{mosimage}With Montreal being home to the largest population of Haitians in Canada, the archdiocese of Montreal’s response to the Haiti earthquake has been four-fold.

First was Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte’s immediate call to prayer and action on the very day of the Jan. 12 humanitarian catastrophe. Next was the support and active promotion of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace’s fundraising campaign, which in two weeks had raised almost $2 million.

{mosimage}The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace was on target to surpass $1 million in aid donations one week after Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

“We’re doing about $100,000 a day, so we’re doing very well,” said Development and Peace spokesperson Jasmine Fortin. “We hope it stays up.”

{mosimage}MONTREAL - Just 73 years after his death, Brother André will become the first Canadian-born man elevated to sainthood.

The news of his Oct. 17 canonization, one of six announced by Pope Benedict XVI Feb. 19, was met with elation by the members of the church in Montreal.

{mosimage}A new Christian radio station in the Ottawa-Gatineau region could be on the airwaves some time this year, as long as the $100,000 price tag for broadcasting doesn’t stand in the way.

On Sept. 23, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved a request for the archdiocese of Gatineau to broadcast French language programming from Radio Ville-Marie , a station based in Montreal.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Two hundred people gathered to network and talk about fostering a culture of vocations at the National Association of Vocation and Formation Directors bi-annual conference March 14-17 in Toronto.

The “Let our Lives Speak” Vocations Alive Conference welcomed representatives from close to 150 religious groups and several lay groups — namely the Serran Foundation of Canada , the Catholic Women’s League , Canadian Catholic Campus Ministry and Catholic Christian Outreach . NAVFD’s focus in the past two years has been on encouraging its members to help young people discern not only the priesthood and religious life but also the married and single life.

TORONTO - Food forms a relationship between people, the Earth and God and thus should be a spiritual experience from production to consumption.

Fr. Jim Profit, S.J., underscored this message during an evening of Lenten reflection hosted at the Newman Centre by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace and Faith Connections March 8.

{mosimage}The canonization of Br. André next October should serve as a wake-up call for the Catholic Church in Quebec, said Fr. Alain Faubert, assistant to the vicar general of the Montreal archdiocese.

“I hope we would seize the moment and re-propose the faith to our society — not just to those who attend our Sunday liturgies and our other activities, but also to the larger public of all origins and spiritual traditions,” Faubert said.