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TORONTO - Secularization influence has reached not only into the religious sphere, but also health care, Toronto Auxiliary Bishop William McGrattan told an audience of about 50 people at the annual Cardinal Ambrozic lecture March 24.

"At the outset of our reliance and dependance on rational thought we attribute to the Enlightenment, certain forces have gradually eroded not only the authority of religion, but also social groups," said McGrattan. "Social groups such as health care professionals and medicine."

McGrattan discussed the relationship between health care and Catholic spirituality at the annual lecture, hosted by the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute. The lecture took place at the University at St. Michael's College.

And secularization has influenced our concept of spirituality at its very core, he said.

TORONTO - Twenty theology professors and librarians at Toronto������Ƶapp University of St. Michael������Ƶapp College have won a slam-dunk ruling from the Ontario Labour Relations Board unionizing the faculty and obliging the college to negotiate a first contract.

The ruling not only recognized the St. Michael������Ƶapp College profs as unionized workers seeking a contract, but ruled that all 2,600-plus faculty at the University of Toronto are in fact union members.

Before the March 17 ruling, the University of Toronto Faculty Association wasn’t formally a union, even though it negotiated minimum work conditions for university teachers and librarians, including pay, academic freedom, research and study leaves, workload, etc.

“What the board is really saying is that the nature of the relationship between the parties has the essential characteristics of a relationship between an employer and a union,” said Canadian Association of University Teachers executive director James Turk.

TORONTO - Catholic scholars will gather at Regis College March 31 and April 1 to discuss Pope Benedict XVI������Ƶapp Verbum Domini, the results of the October 2008 General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

The apostolic exhortation was dedicated to the Word of God in the life and the mission of the Church.

Sponsored by Regis College and Salt + Light Television, “Word of God: Light of Love” will include keynote speakers Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins, Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., London Bishop Ronald Fabbro, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.

TORONTO - The ShareLife parish campaign kicked off Ash Wednesday with a goal of increasing donations by 2.5 per cent to help with the ever-growing calls for help.

Coming on the heals of last year������Ƶapp record-breaking campaign, this year the fundraising arm of the archdiocese of Toronto������Ƶapp annual campaign goal is to at least match last year������Ƶapp total of $14.3 million, including $12.3 million from the parish campaign.

“The repercussions of the economic downturn are still being seen in the community,” said Bill Steinburg, communications manager at ShareLife. “There are a number of people who were able to get by for so long that are now in a position that they’re close to the end of their own resources — their safety net.”

Marie Wilson will be the keynote speaker at Regis College������Ƶapp second annual Martin Royackers Lecture on April 6.

A commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission examining Indian residential schools, Wilson will speak on “Fostering Cultural Reconciliation in Canada: Healing Relations with Aboriginal Peoples through Truth-telling.” It takes place at 7 p.m. in Regis’ St. Joseph Chapel. Fr. Gordon Rixon, S.J., dean of Regis College, said Wilson was invited to reflect upon “what it means to go forward, prepare people in ministry in the Church, post-residential school in Canada.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 2008 as part of the court-approved Residential Schools Settlement Agreement negotiated between legal counsel for former students, legal counsel for the government of Canada, the churches that ran the schools, the Assembly of First Nations and other aboriginal organizations. It is set to complete its work in 2013.

TORONTO - More than 500 members of the Toronto Irish community applauded Norita Fleming as she was chosen Irish Person of the Year at a Hilton Hotel luncheon on March 6.

“I was stunned when I heard — and felt very humble,” said Fleming.

Fleming emigrated to Canada in the mid-1960s where she soon met her husband, Bill. They went on to raise four children in Toronto.

She became one of the founders of the County Cork Association Toronto. As an active member of St. Cecilia������Ƶapp parish in Toronto, she worked on the St. Patrick������Ƶapp Day Mass Committee. She headed up the World Youth Day committee at her present parish, St. Luke������Ƶapp in Thornhill, where she arranged billeting for large groups of pilgrims arriving in Toronto. As one speaker put it, “After that there was no stopping her.”

TORONTO - Toronto's Japanese Catholic Community was relieved and consoled by the opportunity to pray together for their families, their country of birth and for Fr. André Lachapelle, the first Canadian victim of the 9.0 earthquake in their home country.

"I wanted to pray with other people," said Yoko Takino, who has been in Canada just five months. "I prayed alone in my house, but it's more important with my friends."

Takino received an e-mail via cellphone within a day of the March 11 quake telling her that her most immediate family is well. But the pictures of devastation in Japan, the rising death toll — officially more than 1,800 as of March 14, but expected to rise — and the worsening situation at various nuclear power plants has made it a difficult time, she said.

TORONTO - Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins������Ƶapp monthly lectio divina sessions have provided the inspiration for his new book, Pathway to our Hearts: A Simple Approach to Lectio Divina with the Sermon on the Mount.

The archbishop started lectio divina when he was the archbishop of Edmonton because he thought it was important for bishops to speak the Word of God to the people. Collins continued these sessions when he came to Toronto, and he runs lectio divina monthly at St. Michael������Ƶapp Cathedral.

An audience of about 50 people was on hand for the launch of the book at the Catholic Pastoral Centre March 11.

TORONTO - The sale of Loretto Abbey Catholic High School to the Toronto Catholic District School Board on March 9 ensures the school's 164-year tradition of Catholic education for young women will continue, said Sr. Evanne Hunter.

“Our members made many sacrifices to ensure that Catholic families could avail themselves of a Catholic education for their children, and we are pleased that this beautiful building, so rich with history and tradition, will continue to operate as a Catholic school for young women,” Hunter, provincial leader of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Loretto Sisters, said in a statement.

“Though the giving up of this repository of so much of our history is painful, we Loretto Sisters take solace in the fact that we will continue to be connected to the school for many years,” she said.

TORONTO - Standing in the rain outside Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan's office with about 100 church-based protesters demanding a $100 food supplement in the up-coming provincial budget, Redemptorist Father Paul Hansen said he was there for the sake of the Eucharist.

"The Eucharist is first a verb before it's a noun," he said.

Appealing to the most ancient Catholic belief in the corpus mysticum Christi, that the people of God are the body of Christ, Hansen said we can't ignore the hunger and poverty of parts of the body of Christ.