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Emmanuella Kim has been a quiet, humble, and loving presence in Vancouver for the past 18 years. The third local director of Madonna House in our city, she recently left Vancouver to return to the Madonna House Motherhouse in Combermere, Ont.

Her departure marks not only a personal transition but also comes during a season of significant change for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. This spring and summer of 2025 — our Jubilee Year of Hope — saw the arrival of a new Pope and Archbishop, and the farewell of three remarkable consecrated women who profoundly affected our faith community: Sister John Mary Sullivan (Franciscan of the Eucharist), Lioba Na (from the Focolare Movement), and Emmanuella of the Madonna House Apostolate.

Emmanuella will be deeply missed by many in Vancouver, and I was moved to reflect on what she leaves behind: a legacy of deep friendship, faithful teaching, and a lived witness to God’s love through everyday presence and service.

When asked about the highlights of her time in Vancouver, Emmanuella answered without hesitation: it was the people. For her, the friendships and the unique beauty of each person she encountered were the true treasures of her ministry.

Speaking about her transition, she reflected honestly on the nature of detachment in her vocation. The most difficult separation, she said, happened many years ago when she first left her family in Korea to join Madonna House. In those early days, she felt profoundly homesick — her heart still anchored in Korea while her body was in Canada.

She admitted there were many tears. But what kept her going, she said, was the clarity of her calling: the unmistakable signs, graces, and encounters with God that confirmed her path.

Over time, Madonna House became home. And just as she came to embrace her life in Canada, she now carries the love and bonds formed here as she returns to Combermere.

Before joining Madonna House, she served as a social worker in Seoul. Here in Canada, she was known for her humble service, her gift for connecting people, and her quiet attentiveness to those in need — especially the sick, the grieving, and the lonely. She journeyed closely with many families, offered retreats in the Ignatian tradition, and, alongside her fellow community members, welcomed countless guests into their home with warmth and sincerity.

Hospitality is central to the Madonna House charism — a hospitality not just of the home, but of the heart. Foundress Catherine Doherty spoke of the “Chit Chat Apostolate,” where the simple act of listening and being present allows people to feel seen, heard, and loved, and in that, to encounter Christ.

Governments have a remarkable way of framing issues differently from how the average person sees them.

Take the B.C. government, which marked the UN’s World Day Against Human Trafficking by announcing a new specialized anti-trafficking policing unit. B.C. Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger said the unit will investigate human trafficking crimes and support victims. She added that its education team will train officers on responding to human trafficking and on differentiating between what is and isn’t human trafficking.

Wait, what? A key element of the unit is ensuring it doesn’t go after what isn’t human trafficking?

Krieger clarified: although human trafficking victims are often forced to engage in sex work, the unit will not target sex workers who are there by choice.

Just in case there was any doubt, reiterated: “To be clear, those who engage in sex work out of their own choice are not the targets of our province’s response to human trafficking.”

Apparently the unit’s role needs to be so well defined that an education team is tasked with keeping the lines from blurring.

Then police said the same thing. BC RCMP Chief Supt. Elijah Rain said the unit “will not focus on sex workers engaged in consensual sex work.”

It almost sounded like an effort to reassure sex‑worker advocacy organizations that present prostitution as a freely chosen profession. It even sounded a bit compassionate as police suggested they have better things to do than monitor what consenting adults do for money. But characterizing sex work as comparable to restaurant work, with staff tolerating conditions because of flexible hours and good tips, ignores the reality of exploitation.

To confirm what was being said, The B.C. Catholic’s Terry O’Neill asked the RCMP about the remarks. Doesn’t Canada’s Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) reject the notion of sex work as a neutral market service? Doesn’t its preamble state: “It is important to denounce and prohibit the purchase of sexual services because it creates a demand for prostitution that leads to the exploitation of vulnerable persons, especially women and children.”

The RCMP didn’t back down. A spokesperson confirmed the unit is not interested in sex workers engaged in consensual sex work or their clients. “These individuals are not being trafficked. The clear focus of the unit is to target individuals and groups who are trafficking persons that are typically forced into the sex trade or other forms of forced labour.”

Authorities appear confident they can draw a clean line between human trafficking and the sex trade: a lot of trafficked individuals do sex work, but not all sex workers are trafficked.

Taking that approach, however, ignores the disturbing data.

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Wis 18:6–9
Second Reading: Heb 11:1–2, 8–19
 Gospel Reading: Lk 12:32–48

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” we hear in this Sunday’s Second Reading. Accordingly, people of faith are also people of hope, or—better—trust.

We are like the Israelites in the First Reading, who had been told beforehand of their delivery from slavery in Egypt “so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted.”

