������Ƶapp

Young and Catholic? That's not good enough for the latest Catholic youth group to start up in English-speaking Canada. For YouFra, the youth wing of the Secular Franciscans, you have to want to change the world — starting with yourself.

"It's about being with and being together and doing together," said YouFra member Kendal Freeman.

The 24-year-old master's student at Antioch University in New Hampshire was attracted to YouFra because she found in St. Francis somebody willing to talk about how the world is and how the world should be.

TORONTO - More low-income people are using parts of the health care system that are under the most stress, including the emergency departments and mental health services, a recent study from Toronto������Ƶapp St. Michael������Ƶapp Hospital has found.

“Mental health is very common in our society and we have very little outpatient care and very little community care relative to what������Ƶapp actually needed for the population,” said Dr. Rick Glazier, one of the lead authors of the study. 

TORONTO - The bell tower of St. Peter������Ƶapp Church in downtown Toronto may be crumbing, but Angela Barbieri hopes the parish������Ƶapp generosity of spirit still remains strong.

Barbieri is heading up a fundraising campaign in hopes of raising the $400,000 necessary for the repairs to the 87-year-old church. The bell tower was in such dire need of repair that the archdiocese of Toronto has loaned the church half of that amount to begin the work right away.

Scaffolding now surrounds the tower as workers have begun the repairs to the church.

The following are the clergy appointments for the archdiocese of Toronto which take place on June 27, unless otherwise noted.

TORONTO - Heavy rain that wreaked havoc on Toronto May 31 wasn’t enough to deter thousands from lining up outside St. Maria Goretti Church for a chance to spend 30 seconds with a relic of the parish������Ƶapp patron saint.

“The church was jammed from the beginning to the end,” said pastor Fr. Edwin Galea. “We expected a good level of interest but we were fairly overwhelmed by the extent of interest. It was far beyond our imagination.”

TORONTO - Former Rogers Sportsnet host Damian Goddard is accustomed to talking into a camera. But with the lights temporarily shut off on his TV career he is looking forward to telling his story to a live audience.

Goddard will be a featured speaker at the Toronto Pro-Life Forum 2012 to be held June 15-16 at Hotel Novotel in Toronto.

Goddard was fired by Sportsnet, part of Rogers Media, in May 2011 after he tweeted support for hockey agent Todd Reynolds������Ƶapp position against gay marriage. Rogers says the firing was unrelated to Goddard������Ƶapp tweet. A year later, still seeking fulltime employment in the broadcast industry, Goddard stands behind his words.

An estimated 600 people packed a downtown Toronto square on May 31 before marching to Queen's Park to protest the Ontario Liberal government's Bill 13.

"We are here to make a very public statement against the absolutely totalitarian legislation called Bill 13," said Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Catholics. "Dalton McGuinty has set before us a choice between liberty and tyranny. It's requiring the Catholic Church to violate its religious beliefs in many respects."

The bitter history of Canada's attempt to wipe out aboriginal culture through a system of Church-run schools has come to Canada's largest and most invisible Native community — and it's biggest city.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is meeting with 600 delegates, including about 100 residential school survivors, in downtown Toronto at a May 31 to June 2 community-organized event called The Meeting Place, a name that freely translates the Mohawk word ktaronto, which eventually became the name of the city. There are about 80,000 aboriginal Canadians — Metis, Indian and Inuit — living in Toronto.

TORONTO - The dream of a cross-country Canadian Pax Christi organization is alive in Toronto, but struggling to find a foothold elsewhere.

Since the Toronto group of about 30 dedicated peace activists won the right to be called Pax Christi — Toronto it has received all kinds of inquiries about its work, but the group has struggled to translate that interest into membership.

“We’re getting more people interested,” said founding member Deacon Steve Barringer.

A suspected pipe bomb thrown through a window at 3:45 a.m. set off sprinklers and filled Brampton������Ƶapp St. Jerome������Ƶapp Church with smoke Tuesday, May 29.

There are early reports that one person was treated for smoke inhalation and the bomb squad was called in. Police sent a robot into the church to investigate a suspicious package. The explosive device was put in a secure container to be detonated later.