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OTTAWA - Motion-312 may have been shot down in the House of Commons, but Stephen Woodworth hasn’t given up.

Catholic Christian Outreach will open up its annual Rise Up conference to more people this year by hosting events in two locations.

TORONTO - Students at St. Marcellus Catholic School in Toronto������Ƶapp west end are turning old four-litre milk bags into beds.

In the face of an impending lawsuit, the student union at Langley, B.C.'s Kwantlen Polytechnic University has relented and will confer club status on a campus pro-life group.

Love is, quite literally, moving to reality TV next April. A new show, Love is Moving, born out of a Toronto initiative known as the Love Movement is hoping to bring viewers to a fuller understanding of this familiar, fuzzy feeling.

Calling all high school students, Fr. Damian MacPherson and the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement-Graymoor are teaming up again with The Catholic Register to present their annual student writing award during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

"This initiative is intended to get to the very grass roots of young people thinking about the scandal of the division of the Christian church," said MacPherson,  the Director of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs at the Archdiocese of Toronto.

The contest has been running for the 12 years. This year's theme, "What does God require of us," (Micah 6:6-8) was chosen by the Student Christian Movement of India. Contestants must be 14 to 18 years of age and enrolled in an Ontario secondary school or equivalent. They are asked to carefully reflect on the Scripture passage and submit a 500-word essay that addresses the theme. Next year, Canada has the privilege of choosing the topic.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was founded by Fr. Paul Wattson and Lurana Mary White in 1898. They are the founders of the Society of the Atonement, of which MacPherson is a member. It is a religious community that began in the Anglican Church in 1908 and was later received into the Roman Catholic Church.

The week of prayer was eventually accepted by the Vatican and consequently became a world-wide practice. In 2013, it runs from January 18-25.

"I'm always hopeful and confident that, especially in this youth outreach contest, there would be a new awareness and new sense of responsibility," said MacPherson, who hopes the contest will continue to engage more young Catholics.

"They have a responsibility to acknowledge, work and pray for the unity of the church," he said. "We collectively and globally have that responsibility."

The deadline for entries is Jan. 18, 2013. Essays are to be submitted to The Catholic Register, 1155 Yonge St., Toronto, ON, M4T 1W2. See www.catholicregister.org/writingaward for further details.

(Florez, 17, is a Grade 12 student at St. Basil-The-Great College School.)

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is reaching out to Ontario������Ƶapp Catholic youth with the launch of the Year of the Young Vincentian.

The campaign begins Dec. 1 with the goal of encouraging those under age 35 to join the society and to start their own projects to help those in need.

“We’re getting older and if we don’t start attracting younger people, we’re not going to be able to continue what we do,” said Jim Paddon, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Ontario Regional Council.

The society is a global organization dedicated to helping the less fortunate. It was founded by a 20- year-old French student, Frederic Ozanam, and a group of his friends who sought to be better Catholics by emulating Jesus and aiding the poor. According to Paddon, they had the dual mission of deepening their faith while helping people living in poverty.

“Next year, 2013 is very appropriate,” he said on the timing of the campaign. “It’ll mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Ozanam.”

Paddon also notes that 2013 is significant for other reasons. Some of the society������Ƶapp younger members will attend World Youth Day in Brazil. And Paddon hopes Ozanam will be canonized, some 15 years since his beatification.

“Those factors certainly for me makes it the right time to... make contacts with areas and organizations like Catholic school boards, high schools, elementary schools,” Paddon said.

The Ontario council������Ƶapp goal of developing and implementing a program that will educate students about the society is meant to attract youth.

“How do we attract them?” Paddon asks. “We provide them the opportunity to be part of a worldwide organization whose goal is to live the faith in service to Christ as we find Him in the poor.”

This includes focusing on local communities and addressing the root cause of poverty.

“Education we feel is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty,” Paddon said, adding the Ontario council is running an Ozanam Education Fund to provide students with $2,000-$3,000 towards tuition or other needs, and to stay in contact and work with the family in the long run.

Another program assists youth through a Registered Education Savings Plan project. With the Canada Learning Bond, the federal government will match up to a certain amount of the money parents place into an RESP for their child.

“So we’re starting the project down in the Burlington-Oakville area where we’re going to families we know from assistance that we’ve given them and encouraging them to open such an account,” said Paddon, so that the society will match (up to a certain amount) what the parents provide, and in turn the government will match those combined funds.

As for youth participation, the society is planning a video contest for school-age kids to talk about the society������Ƶapp work or an SSVP-related topic like Ozanam. It will also host a Giant Sleep Out on May 24 to raise awareness of and funds to alleviate poverty.

VATICAN CITY - In his message for World Youth Day 2013, the Pope asked young people to welcome Christ������Ƶapp embrace and share with others the joy of being loved by Him.

In preparation for the international youth gathering July 23-28 in Rio de Janiero, Pope Benedict XVI asked young Catholics to “reread your personal history,” looking at how the faith was passed down to them from previous generations.

