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 Canada turned 100 years old,...
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...
