Three 16-year-old Nicaraguan students’ had their dreams shattered as an all-expenses-paid trip to Canada ended before it began when they were denied visas to enter Canada.

“The day I got the phone call here in my office I sat here and cried, literally sat here and cried,” said Brenda Holtkamp, chaplaincy leader at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon, Ont., which had sponsored the Nicaraguans. “Not only was I sad for myself and all the students here in the school that worked so hard for this reality, I was really very said for the young people in Nicaragua who have never had the opporunity to travel, who were so close to being here . . . and just because of bureaucracy they were turned down.”

As a researcher, Katherine Bergman has an intense interest in the past. As the new president of St. Jerome������Ƶapp University, Bergman wants to talk about the future.

Bergman has been studying how southern Saskatchewan went from a giant lake to a semi-arid plain — that is “the transition of the Devonian Elk Point Basin from fully marine to desiccation.”

TORONTO - A heritage building being restored to its former glory on the Senator O'Connor College School campus was ravaged by a two-alarm blaze Wednesday afternoon.

Two staff members inside the school's library spotted thick black smoke billowing from the roof of the O'Connor House just before 3 p.m. One phoned 911 while the other notified the school office.

"They alerted me they had called 911 and then I pulled the fire alarm for the school," said principal Susan Baker.

TORONTO - Marino Gazzola, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association������Ƶapp (OCSTA) new president, said he will be working to defend and promote the Catholic school system during his two-year term.

Gazzola was chosen the trustees’ association president at its 82nd Annual General Meeting held in Kingston, Ont., April 26-28.

TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board's new three-year pastoral plan will focus on virtues of faith, hope and charity, one for each of the next three school years.

������Ƶapp 800 students, staff, parents and parish representatives from across the city were gathered inside the Montecassino Banquet Hall for the May 2 launch of Pastoral Plan: Faith, Hope and Charity. The plan aims to grow upon the areas of focus from the previous pastoral plan, word, worship and witness.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI called on America's Catholic colleges and universities to reaffirm their Catholic identity by ensuring orthodoxy in theological studies and accepting the oversight of bishops.

The Pope made his remarks May 5 to U.S. bishops from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming, who were making their periodic "ad limina" visits to the Vatican.

TORONTO - Frank Cosentino, who parlayed his start in coaching with the Catholic Youth Organization to the Canadian university ranks, will be honoured by York University for being the most successful football coach in school history.

The Toronto university will be holding a dinner to honour Cosentino on May 11.

“I’m honoured and very pleased that a group of people got together and thought I contributed something to their lives,” said Cosentino, a 10-year Canadian Football League quarterback, from his Eganville, Ont., home.

TORONTO - Toronto������Ƶapp St. Michael������Ƶapp College School is revamping its Senior Division 1 hockey program with the aim of improving student grades while maintaining a competitive hockey program.

“The program we had, as it was, wasn’t working because the student athletes were asked to juggle too many commitments,” said Paul Forbes, the midtown Toronto private Catholic school������Ƶapp athletic director, noting that many players were committed to the school team as well as their community team.

“The reality of it is that they don’t really have time to play for two competitive teams in this day and age.”

TORONTO - Two university level student leaders, yet to be chosen, will soon be the first of many to benefit from the elevation of the Toronto������Ƶapp archbishop to the College of Cardinals.

The University of St. Michael������Ƶapp College at the University of Toronto has created a scholarship fund in honour of Cardinal Thomas Collins, as well as to recognize “all the work he has already done to bring the Church and the faith closer together,” the school said in a statement. 

TORONTO - Six of the province������Ƶapp 21,000 principals were recognized April 27 by the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario for their contributions to the education community.

The 2012 Principal of the Year Award recipients are Nola Collins from the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board, Janet Demaiter from the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, Andrea Iserhoff from the Northeastern Catholic District School Board, Romolo Villani from the York Catholic District School Board, and Odilia Pariselli and Maria Pereira from the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

Selected by their respective principal associations, winners were honoured with a gala dinner and a spherical glass trophy.