Harmonies of Hope

An evening of fine choral music will be performed by students from Vancouver Archdiocesan Catholic schools on Friday, March 5 at 7 p.m. at the Centennial Theatre, 2300 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver. All proceeds will go to fund relief efforts in Haiti coordinated by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors. To order, call 604-984-4484 or go to www.harmoniesofhope.ca.

The B.C. Catholic is getting audited

We're being audited, but that's a good thing. In line with most newspapers, we're having our circulation audited -- by the Canadian Circulation Audit Bureau. Among other things, a circulation audit confirms to advertisers that a newspaper's readership is what it says it is. If you receive a questionnaire in the mail from the CCAB, your reply to it would help The B.C. Catholic immensely. (Note, the letter apparently contains a few mistakes, such as referring to us as a "magazine." Kindly exercise Christian charity and overlook these discrepancies.)

Catholic Guide to the 2010 Winter Games

If you're collecting Olympic keepsakes, hang on to your copy of The B.C. Catholic this week. It's titled We believe! A Catholic Guide to the 2010 Winter Games. (A tip of the hat to all the staff and writers who contributed, in particular production co-ordinator Marie Sarabia whose first-rate design talents are put on full display.) The guide is full of useful info for every Catholic visitor, host and spectator: maps, Mass times, Ash Wednesday information, greetings from the Pope, the archbishop and others, as well as numerous stories of faith from the famous (see our chat with Trevor Linden, for instance) and not-so-famous. You'll find the guide on The B.C. Catholic website or you can download it here. The guide is also being distributed through parishes as well as our archdiocesan welcome centre here at 150 Robson St., starting Friday.

B.C. abortion censorship campaign takes off

B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner now has more than 2,500 signed postcards protesting the censorship of abortion information in the province. The postcards were delivered as part of a campaign to see Section 22:1 of BC’s Information Act overturned. The section prohibits the release of any information, other than general statistics, on the topic of abortion. A blog and Facebook group have been set up to educate British Columbians on the history of Section 22:1, and why the amendment was passed.

You might be hardcore Catholic if...

"You've accidentally genuflected at a place other than church ex. the movie theatre, school auditorium." For these and other Catholic mostly truisms, visit the You Might Be Hardcore Catholic FaceBook site.

Homilies on the go

The Catholic Educator's Resource Centre has begun carrying the Sunday homilies of Vancouver's Father John Horgan, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish. Father Horgan is on the CERC's executive board, has produced a number of series for EWTN, and is called on frequently, and with good reason, by Vancouver media when they're looking for a cleric to speak about matters of faith. You can download Father Horgan's latest Sunday homily to your MP3 player here. To access future homilies, visit the CERC's website and subscribe to their weekly update.

Tebow's pro-life touchdown

A year ago, Tim Tebow was in the news for being a U.S. college football player who wore his Christianity proudly on his sleeve. A B.C. Catholic editorial gave him a huge thumbs up for doing what more of us should be doing: bringing our faith into our jobs, vocations, and pastimes. Well, Tebow's moved onward and upward in every sense. The Heisman Trophy winner is likely one step away from the 2010 NFL draft and he's now being featured in a pro-life ad scheduled to run during the Super Bowl this Sunday. The ad, by Focus on the Family, apparently relates the decision his mother made not to abort her son despite pressure by doctors to do so. So naturally Tim's in hot water with "pro-choicers" who don't like this particular choice. Give them an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for their behaviour. Meanwhile, Tebow gets the game ball.

Shoes for Haiti

The Grade 5 class of Our Lady of Mercy Elementary in Burnaby is one of many groups of students and parishioners who have come up with novel ways to raise money for Haiti. Headed by teacher Chinh Nguyen, they held a Red Day where students wore red, collected money and held a shoe drive for victims of the earthquake. They raised more than $1,200 cash and collected a truckload of shoes for Soft Moc Store as part of the Soles for Souls organization, which sorts and ships the shoes to Haiti. Watch The B.C. Catholic for more details on this and other Haiti initiatives.

From Rome to Vancouver

Pope Benedict XVI couldn't be in Vancouver personally for the 2010 Winter Olympics, so he sent us the next best thing: a letter and a blessing, signed by him. (It made several rounds in our office when it arrived, and we checked!) In the letter he makes an appeal for sport being a valued building block of peace and friendship between peoples and nations. He also compliments the ecumenical sports movement More Than Gold, which the Archdiocese of Vancouver has worked closely with throughout the run-up to the Games. Finally, he offers his blessing on "all associated with the celebration of the XXI Winter Olympic Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games." So if you're celebrating, consider yourself blessed!

We're practically on the podium!

You might not realize how close the Archdiocese of Vancouver's Chancery offices -- which include The B.C. Catholic office -- are to Vancouver's downtown Olympic sites. I could throw a snowball -- if there was snow -- and hit B.C. Place. Well, not quite, but close. How close? Check us out. This explains why our location at 150 Robson Street (at Cambie) will be, apart from Holy Rosary Cathedral just a few blocks away, the No. 1 place for Catholics during the Olympics and Paralympics. Watch for details as we ready the place for people to drop by, warm up with a hot drink, send an e-mail, say a prayer, and pick up a Catholic visitor's guide.