EDMONTON – Don't let the world convince you that holiness is impossible, says a Texas-based singer, songwriter and storyteller. "That's the farthest from the truth," remarked Steve Angrisano as he addressed the annual Faith Development Day of Edmonton Catholic Schools at Shaw Conference Centre. "To be the saint we are called to be we don't have to be perfect (just good)."

The Church wants to set Catholic teachers up for success both professionally and personally, Archbishop Richard Smith said at the recent Faith Development Day of Edmonton Catholic Schools. "You are setting the students up for success; you want them to succeed," the archbishop told some 3,000 school employees at Shaw Conference Centre.

Local members of the Ukrainian Catholic community are praying for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in their homeland. They held a public prayer service for Ukraine at the Legislature not long ago and parishes regularly have special prayer times for Ukraine.

Justin Fatica of Syracuse, N.Y., wouldn't ask his son John Paul to die on the cross for anybody. "That's because my faith is weak and my family isn't there yet either," he said to a group of about 500 men Feb. 8. "But God, our Father, loved us so much, had so much faith in mankind that he allowed his Son to go through the agony of the cross.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has continued to insist that the Vatican compile and publish detailed statistics on clerical sexual abuse of minors. It has also called on the pope, as head of the Church, to order Catholic dioceses and religious orders around the world to implement all the policies of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Two key figures in the establishment of the Catholic Church in Canada are likely to be declared saints before the end of the year, said a Jesuit who is helping prepare the material needed for their canonizations. Blessed Marie de l'Incarnation, known as the Mother of the Canadian Church; and Blessed Francois de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, are speeding their way to canonization, along with Blessed Jose Anchieta, the Apostle of Brazil.

WINNIPEG – A global campaign to end world hunger by 2025 has started and Manitoba's regional animator for Development and Peace, Brenda Chaput-Saltel, asks, "Is that such a lofty goal? "If the hungry were our own family, to what lengths would we go to end hunger?"

Danielle Wotherspoon-Gregg has big skates to fill at her first Winter Olympics. Canadian speed skating legend Jeremy Wotherspoon is an older brother, national team member Jamie Gregg is her husband and she has two former Olympians as parents-in-law.

The Alberta government has approved funding to consolidate two or more Catholic schools into a single modernized school or a replacement school in Edmonton's southeast. However, the school board is not rushing to build.

Liturgical precautions announced by Archbishop Richard Smith Jan. 8 to prevent the spread of influenza were lifted Jan. 29. Communion can once again be distributed under both species as well as on the tongue for those who wish to receive in that manner.