We are like Abraham in the Second Reading, who stayed “as in a foreign land, living in tents,” waiting for “the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

We are like the servants in the Gospel Reading, dressed for action, our lamps lighted, “like those who are waiting for their master to return … so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.”

Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year of Hope, thus continuing the message of his first encyclical, The Light of Faith, begun by Pope Benedict XVI.

“In God’s gift of faith, a supernatural infused virtue, we realize that a great love has been offered us, a good word has been spoken to us, and that when we welcome that word, Jesus Christ the Word made Flesh, the Holy Spirit transforms us, lights up our way to the future, and enables us joyfully to advance along that way on wings of hope,” Pope Francis said. “Thus wonderfully interwoven, faith, hope, and charity are the driving force of the Christian life as it advances toward full communion with God.”

Many people today reject the idea of faith as a light, for they associate it with darkness, he noted. It appears to give “an illusory light, preventing mankind from boldly setting out in quest of knowledge.”

Other people admit faith only where the light of reason does not lead to certainty. They understand faith “either as a leap in the dark, to be taken in the absence of light, driven by blind emotion, or as a subjective light, capable perhaps of warming the heart and bringing personal consolation, but not something which could be proposed to others as an objective and shared light which points the way.”

Faced with the fact that “the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future,” the Pope noted, people have “renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself.” Instead, they have contented themselves “with smaller lights, which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way.” People can no longer distinguish between “the road to our destination” and “roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.”

In 2023, the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s Proclaim team gathered testimonies from Vancouver Catholics who were inspired to pick up the mantle of Christ and lead ministries in their communities and parishes. 

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the #WeAreProclaim campaign, highlighting stories of everyday missionary disciples boldly living and sharing the Gospel. 

Now we’ve launched We Are Proclaim 2.0, and a new group of evangelizing Catholics is stepping forward to share faith stories and describe how working in Catholic ministry has enriched their relationships with God and their fellow Catholics.

From parish leaders to parents, students to seniors, Proclaim 2.0 puts the diversity of the Church on full display. These stories highlight the courage, creativity, and compassion that define the Church in Vancouver and those who answer the call to service.

The common thread uniting each testimony is their mission: to proclaim the name of Jesus, Proclaim director Eric Chow told The B.C. Catholic.

“Through these stories, we hope you’ll be inspired, challenged and reminded: you are not alone in the mission. We are a people sent. We are missionary disciples.”

The annual Upper Room conference, which launched the original Proclaim movement, will take place on September 20, at Pacific Academy in Surrey. 

We will be publishing these inspiring stories over the coming weeks. 

Journeying from restlessness and emptiness to beloved son of God

By Alfredo Chu

In my early years after arriving in Canada, I lived for the moment—parties, pleasures, and chasing every temporary high the world could offer. If I earned it, I spent it. Life was loud, fast, and fun on the surface, but deep down, I was restless, spiritually empty, lost in confusion, not knowing who I really was or what I was living for.   

Then came marriage. Gabriela and I loved each other deeply, but that first year was no honeymoon. Once we moved in together, the differences in our lifestyles clashed hard. Suddenly, love had to meet reality, and I wasn’t ready. I doubted myself as a husband. As for being a father, I didn’t think I had what it took. I felt overwhelmed, unqualified, and, honestly, scared.

That’s when I knew I needed something more, and not just advice or quick fixes. I needed transformation from the inside out.    

So I returned to church, not just to find answers, but to find God. And he met me there.

Patient, kind, steady, he began reorienting my life, peeling away my layers of pride, fear, and selfishness, and showing me a new way – his way.    

St. Faustina said, “Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Saviour; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the purer the love.”

The Second Letter to the Corinthians allows us to know the inner life of the Apostle Paul. In Chapter 12 St. Paul shared the visions and revelations he received and the “thorn in the flesh” which helped to keep him humble.

St. Paul wrote, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows … On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses” (2 Cor 12:2, 5).

St. Thomas Aquinas commented: “For it should be noted that there are two things to consider in man, namely, the gift of God and the human condition. If a person glories in a gift of God as received from God, that glorying is good … But if he glories in that gift as though he had it of himself, then such glorying is evil.”

St. Paul shared his weaknesses writing: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor 12:7).

St. Augustine pointed out that the providence of God draws good out of evil: “‘And so,’ they ask, ‘is the devil good because he is useful?’ On the contrary, he is evil insofar as he is the devil, but God who is good and almighty draws many just and good things out of the devil’s malice. For the devil has to his credit only his will by which he tries to do evil, not the providence of God that draws good out of him.”

Even though Paul was a saint, his prayer was not answered when he prayed that the “thorn in the flesh” be removed: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:8–9).

