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It’s been seven years since Fiona Dalton moved to Canada from the United Kingdom to take the position of CEO and president of Providence Health Care, and she still recalls her shock during a tour of Providence sites at how seniors were housed.

She told of seeing a particular Providence hospital’s long-term care unit. “I just felt physically ill,” she said. “This is where we keep our seniors? We look after people and this is their home? In a space where there are four people in one room and it’s not even big enough to have your own wardrobe with your own clothes in?’”

Dalton shared the memory in her remarks at a May 30 blessing for the start of construction of the $207 million St. Vincent’s Heather Long Term Care Home in Vancouver. Excavation is scheduled to begin this summer, with the 13-storey 240-bed home expected to open in late 2028.

Dozens of Providence staff, First Nations representatives, construction representatives, and guests gathered for the ceremony, with Archbishop Richard Smith taking part in one of his first public functions since being installed two weeks earlier.

A unifying theme ran through speakers’ remarks: the Indigenous and religious history that had brought everyone together for the blessing, and the care, dignity, and connecting of generations that will be emphasized at the new residence.

Dalton recalled how seniors suffered so badly during the pandemic. The physical environment in which seniors were kept was “not good enough for the people that I love,” she said. “That means it’s not good enough for anyone.”

It became apparent to Providence “that we collectively need to do something better,” she said. “We knew that it would be easy for the world to kind of move on after the pandemic and have other priorities, but this would remain a priority for us.”

The priority of care and compassion is the same one that religious sisters brought to health care, said Paul Brown, chair of the Providence Health Care Society.

Brown noted that the First Nations ground awakening ceremony that began the site blessing “reminds us of the sacredness of this land, the importance of relationship, and the responsibilities we carry as we begin this work,” said Brown.

“The legacy of Catholic health care in Canada is a testament to the dedication of religious women who provided compassionate service to those in need long before the establishment of our universal health care system,” he said. The Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception from New Brunswick played a key role in founding the original St. Vincent’s Hospital in the 1930s, he said, on the same site where the new residence will be built.

A father is the scaffolding around the growing structure of his child.

I first heard this analogy from Dr. Maria Fedoryka in the Humanum video series. She explained that while a mother’s genius is to create a space for a child to exist with unconditional acceptance, a father’s genius is to be “scaffolding,” — the “solid structure within which a person can flourish.”

My father was a tall, solid man who was often happy and sometimes scary (6’4” with an Irish temper). When I rode on his shoulders, I felt fearful, but also in awe. Being lifted that high gave me a new perspective. Fathers push security boundaries to encourage children to reach further, discover more, and venture beyond comfort. When kept in check, those “scary” qualities comfort children and assure them their father is in control.

As I grew older, my father’s structure was still there for me but in new ways. When I was a young adult, we fought about my curfew and I rashly moved out with a university classmate. My father let me know he did not agree with my decision (he was right about that — I moved home two months later), but when he visited my apartment, he brought a toolbox he’d put together for me and he patched up all the holes in the walls. He left me the toolbox. His support was love.

A child observes what his father has built his life on. He sees the very person of the father as a model of how to live. That is why, when the child gets older and recognizes the father’s faults, he may be devastated, thinking that everything he believed was false.

In reality, the father does not make the scaffolding intentionally. He does not carefully erect it by teaching the child to do certain things which are helpful and then to avoid others that are not. The father, in fact, IS the scaffolding. Not just what he wants to present to the child, not just what he wants to teach the child, not what he gives the child or what he says to the child, but his entire being (personality, character, body, actions) forms the structure within which a child flourishes — or struggles.

When young, the child stands inside this scaffolding, observing its construction, beauty or ugliness. This structure answers, for good or for bad, all the child’s big questions: Does life have guiding principles? What’s worth caring about? What is a man? How should I treat others? Whether intentionally or not, the father provides answers through his person. The child makes life decisions based on these observations.

Masculinity provides this gift, states Fedoryka.

In Chapter 10 of the Second Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul turned his attention to the intruding missionaries.