The Pope also asked them not to wait to begin the task of sharing their Christian faith with others.

“We are links in a great chain of men and women who have transmitted the truth of the faith and who depend on us to pass it on to others,” he said in the message released Nov. 16 by the Vatican.
The theme of World Youth Day 2013 is “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

“This mandate should resound powerfully in your hearts,” the Pope told young people.

In fact, he said, the heart has a major role to play in bringing them closer to Christ, motivating them to share His Gospel and determining the words and actions they should use in approaching others.

“Many young people today seriously question whether life is something good and have a hard time finding their way,” the Pope said.

Faith helps people see that “every human life is priceless, because each of us is the fruit of God������Ƶapp love,” he said. “God loves everyone, even those who have fallen away from Him or disregard Him.”

Pope Benedict asked young Catholics to reach out with love to their questioning or doubting peers, helping them find the hope and meaning faith brings.

As the Catholics most impacted by globalization and new technology, Pope Benedict said, young people need a special awareness and have special responsibilities in those areas.

“We are passing through a very particular period of history,” he told them. “Technical advances have given us unprecedented possibilities for interaction between peoples and nations. But the globalization of these relationships will be positive and help the world to grow in humanity only if it is founded on love rather than on materialism.”

“Love is the only thing that can fill hearts and bring people together,” he said.

While asking the young to bring their Christian values to their social media networks and other online activities, he also cautioned them to use the media wisely.

“Be aware of the hidden dangers they contain, especially the risk of addiction, of confusing the real world with the virtual, and of replacing direct and personal encounters and dialogue with Internet contacts,” he said.

Pope Benedict also told the young people that the responsibility to share the faith flows from their baptism into the Church, is sustained by prayer, nourished by receiving the Eucharist, purified through confession and strengthened by confirmation.

“If you are to remain firm in professing the Christian faith wherever you are sent, you need the Church,” he said. “No one can bear witness to the Gospel alone.”

TORONTO - St. Bonaventure������Ƶapp youth ministry is gearing up for its annual knitting event for the homeless.

Participants are taught how to knit scarves during two learning sessions, with the finished scarves returned to the youth ministry in January when they will be handed out to the homeless.

“(My office) is piled with yarn right now,” said Jonathan Nix, co-ordinator of the youth ministry at the parish. “It is crazy.”

The project started in early November 2010 as a small, one-time event. The response from many of the parish������Ƶapp young people was positive, prompting the youth ministry to continue the event.

This year������Ƶapp learning sessions are being held Nov. 22 and 29. After a general introduction and a prayer, participants break off into groups where one or two expert knitters — a mix of both young and older volunteers — teach the group how to knit.

Michael Johnston, a member of the youth ministry and a youth leader who participated last year, said it was an opportunity to stay connected to his community.

“I thought that it was a great way to aid those who would be cold for the winter and show compassion to others by giving out handmade scarves,” Johnston said.

“Scarves are easy to knit,” said Nix. “We basically have two sessions to teach so we can’t get too crazy complicated in that time.”

With Christmas holidays being a busy time and the varying age groups that come out to participate in the event, the youth ministry wanted to keep it simple.

“The idea is to have as many as possible to give away,” Nix said. “Last year we prepared for 50 people. Forty people showed up for the training and we received almost 70 scarves.”

This year, the youth ministry decided that the finished scarves will be given to Good Neighbours, a club in downtown Toronto for homeless men over the age of 50. It is a venue that will allow a greater opportunity for members of the ministry and the parish to spend time with the walk-ins.

For the last event, the ministry gave the scarves away during the parish������Ƶapp Poverty Walk in January.

Johnston said the program “really opened my eyes to the situation of others right in our own city.” He plans on participating again this year.

“The experience of conversation can be, for a homeless person, something that they miss, that they’re just ignored on the streets or wherever they may be,” Nix said.

The event is ultimately rooted in service.

“We’re a Franciscan parish and there������Ƶapp a big part of that spirituality that������Ƶapp dedicated to service, and particularly direct service with the poor,” Nix said.

Reflecting on the washing of the feet from the Last Supper in John������Ƶapp Gospel, he said “we need to be out there humbling ourselves and seeing God in everyone.”

Nix hopes that this promotes an understanding that “we always need to be thinking of the other” and that “it doesn’t always have to be writing a cheque,” but “it can be fun and it can be creative.”

“So often we get lost in our own lives that we lose perspective on how other people might be living,” Nix said.

“(When) we think of faith, we have to think of hope and love and... how do we express that together,” said Nix. “These types of activities — getting out, being with people, being present to others — is our faith.”

(Bernardo, 26, lives in Toronto, Ont.)

VAUGHAN, ONT. - It was a night of showbiz, glamour and big apples at The Angel Foundation for Learning������Ƶapp eighth annual Evening to Feed the Soul Gala.