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News/Toronto-GTA

{mosimage}TORONTO - Christopher West introduced a thousand adults, young and old, to Pope John Paul IIƵapp Theology of the Body at a weekend conference in Toronto Oct. 16-17.

West, a spokesman for the Theology of the Body Research Institute, a non-profit educational organization based in Philadelphia, delivered a dynamic introduction over the two days on a series of 129 short talks the late pope gave between September of 1979 and November of 1984 on human embodiment and erotic love.

$1.9 million raised for Salt + Light TV

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TORONTO - Close to $2 million has been donated to , CanadaƵapp only national Catholic television network.

“To have raised $1.9 million at one event, especially in such difficult economic times, is a vivid sign of GodƵapp providential care for Salt + Light Television,” Fr. Tom Rosica, CEO of Salt + Light, said in an e-mail to The Register.

Faith helps diaconate candidate get through Sick Kids ordeal

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{mosimage}TORONTO - HeƵapp been “beat up in the media” about a $2.7-million severance payout, but former Sick Kids Foundation president and deacon-in-training Michael O’Mahoney says heƵapp been given a bad rap and is turning to his Catholic faith to help him get through this “complete misunderstanding.”

O’Mahoney told The Catholic Register from Portland, Ore., that he has put “a lot of faith and trust in God that even when thatƵapp happening, itƵapp going to turn out OK.”

In solidarity with the homeless

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Praying for the homeless on Thanksgiving Monday morning at TorontoƵapp Peace Garden, Ambrose declared himself GodƵapp comedian.

The grey, five-degree morning was already cold enough to make a soul wince for those who slept outside the night before. Prayers were offered for TorontoƵapp street population and the homeless throughout the world. Ambrose joined the circle after having spent the previous night in front of the Thomson Building on Queen Street West, across the street from City Hall.

Muslims must be viewed beyond security concerns

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{mosimage}TORONTO - If Christians and Muslims are going to talk, Christians are going to have to unlearn what they think they know about Muslims, particularly Muslim women, according to a Wilfred Laurier University professor of religion and culture.

From the images of protesting women in burkas to the idea Western armies can liberate women in Afghanistan, cliches and gross simplifications are overwhelming conversation, Meena Sharify-Funk told about three dozen students along with church and mosque representatives at the annual dinner of the National Muslim Christian Liason Committee held in the University of TorontoƵapp Multifaith Centre Oct. 1.

Ten Commandments take ROM centre stage

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{mosimage}TORONTO - The Ten Commandments will take the spotlight at the Royal Ontario Museum this month.

Visitors to the ROM Oct. 10-18 will be able to see the worldƵapp oldest and best preserved parchment scroll of the Ten Commandments in a display separate from the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition. The display will only be open a total of 80 hours over the eight days.

“I doubt these will come to Canada again,” said Dan Rahimi, a ROM curator. “The scrolls are very sensitive to light and thatƵapp why we have it for such a very short time.”

Like the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are being displayed on rotation every few months — eight at a time — the age of the scrolls makes them prone to deterioration the longer they are open to the public eye.
The Ten Commandments, the largest of the Hebrew scrolls found, is a must-see document during a ROM visit, Rahimi added.

New Beginnings in life

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Widowed, separated or divorced Catholics can find hope again through New Beginnings, a ministry founded and operated in Toronto since the late 1970s.

Often mistaken for a dating service, the ministry actually aims at guiding its participants through their grief, anger, confusion or guilt, while helping them on a spiritual level.

The ministryƵapp director, Fr. Rudy Volk, said numbers have declined since its original retreat headquarters, St. JosephƵapp Morrow Park, was sold three years ago, and he hopes the word will spread New Beginnings is still dedicated to the retreats and discussion groups via new locations.

A group of leader-volunteers brings years of experience and expertise to the ministry.

Jesuits put vow of poverty into action

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{mosimage}TORONTO - There are 17,000 people living in 19 high-rise buildings crammed into just two city blocks in St. James Town — CanadaƵapp most densely populated neighbourhood. Two of those 17,000 chose St. Jamestown over an historic, six-bedroom brick home in a quiet, leafy neighbourhood near High Park.

Jesuit provincial superior Fr. Jim Webb, and his right hand man, or socius, Fr. Peter Bisson have been living in a three-bedroom apartment in one of TorontoƵapp poorest neighbourhoods for 10 months.
Webb believes the Jesuit vow of poverty has to be more than a theory.

“If you say that material things are not important but then thereƵapp no sign of it, it lacks credibility,” he said.

Peace is in the hands of youth

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{mosimage}TORONTO - “Peace is hard,” Justin Trudeau told more than 4,000 Catholic students gathered in TorontoƵapp Nathan Phillips Square to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Peace Garden Sept. 29.
Nobody disagreed with him.

“We need your ideas, we need your vision, we need your dreams,” the Liberal Member of Parliament and ex-teacher declared.

Twenty-five years after his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, turned the sod on TorontoƵapp Peace Garden, his son was entrusting the ideals of peace and social justice to teenagers struggling with homework and hormones.

Eucharistic adoration flourishes in Toronto

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TORONTO - The demand for eucharistic adoration appears to have grown in Toronto, thanks in part to a Serra Club of Downtown Toronto member who discovered a calling to promote it.

Zinnia Milburn has been praying for both an increase in vocations and a stronger devotion to eucharistic adoration since becoming a Serran in 2002. The Serra Club is an organization that promotes and fosters vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.

“Adoration is very important,” Milburn said. “He is there body, soul and divinity. You are talking right there to Him.”

Awakening the masses to Theology of the Body

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{mosimage}TORONTO - Christopher West, a popular speaker on Pope John Paul IIƵapp Theology of the Body, will be in Toronto Oct. 16-17 for a presentation on “discovering the master plan for your life.”

Invited by the God, Sex and the Meaning of Life Ministry, West hopes to crack open difficult theology, as he usually does, for the average person.

“My goal is to stir hope that there is a banquet that corresponds to the hunger of the human heart,” West said. “Every human being has this ache, this yearning, this longing. We’re looking for something and what this seminar does is it taps into that hunger and awakens us.”