Father Thomas Stegman, SJ, explained: “Paul begins by presenting himself as a soldier in God’s army in the battle to bring about Christlike obedience within the community (10:1–6). He explains that his God-given authority is for building up the Corinthians (10:7–11). Finally, he sets forth what constitutes proper missionary boasting (10:12–18). All the while, Paul contrasts himself with the intruding missionaries.”

St. Paul wrote, “We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

Catholic author Stephen Ray commented: “‘Proud obstacle’ can be understood as wrong thoughts and faulty arguments that are entrenched in the mind against God. Sometimes these may be rational arguments; other times they might be sentiments or emotions that are ‘caught’ from other people like one catches the measles. It is often easier to knock down a fortress of timber and stone than it is to destroy a stronghold of mental lies and deceptions.”

Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare. The sacrament of Confirmation seals us as soldiers of Christ. St. Paul used military terminology with the words: “being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete” (2 Cor. 10:6).

St. Paul wrote, “Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we” (2 Cor. 10:7).

St. John Chrysostom said, “Paul criticizes not only the deceivers but the deceived as well, for they are also accountable for their actions. Furthermore, he rebukes each one in the way which is most appropriate to their case. Those who imagine they belong to Christ must consider who Paul belongs to. If the answer is also Christ, then they must listen to what he has to say to them.”

Regarding the authority of St. Paul, the fourth-century Ambrosiaster pointed out that “Paul takes advantage of his authority only to the extent that he glories in the progress of believers, so that his power may be conducive to salvation and not self-aggrandizement.”

St. Paul “did not boast beyond the power that was given to him, nor did he claim any authority in places where his preaching had not been heard.”

St. Paul states: “For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends” (2 Cor. 10:18).

St. John Chrysostom commented: “Paul did not claim this for himself but left it to the Lord. Paul is modest, but not to the point where he neglects to tell the truth about himself.”

If the best metric for judging a comedy show is the amount of laughter, then Stand Up for Jesus was an undeniable success. It also might hold a key to understanding what constitutes Catholic comedy.

Held at St. Francis de Sales Church in Burnaby, the recent comedy night was the result of months of work by organizer Jo-Anne Duchscherer and her budding group of six amateur stand-up comics.

“If you have rotten cabbage, please do not throw them!” Duchscherer told the approximately 80 attendees. “This is not Elizabethan times — this is not the Globe theatre.”

She added quickly, “We do, however, accept donations of perishable items!”

All six comedians started taking stand-up lessons last year, and apart from a trial run in 2025, the May 30 event marked their inaugural public performance.

The comedy ministry was initially pitched to pastor Father Mark McGuckin when he was at Duchscherer’s parish, St. Joseph in Port Moody. The venture received episcopal approval from Archbishop J. Michael Miller last spring.

In an interview after the show, Duchscherer told The B.C. Catholic the goal of the ministry is simple: “To raise up holy fools for Jesus.” The holy fool is a medieval archetype popular in Eastern Christianity for embodying a closeness to God despite an unserious, often silly, disposition.

Duchscherer said her Catholic faith has always inspired her to embrace joy, which for her involves performing live comedy. She has been taking stand-up comedy classes and performing for over a decade.

Asked why she proposed the ministry, she simply quoted a line from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae: “Relaxation of the mind from work consists in playful words or deeds.”

Anyone is capable of writing good jokes, says Duchscherer, and she tells her students to look for the Catholic stories in their lives. “We’ll take those stories and break the funny out of them.”

At Stand Up for Jesus, the stories were as wide-ranging as the performing comedians, who represented a diverse generational cross-section of Catholic life.

Valerie Murdocco offered jokes about her 32 years of marriage, including a tongue-in-cheek explanation for her conversion to Catholicism from her strait-laced Protestant upbringing: “Gambling, wine and dancing? I’m in!” she said to appreciative laughter.

A trio of younger Catholics, Kenneth Haggerty, Emily Robichaud and Daniel Williams, joked about young life in the Church and the ills of millennial and Gen Z life in general.

