On this crisp and beautiful day in Holy Week 2018, the new St. Joseph’s church in Balgonie, surrounded by the wonderful hoarfrost on the trees, stands where the previous St. Joseph’s church stood. That church burned down in February, 2002. The corpus - the body of Jesus - on this cross, was in that fire, and it ended up in the heap of rubble left behind. In sorting through that rubble, someone came upon the cross, and seeing that it wasn’t completely destroyed, put it in the parish garage, where...
The theme of this year’s Share Lent campaign is Together for Peace. How much the world indeed needs us to be together for peace!
The day before he died, Christ himself prayed for peace. Through profound prayer, he expressed his mission of bringing peace to our world, reconciling us to the Father and to one another. As disciples of Christ, we are to become peace-makers in our homes, parishes, and communities. We are also invited to help other nations to build peace and reconciliation amongst their people.
Greetings of peace and joy to you, in the Christ Child who is born among us.
Years ago, living and working in Rome, I had the chance to visit Naples, and a particular district in Naples where they make and sell beautiful handmade nativity scenes. The most interesting thing to discover was that the charming little buildings housing the manger and...
As many of you will know, on April 20, 2017, Justice Donald Layh ruled on the Theodore Court case that the Government of Saskatchewan could no longer fund non-Catholic students attending Catholic schools in Saskatchewan, starting June 30, 2018. This judgment protects the rights of the Catholic school system to continue; but it would remove funding for our ecumenical and interfaith brothers and sisters whose children have been granted permission to attend Catholic schools. This has raised many questions and created...
Oscar Wilde once famously said “It will all be fine in the end. If it’s not fine, it’s not the end.” Archbishop Charles Halpin, who ordained me here 25 years ago, once told me, I’ve looked at the back of the book, and it all comes out good in the end. From the perspective of Christian hope, a hope grounded in the resurrection, we can trust that time and history are ultimately in God’s hands. But we are not grasping the depths of Christian faith if we go through life with a naive optimism which smiles through suffering saying it’s all going to turn out okay. At least that’s not where...
“Development, the New Name for Peace” is the title of a short section in a Vatican II document called Populorum Progressio (p. 76). It is also what gave our Canadian Catholic development agency its name. That was back in 1967. Some of us remember this time in our church history; when St. John XXIII called on the Second Vatican Council to “throw open the windows of the church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through”. On Oct. 20th, 1967, in the year that...
By now you will have received the news that I have been appointed by Pope Francis as the Archbishop of Regina. I write this note with many and conflicting emotions, held together by a deep and abiding trust in God’s mercy and faithfulness.
Serving with you in the Diocese of Saskatoon these past six-plus years has been one of the great joys and privileges of my life. Under the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI then of Pope Francis, together we have sought to address pastoral challenges within our parishes and communities. With an exceptional team of clergy and lay leadership, we have...
“.…Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing…. So go forth and don’t be discouraged. Care for life. It’s worth it.” Pope Francis (when he was still Cardinal Bergoglios.
As you begin your preparations for this school year, I invite you to join me in celebrating, with all the Archdiocese of Regina, the third annual Reverence for Life month this October.
It is a time when we can teach and bring to light the intrinsic value that each human person is given by God...
This past spring, the Saskatchewan Legislature passed Bill 85. This Bill made wide-ranging changes to labour laws in Saskatchewan. As Archbishop of Regina, I wish to remind all Catholics, but especially employers and managers, that it is important to consider the greater flexibility granted by the revised law in view of the moral question of how we are to live out our Christian commitment to justice in the workplace.
Our Catholic teaching, as poignantly expressed in Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter Laborem Excercens...
