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For 25 years, St. Philip Neri Parish has been a “sanctuary” for the Hispanic Catholic community in Toronto.

On June 25 and 26, the parish will celebrate this quarter century with a two-day conference on “The Living Eucharistic Presence of Jesus.” The conference, entirely in Spanish, will feature Guatemalan preachers Rev. Oscar Gracias and Juan Ramón Martinez Hernandez, and coincides with the feast of Corpus Christi.

“That is the centre of our life,” said organizer Ignacio Mateo of the feast and the theme it inspired for the conference. “We gather as Latin-American people, and we gather for one reason — the blessed sacrament, the holy Eucharist. That is the reason we are united, why we live.”

Both days of the conference will include the rosary, Mass, and a procession of the blessed sacrament. The first day will focus on four themes — the Old Testament,  Church life, education, as well as life, healing and liberation — in relation to the Eucharist. The speakers will address these themes and, on the second day, focus on unity and family within the Eucharist.

OAKVILLE, ONT. - It began with children writing to WW II war veterans and families of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Five years later, the letter-writing efforts of Grade 7 and 8 students at St. Dominic Catholic Elementary School has led to a memorial for Canadian soldiers highlighting Halton������Ƶapp “Veteran������Ƶapp Highway.” It is Oakville������Ƶapp first memorial to include veterans from Canada������Ƶapp mission in Afghanistan.

The Bronte Veterans Garden, located within Donovan Bailey Park, officially opened June 14 with the unveiling of two plaques placed at the base of a tree in memory of Cpl. Robert James Mitchell and Private Paul Parkin. Poppies will be planted between the plaques and a flower bed shaped like the Canadian flag will be grown at the garden.

Mitchell������Ƶapp mother, Carol, visited the school from Owen Sound, Ont. after receiving letters and posters from St. Dominic������Ƶapp students. Cpl. Mitchell died in Afghanistan in 2006. Other students wrote to Parkin, a World War II veteran and prisoner of war, to show their support and thank him for his service. Parkin, an Oakville resident who died in 2009, spent his last two Remembrance Days with the students at the school.

TORONTO - After more than two years in prison, long-time pro-life activist Linda Gibbons was freed on June 3.

The 62-year-old great grandmother was in jail for the past 28 months for picketing a Toronto abortion clinic and violating a nearly two decades-old court injunction.

Gibbons was set free after Ontario Court Justice Mara Beth Greene granted her lawyer������Ƶapp application requesting that she be released without conditions. She was issued a summons to attend court on Jan. 15, 2012.

Gibbons has always refused to sign a bail condition that orders her to abide by a 1994 temporary injunction barring pro-life activists from picketing, sidewalk counselling and interfering with access to abortion services or the “economic interests” of downtown Toronto clinics. But Gibbons has chosen to disobey by peacefully picketing outside abortion clinics. This has led to her 20 arrests for various Criminal Code offences leading to her spending 10 of the past 17 years in jail.

TORONTO - When Canada������Ƶapp first Jesuits, Frs. Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé, arrived 400 years ago, the ship they were sailing was called the Grace of God. As William Mbugua and Michael Knox were ordained by Ottawa������Ƶapp Jesuit Archbishop Terrence Prendergast June 4, the two new Jesuit priests found themselves in the same boat.

Prendergast called the two young priests “Fresh hope for the mission of the Jesuits today.”

With dozens of Jesuits present from all over North America, Knox and Mbugua stood up and lay down for the same ordination. But they came from vastly different starting places.

Toronto boy Knox entered the novitiate in 1997 at 18, straight out of Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts. Mbugua started off in small-town Kenya and worked his way to the University of Manitoba where his encounter with Canadian Jesuits  changed his life.

TORONTO - Providence Healthcare has named Josie Walsh its new President and CEO.

Walsh has more than 30 years of experience as a registered nurse, with many of those years in hospital management. Walsh joined Providence Healthcare in 2001 as Vice-President and Chief Nurse Executive. She is a Certified Health Executive with the Canadian College of Health Leaders.

Walsh will be at the helm of Providence Healthcare during the second year of its five-year strategic plan called “Time to Shine.” Walsh said the plan involves “developing strong partnerships to our care hospitals and community care access hospitals.”

TORONTO - Children at 13 parishes in Toronto are learning the basics of the faith in a language that they understand.

The young catechism students take part in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a ministry that originated in Rome in 1954 and has been catching on in Catholic parishes across North America. Scriptural scholar Sofia Cavaletti founded the approach and teamed with Gianni Gobbi, a Montessori education specialist, to develop an experiential and hands-on approach of learning for children.

“We meet them intellectually, spiritually, emotionally where they are,” said Kathleen Ennis, co-ordinator of the archdiocese of Toronto������Ƶapp Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

The catechesis emphasizes sacraments like Baptism and First Communion, and Jesus’ life, teachings and the mystery of the Resurrection.

TORONTO - On May 28, more than 10 years of progress came to fruition for the Toronto Chaldean community, as the Good Shepherd Chaldean Church was officially consecrated.

The Saturday evening consecration — meaning that the parish is now officially allowed to conduct spiritual activities including holy Mass — marked the end of a long process for the largest congregation of Chaldeans in Canada. It was followed by a Sunday Mass celebrated by Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the patriarch of the global Chaldean Catholic Church, which is an Eastern Church in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

“This was a very significant event for us,” said Deacon Wamid Shamoon. “Since building this church in 2001, the community… we were all waiting for this moment.”

TORONTO - An exhibit featuring a hand-written and illustrated biblical Scroll of Esther highlights the “bridge” between Christianity and Judaism, says Toronto-based scribe Laya Crust.

Crust wrote the Hebrew text of the Scroll of Esther on animal parchment using historical tools and materials. The scroll features 16 columns of Hebrew text and 32 full-colour illustrations in the style of 16th-century Persian art bringing to life the ancient story of Queen Esther. The exhibit opened at Toronto������Ƶapp University of St. Michael������Ƶapp College May 18 and runs until June 18.

“It was a very exciting and a wonderful way to connect with the (biblical) text and wonderful to know that it������Ƶapp an ecumenical text that������Ƶapp embraced by the Christian faith, by Christians around the world, as well as by Jews and has that additional bridge of religion and God,” Crust told The Catholic Register.

The following is a list of the clergy appointments for the Archdiocese of Toronto that take effect on June 30. Listed is the priest������Ƶapp name and the parish they will serve.

TORONTO - The United States failed the most basic test of the Golden Rule in its reaction to the 9/11 attacks, but killing Osama bin Laden could be justified on the basis of the do-unto-others rule, Fr. Harry Gensler told a gathering of Golden Rule enthusiasts at Scarboro Missions May 11.

The Jesuit author of 14 books on ethics and logic would have preferred that bin Laden be captured. And the American priest is appalled by celebrations over his death. But an argument for killing bin Laden could be made using the Golden Rule as a starting point, he said.

“You have to be able to say that if I do all those things, the acts of terror, etc., then I’m willing that I should be killed,” said Gensler, a philosophy professor at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

On the broader question of all of the ways the United States has employed its military in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, America can’t claim a Golden Rule justification for its actions, according to Gensler.