Thursday - 06/20/2013

	St. Paul Jubilee 2008-2009
	Exploring the Catholic Catechism
	Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of August 30, 1999

Canadian and Foreign News Highlights

Nfld. resurrects Catholic education:

Two years after Newfoundland changed Canada's Constitution to put an end to denominational education in the province, Catholics in St. John's have resurrected Catholic education. A group of determined parents have taken over Newfoundland's most venerable Catholic school to launch a kindergarten-to-Grade-9 private institution under Jesuit guidance. The new St. Bonaventure's College, with 215 students registered at mid-summer, 14 teachers hired, $330,000 raised, uniforms chosen and an educational philosophy in place, is in a 150-year-old building tucked in behind St. John's Cathedral.

Australian Catholic women divided:

Australian Catholic women are split over their roles within the Church, said an Australian bishops' report, the result of a three-year study. Nearly half of women surveyed were dissatisfied with roles they fill in the Church and want greater participation in Church leadership and a voice in Church decision-making, the study found. But the majority of Mass-goers surveyed "do not feel unwelcome in the parish and do not experience barriers preventing them from participating in the Church in the way they wish," the report said.

Diocese bans gun raffles:

Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie has announced a ban on gun raffles on Church property or by church-sponsored institutions, effective July 1, 2001. In a letter to pastors, the bishop urged parishes to seek alternative sources of funding to gun raffles as soon as possible. While the bishop said the diocese joined the rest of the country in mourning the "horrendous loss of life" brought about by the misuse of guns, he acknowledged that some parishioners would not be pleased with the new policy.

Rights of migrants ignored, says inter-church committee:

The arrival of suspected illegal migrants off Canada's West Coast raises some international policy dilemmas, says Tom Clark, coordinator of the Inter-Church Committee for Refugees. Clark noted that some countries, China included, have a history of not accepting people who return involuntarily. If the migrants can't go back to their homeland there's little that governments like Canada can do.Some critics of Canada's immigration and refugee policies say the country is too lax in permitting illegal migrants to apply for refugee status and argue they should be sent back. But Clark suggested the critics are hypocritical. Some 20 years ago, Canadians were calling on Thailand not to turn away Vietnamese boat people, he said.

Our mission: To serve our readers by bringing the Gospel to bear on current issues in the Church and in secular culture through accurate news coverage and reflective commentary.