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TORONTO - A Toronto parishioner who wishes to remain anonymous has committed to matching up to $650,000 of donations collected during ShareLife������Ƶapp 2012 campaign.

“We have a parishioner in the archdiocese  of Toronto who has come forward to offer to match all new and increased gifts to the ShareLife campaign this year,” said ShareLife������Ƶapp executive director Arthur Peters. “This person������Ƶapp only goal is to see the campaign succeed.”

TORONTO - Cardinal Thomas Collins was big news over the two weeks leading up to his elevation to the College of Cardinals.

Every major news organization in Canada covered the event in Rome with news reports, analysis, feature interviews, photos, videos and live blogging. Canada������Ƶapp largest newspaper kicked its coverage off with a two-part profile of Collins that ate up pages of precious newsprint.

“It was acres, wasn’t it?” said Toronto Star associate editor Alison Uncles. “It was thousands of words.”

TORONTO - Assassinated Pakistani minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti gave his life for human rights, freedom and democracy. And to mark the one-year anniversary of his death, family, friends and supporters will gather to mark his legacy.

On March 2, International Christian Voice — the Toronto-based human rights organization run by Peter Bhatti, Shahbaz������Ƶapp brother — is holding a memorial dinner at the Woodbine Banquet and Convention Centre in Toronto. Among those expected to be in attendance are Cardinal Thomas Collins, retired Pakistani Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha, who now lives in Toronto, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, along with representatives from human rights organizations and community leaders.

TORONTO - Fr. Tom McKillop, who dedicated much of his life to youth ministry, passed away in Toronto Feb. 15. He was in his 84th year, his 48th year in the priesthood.

"I was on fire with enthusiasm, I had finally found my niche," Fr. McKillop was quoted as saying in The Shepherds' Trust newsletter about his work with youth.

TORONTO - One of the most persistent voices for religious engagement in every public debate in Canada, a scholar and a popularizer of modern Scripture scholarship has died. Rabbi Gunther Plaut was 99 when he passed away Feb. 8.

Many Toronto Catholics will remember his column in The Globe and Mail through the 1970s and '80s. But Rabbi Plaut was also famous for one of the most widely read commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures. The Torah: A Modern Commentary has been through 13 printings and was last revised in 2005. It has sold almost 120,000 copies.

TORONTO - Catholics in the Greater Toronto Area are being invited to pray and celebrate with Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins when he returns from Rome as Canada������Ƶapp newest cardinal.

Collins and 20 other bishops were to be elevated to the  College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI at a Feb. 18 ceremony in St. Peter������Ƶapp Basilica.

The local celebrations will begin Feb. 29 at a High Pontifical Mass at Toronto������Ƶapp St. Michael������Ƶapp Cathedral to be followed by a luncheon at a nearby hotel ballroom. Due to the space limitations at the cathedral, these events are by invitation only.

TORONTO - While Syrians endure shelling and sniper fire from their government, Iraqi refugees among them are hunkered down in the Sayyida Zainab neighbourhood of Damascus hoping they can get out before things get much worse.

“If you stay away from any mass demonstrations, stay away from any political activity, if you stay in your neighbourhood, in your church where the Iraqi refugees are, nobody will target you,” is the advice the Office of Refugees, Archdiocese of Toronto (ORAT) is giving hundreds of Iraqi refugees that Toronto parishes and religious communities have sponsored to come to Canada.

TORONTO - At their peak in the 1960s, the Sisters of Service had 125 members. But with their numbers down to 20, the congregation decided it was time to plan for their future. For help, they turned to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto.

On Jan. 25, the Sisters of Service and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto signed a sponsorship agreement wherein the Sisters of St. Joseph will now be responsible for the management and governance of the congregation of the Sisters of Service as long as a Sister of Service lives.

TORONTO - Black History Month this year is an opportunity for Catholic parishes and schools in Canada to discover Our Lady of Kibeho's message of prayer, conversion and reconciliation, said Jesuit Father William Mbugua at a Black History Month Mass at downtown Toronto's Our Lady of Lourdes parish Feb. 5.

"We have something good to share," said Mbugua. "We are not just victims of our history. We have to ask, what is it that God has given us, even in the midst of suffering?"

In 1981 Our Lady of Kibeho began to appear to high school girls in Rwanda. In his homily, Mbugua urged about 300 gathered for the Sunday evening Mass to share the story of the Vatican-endorsed apparitions in rural Rwanda 30 years ago.

TORONTO - Spiritan Father Edward Graham, who taught for many years in Spiritan schools, passed away Jan. 26 at the age of 88. He was in his 62nd year of the priesthood with the Spiritans.

“He was a brilliant person,” said Fr. Paul McAuley, a fellow Spiritan who had known him for about 30 years. “He was very kind and lived very simply.”