Robichaud, a crowd favourite, drew considerable laughs after a series of jokes about joining the CWL as a young woman.

The event was a clear success, and other pastors are considering offering Stand Up for Jesus in their parishes.

While wading through the disenchanted swamp of modernity, the approach of Father’s Day offers a chance to reflect on how children and fatherhood re-enchant the world like few things can.

It’s not just that children bring an explosion of wonder, enthusiasm, and imagination to every moment, but the experience of building a relationship with a person who lacks all the pretensions and hang-ups associated with adulthood will explode your perception of human value—and all value—if you let it. (Clarification: this is a good explosion.)

So much of the modern world’s concept of personhood and human value is wrapped up in productivity, competence, and, by consequence, economics. My children are neither productive nor competent, and they bring me no money to speak of (unless you count that time my daughter gave me a quarter she found on the sidewalk).

Children are, by their very nature, bumbling and curious and time consuming … Actually that isn’t quite right. They don’t consume my time, they fulfil it. They don’t give value to my life, they give it meaning.

These aren’t simply semantic distinctions, they are clarifications about the nature of human worth. They are clarifications about the nature of reality.

Economic and material language is the great hidden serpent of our age. Without thinking too hard we have invited it into our homes, places of worship, and political institutions, where it whispers slow death and decay, framing our conception of human value with implied economic calculus.

Saying my children “consume my time,” or that they are “valuable,” may seem harmless enough. They reflect observable phenomena: I have only so much time, and when I spend (Ack! “Spend:” there it is again!) time with my kids, that time is technically used.

Likewise, “Consumption” seems like an adequate turn of phrase to describe this occurrence, except the word exists in a larger linguistic context. It is usually used to describe the way in which commodities (and, more recently, content—another disgusting modern perversion) are used in market environments. If the go-to reference point I have for my time is its relationship to money, real or imaginary, what am I really implying by “my kids consume my time”?

Language is not a value-neutral tool. It forms the substrate of our reality. Practically speaking, things don’t exist for us if they can’t be named. There is a cognitive linguistic phenomenon in which people’s perception of colour is limited by the words their language has for various colours. African tribesmen who have no word for orange find it near impossible to distinguish between red and orange. Their language restricted their perception.

The Athenians worshipping an unknown god suffered a similar fate.

Fr. Mark-Mary talks about how to live your best life (but in a Catholic way).

 When we read the lives of the saints, we could be inclined to think that they were way more holy than us, and that they had these extraordinary gifts that made it easy for them to become saints. It’s easy to think that becoming a saint is an unrealistic goal. But the truth is, the saints were just like us. They just chose to live differently, and we can too. 

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). 

A lot of the time, in trying to judge whether we’re living a life centered in Christ, we compare ourselves to those around us, especially nonbelievers. The problem with this is that, just as it says in Romans 12, we’re not called to be good or better by the world’s standards. We’re called to be saints. And to be saints, it’s going to require an outlook that doesn’t compare ourselves to those around us, but to strive for the perfection of Heaven. 

How can we do this? The answer is a little different for everyone, but it all consists in following the life of Christ, and living in accordance with his teachings. Things like committing ourselves to daily prayer, avoiding sin, performing works of charity; all of these things allow ourselves to transcend this world and reach for the eternal. Everything we do to strengthen our relationship with Christ gets us one step closer to being saints. 

The saints were people who saw this life on earth as an opportunity to better themselves for the sake of the Kingdom. It’s something that each of us can consciously choose to do every day. The beauty of this approach is that, the more we surrender ourselves to the Lord in little ways, the easier it becomes to surrender in larger ways. Powerhouse saints like St. Francis and St. Clare didn’t just magically surrender every part of themselves to Christ; it all started with little things like saying a morning offering every morning, or refraining from gossiping, or volunteering at their local charity. And this is what we are all called to do. 

Instead of judging the success of your life by looking at those around you, look instead to the Church and the lives of the saints, and ask yourself “What more can I do to give my life to Christ?” We aren’t called to be conformed to the world, but to transform it through our faith and our witness.

