TORONTO - It appears most Catholic school boards in Ontario are on board with the province's plans to vaccinate girls against the HPV virus. It's predicted the vaccine will reduce cervical cancer rates by 70 per cent.

{mosimage}TORONTO - When Michael Schmidt and Vanessa Nicholas got engaged they decided they wanted to symbolize their commitment ethically — with a socially and ecologically just ring.

JANUARY

• Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi criticizes the execution of Iraq’s deposed leader, Saddam Hussein, saying it could ignite more violence in the wartorn nation.


• The Ontario Court of Appeal accords equal rights to three parents in a child custody case — the biological parents and the mother’s lesbian partner. The Alliance for Marriage and Family says the ruling is the latest step to redefine traditional understandings of family.


• Kingston Archbishop Anthony Meagher dies after his courageous four-year battle against cancer. Bishops, clergy and Catholics heap praise and admiration upon Archbishop Meagher after hearing the news.


• The federal government announces $270 million in funding over the next two years for the fight against homelessness, the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative, as well as $256 million for repairs to housing for low-income earners and the disabled.

 

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{mosimage}While the original Santa Claus has been morphed into the secularized patron saint of shopping malls, some people are trying to peel away the layers of gift wrap to reveal the true St. Nick.

{mosimage}TORONTO - “To legalize euthanasia changes the way we understand ourselves, human life and its meaning,” said Margaret Somerville.

TORONTO - The movement against euthanasia and assisted suicide will have the greatest impact if a secular face replaces a religious one, say advocates.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Doctors, politicians, Christian clergy, disability rights activists and medical students among others from across Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia are joining forces to reverse the growing push to legalize euthanasia and assisted-suicide.

{mosimage}Twice a week Margaret Aitken can be found praying at 2 a.m. in a small stone church in the village of Rockwood, Ont.

GUELPH, Ont. - Jesuit Father Jim Profit wants everyone to have a merry, metric Christmas. He’s selling square metres of Christmas spirit for $20.

{mosimage}In 1952, Canadian and American culture collided over an unlikely cleric — Bishop Fulton Sheen. It was the dawn of the TV era and Sheen's Life is Worth Living had made him the most watched priest on television in the United States. But in Canada, for several years the CBC refused to broadcast the program. Find out why in this podcast of the Eighth Annual Somerville Lecture on Christianity and Culture.

This lecture was presented Nov. 6 at the Newman Centre, in the University of Toronto campus. It featured Dr. Mark McGowan, principal of the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto. He is well-known for his analysis of church affairs and as author of Waning of the Green: Catholics, the Irish and Identity in Toronto, and Michael Power: The Struggle to Build the Catholic Church on the Canadian Frontier.

The Somerville lecture is sponsored by The Catholic Register in co-operation with the St. Jerome's Lectures in Catholic Experience and the Newman Centre.