Reflecting on his own experience of suffering, Venerable Fulton Sheen wrote, “The first lesson I learned, but only gradually, is that all sufferings come from either the direct or the permissive Will of God. God has two kinds of medicines, bitter and sweet.

“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6:7 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) 

Does Jesus warn us against repetitive prayers? Does praying the rosary contradict the way Jesus asked us to pray? Why is the rosary even designed that way? 

Whether you pray the rosary everyday or have never prayed it before, Fr. Mike has some insights from Jesus and his Church regarding repetition in prayer that will change the way you look at prayers like the rosary.

Recently, my younger sister got married. It was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever been to. But amid the joy and wonder that came with the special day, there was also deep insecurity and longing brewing within me. I’d been praying with this desire for years, waiting for the Lord to answer. The prayer seemed to ping-pong inside my heart: When will it finally be my turn to be a bride, a wife, and a mother?

Shortly after the wedding, when I brought this to the Lord, His invitation was simple – Let me satisfy you for right now. It went hand in hand with a penance I received in confession around this same time, to pray the Our Father and really rest in the Lord’s “daily bread” for me. 

While on the outside I prayed the simple words of the Lord’s Prayer, in my heart I was grasping for crumbs. Instead of taking time to focus on where God is leading with His daily bread for me, I flipped open every recipe book imaginable to try making my own bread: something substantial, something thick and hearty – but inevitably, it didn’t satisfy. White-knuckling it can lead us to a scarcity mindset of looking for our own sustenance because we’re worried God is going to leave us starving.

However, when we pray “give us this day our daily bread”, we are invited into the disposition of Jesus in the Gospels: one of openness, surrender, and trust that God will give us what we need today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not 10 years from now. Today.

Jesus never worried about His physical hunger. He also never worried about what would happen to Him, because He knew that He was infinitely loved by the Father who sent Him. I imagine that when Jesus prayed the line “give us this day our daily bread,” He meant it. Everything He did was framed by the fact that God was sustaining Him. 

Where Jesus is the embodiment of this complete surrender, I still balk at the thought of potentially not getting my way. But thanks be to God, He continues to love us and invites us into a deeper relationship of trust that He only has good things for us. To commit to relying solely on our daily bread means that we set aside all our backup plans and submit ourselves to His plan for the moment.

After teaching His disciples how to pray, Jesus takes things one step further: He challenges His disciples to have a disposition of active receptivity. He tells the disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you” (Luke 11:9).

A picture’s worth a thousand words, they say. And recently, I’ve been using the practice of Visio Divina (“divine seeing” in Latin) to help me focus more fully on God in prayer. Drawing on the principles of Lectio Divina, Visio Divina is the slow, thoughtful contemplation of a picture, photo, work of art, or really anything visual that invites God to speak to me in a deeper way.

I first learned about Visio Divina from a church worker named Adrian Wyatt who had begun exploring the practice using his own photographs. Now, he runs courses for others to do the same. Since I was already practicing Lectio Divina, I was fascinated to know more about how I could reflect on visual prompts in a similar way. So I gave it a try, using published photos at first, but then widening my prompts to include artworks, textiles and some of my own photos.

Visio Divina can be done in a group with others or practiced alone. And it works for any age too – even kids can engage with this practice at their own level. An illustrated Bible is the perfect starting point.

So here are a few tips for getting started with your own Vision Divina practice:

Find inspiration

Inspirational prompts can include photos, images, fine art, or textiles – in fact, almost any visual media, pictorial or abstract. For example, centuries ago, illuminated Bibles were created by monks, featuring flawless calligraphy and colorful decorations as a way to honor the Bible’s special status as a holy book. One of the most inspirational sources I’ve found is The Saint John’s Bible, a stunningly beautiful handcrafted modern illuminated Bible. This amazing work was commissioned at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota, the first to be created in more than 500 years.

I found it easier to begin by following some guided sessions. The University of Portland has videos based on The Saint John’s Bible which are a great place to start. But now, I’m beginning to develop my own practice.

I’ve created a small portfolio of images to choose from, such as greetings cards, photos I’ve taken, and even images torn from magazines.

Open with a prayer

I begin with a short prayer before choosing my source. I ask God to help me find a prompt that nourishes my soul, and one that will provide the insights God knows I need, not necessarily what I think I need!

I might say “Please help me choose the right inspiration for today, so you can speak to me,” or “Please prompt my decision today.”

RELATED: Lectio Divina: A Beginner’s Guide

Choose your inspiration

Next, I look through my online sources or leaf through my little stash of images, still mentally asking God to help me choose the best one for my situation.

The timing couldn’t be more striking.

