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Monday, December 28th, 2015Create a Climate of Change
Monday, November 2nd, 2015In response to Pope Francis’ call in his recent encyclical Laudato si’ to all peoples to take urgent action to protect the planet from climate change, Cardinal Collins has asked all parishes in the Archdiocese to participate in a national weekend of action “Create a Climate of Change” on October 24/25. It is an action spearheaded by the Canadian Catholic Organization – Development and Peace.
Here at St Gabriel’s, prayer cards as well as pamphlets on how climate change has affected the poorest in the world will be made available to you on the weekend of Oct 17/18. The following weekend, you will be invited to sign an Action Card to the government. On the card, you can also share with the Prime Minister your own personal action to help reduce climate change. It is hoped that through our message to the government, Canada will commit to taking more decisive action in December when world leaders meet in Paris at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) to negotiate a binding and universal agreement on climate action.
The survival of our planet and its people is at stake! Please consider joining other Catholics around Canada in this action to create a climate of change, so that together with people from around the world, we can meet the challenges posed by climate change and protect the planet – our common home.
The video of our parish’s Open Forum on Laudato Si’ , held on June 30, is accessible under the caption “Probing Pope Francis’ Encyclical “LAUDATO SI”, found on the right hand panel of this page.
Probing Pope Francis’ Encyclical LAUDATO SI’
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015Probing Pope Francis’ Encyclical LAUDATO SI’ on Care for our Common Home – an Open Forum held June 30, 2015 at St. Gabriel’s Church
Dr. Dennis O’Hara and Fr. Steve Dunn, C.P. facilitated an Open Forum on Pope Francis’ new encyclical Laudato Si’ on June 30, 2015 at our parish. Close to three hundred people attended.
Many from different parishes and religious congregations all across Toronto joined us to celebrate the encyclical, to draw and to share insights from it. It was a Spirit-filled event.
We thank Paul Royes, one of our parishioners, for making the video available.
Some highlights from the encyclical:
“Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded. I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” [paras. 13, 14]
“ … we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” [para. 49]
“ … our planet is a homeland and that humanity is one people living in a common home.” [para. 164]
“We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world. The effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced by our decisive action, here and now.” [para. 161]
Newly Baptized at Easter 2015
Thursday, April 23rd, 2015New baptized at the Easter Vigil with Fr. Brando and the teachers
Fr. Brando’s Installation
Monday, October 14th, 2013Fr. Brando was installed on October 6, 2013
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross, every Passionist takes a special vow to spend his or her energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus, the memory of the Cross, and reflection of the meaning of the Cross for the world.
