth Speak News reporters Chanelle Robinson, Bianca Reátegui and Danielle Sequeira will be reporting live keynote speeches, workshops, worship concerts and everything in between. Stay on top of our daily coverage by following the links below.

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