As we honour the retirement of Michele Smillie after nearly three decades of pro-life work for the Archdiocese of Vancouver (see page 2), The B.C. Catholic is also publishing Terry O’Neill’s Page 1 investigation revealing how the B.C. government is quietly promoting euthanasia behind the scenes, with little to no oversight.

Smillie and I both began working for the Archdiocese around the same time, and from the beginning our paths intersected in two essential missions: communicating truth and defending life.

At one point, a friendly rivalry even developed between our offices over which one had the more important mission. With her office’s Pavel Reid backing her, I was outnumbered, but it’s been a privilege ever since to report on the work they carried out.

She started out by assisting Father Joseph Hattie, OMI, in what was then the Office of Marriage and Family Formation. Father Hattie was a force in the Canadian pro-life movement and helped establish Vancouver as a hub of leadership and witness. He also had strong thoughts on media.

I remember a conversation with him in Rome while we were attending the canonization of St. Eugene de Mazenod in 1995. At the time, I was still working in secular journalism and shared how I had become disillusioned. He looked at me and asked whether I prayed for journalists.

Since that moment, praying for journalists has become a part of my spiritual life. Two years after that conversation, I was hired by the Archdiocese as editor of The B.C. Catholic.

Over the years, I’ve seen Smillie’s work become central to the Archdiocese’s pro-life mission. From rallies and conferences to post-abortion healing and education, she has been a steady voice and coordinator of work that has rippled throughout B.C. and beyond. Programs like Rachel’s Vineyard, which she championed despite early controversy, are now seen as essential.

She has always maintained a spirit of hope, which is something the pro-life movement needs to hold onto. As she says in her interview this week, it’s not about the defeats. It’s about the steps forward. And so we continue to take them.

In recent years, those steps have included investigative journalism that the mainstream press refuses to do. Led by veteran reporter Terry O’Neill, we’ve exposed how medical assistance in dying (MAiD) has expanded from a rare exception for the terminally ill into a normalized practice that touches nearly every kind of suffering.

Over the years, through freedom of information requests, O’Neill has revealed how Fraser Health quietly pressured patients toward euthanasia in contradiction to its own “patient-led” policies. He’s reported on palliative care experts who resigned when asked to incorporate MAiD into hospice work.

Dioceses can foster a more synodal Church by adopting diocesan-wide gatherings, says Father Pierre Ducharme, the Minister Provincial for the Franciscan Province of the Holy Spirit in Canada and former pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Richmond.

One of five Canadian delegates at the 2024 Synod on Synodality’s international parish priests meeting, Father Ducharme is emphasizing the importance of the newly released Pathways For The Implementation Phase Of The Synod document, unveiled by Cardinal Mario Grech on July 7.

The universal Church is now a few weeks into an 18-month process for dioceses and parishes to begin finding ways to foster more synodal congregations.

Father Ducharme told The Catholic Register earlier this year that more guidance would be required to help dioceses and parishes properly understand how to transform the 57-page final document into an applicable resource. Pathways succeeds on that account, he said, and there are a few standout suggestions.

“One that comes to mind is that dioceses can have diocesan-wide gatherings,” said Father Ducharme.

“That could gather the leaders of the diocese and parishes. I’m not talking about just pastors, but a combination of priests and lay leaders. There are suggestions about looking at the existing diocesan structures and saying, ‘how can we ensure these are more synodal.’ Along those lines, there are suggestions about implementing more women in leadership roles within a diocese.”

Cardinal Mario Grech, the General Secretariat of the Synod, unveiled Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod on July 7 to offer dioceses and eparchies a framework on how to meaningfully contribute to the journey of walking forward together.

Prescribed as a guidance document, the 24-page text defines the recommended responsibilities for a diocesan or eparchial bishop, delineates the tasks of synodal teams, and outlines how to engage with the 2024 synodal assembly final document during this phase. Pathways explains how ecclesial discernment is a method for determining the concrete practices that best achieve the overall vision.

Father Ducharme appreciates the document’s overall sentiment that “nothing is stopping the bishop from being a part of the team.”

It appears this togetherness and openness mindset is already well underway in the Diocese of Victoria under Bishop Gary Gordon. On June 13, its Diocesan Permanent Pastoral Synod (DPPS) convened for a plenary assembly and immersed in listening circle discernment and prayer exercises. Bishop Gordon wrote in a reflection, weeks later, how attendees “shared stories of vulnerability, insight, and grace. They spoke of how listening built trust, and how that trust brought real hope.”

Father William Hann, the diocesan vicar general, emphasized the importance of creating such a welcoming environment for sharing in the present worldly context and how that sets the stage for progress to follow.