This week Matt and Jared talk with Haley Stewart, who is a writer, speaker, podcaster, and Catholic convert. Haley shares about the power of story in her life, the importance of literature in the home, and living simply.

God gifts everyone with beautiful talents. We don’t all have the same talents, which gives each of us a unique place in God’s vineyard. Sometimes, we use the words “gifts”, “talents”, and “charisms” interchangeably, but… charisms are truly something different. Something supernatural. 

Today, Fr. Mark-Mary and Fr. Columba define and unpack the nature of charisms for us, and illuminate the incredible gift that they are to us from the Holy Spirit.

I happened to be watching the Indy 500 on the weekend and was impressed, although not overly surprised, to see the Archbishop of Indianapolis was invited to offer the opening prayer.

It was one of those subtle yet unmistakable reminders of how deeply embedded the Catholic Church remains in public life. When society needs a solid, authoritative, meaningful presence—someone or something that represents serious religion—it turns to the Catholic Church.

It’s especially true in the United States, but here in Canada religion hasn’t entirely been driven from public consciousness either. There were signs of that throughout the installation of Vancouver Archbishop Richard Smith.

If I had to guess which moments will stay with people at his installation Mass or the reception before, it won’t just be the well-documented, perfectly orchestrated liturgy—the cardinals, bishops, incense, and solemnity so many rightly praised for its beauty.

It will also be the unofficial unscripted ones.

Like the bells that suddenly rang from an unknown source during Msgr. Gregory Smith’s prayer at the Archbishop’s reception—a startling interruption that made everyone in the ballroom pause.

Or the spontaneous applause from the priests as their new shepherd climbed the cathedral steps before Mass.

What moved me most were the passersby, the people in downtown Vancouver who could see something was happening and stopped to ask about it. When they learned it was the installation of a new Catholic Archbishop, many stayed. Some took photos. Others simply stood, visibly stirred by the pageantry unfolding before them. From cars and sidewalks, phones were raised to capture something that was clearly significant.

And it was.

One young woman approached the cathedral, unaware of the event. She didn’t have a ticket, she just wanted to pray. Despite the overflow crowd, she was quietly let in for a few minutes to visit the Lord. She stepped inside and prayed silently, surrounded by hymns and choir and prayers, far removed from the noise of the city outside. A few minutes later, she left, grateful for the brief admittance, and headed back down Georgia Street.

Outside, I spoke with two young men. Both were Catholic, one a labourer, the other a military reservist. They shared how their work environments can challenge their faith, but also notied how their presence is an opportunity to witness and has an effect on those around them. Colleagues, even atheists, clean up their language when they’re around, and some ask them questions. They noted the encouraging trend of young men coming back to the Church.

And then there was the solitary man kneeling outside the cathedral doors as the Mass was underway, praying silently for several minutes, a plastic shopping bag at his side.

From Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1, 2025, the great Jubilee event dedicated to families, children, grandparents, and the elderly will be held … three full days of events and attractions, punctuated by moments of prayer, reflection, celebration and sharing.

The event is expected to attract over 60,000 pilgrims to Rome. Participants have signed up to come from 120 countries from every continent. Large groups will be present from Italy, Spain, the United States, Poland and Portugal. Many pilgrims will also arrive in Rome from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Romania, the Philippines, and Chile.

Numerous dioceses, associations, and movements will also be represented, including large groups involved in Agesci, Italian Catholic Action, the Neocatechumenal Communities, UNITALSI, the Catholic Grandparents Association, the Franciscan Movement, the Focolare Movement, and many other Italian and international groups which promote the human and spiritual growth of families.

The first day of the Jubilee, Friday, May 30, will see pilgrimages to the Holy Doors of the Papal Basilicas between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm. At 10:00 am as is now customary, there will be “Dialogues with the city” – a series of cultural, artistic and spiritual events in the piazzas of the historic centre of Rome, organized by various institutions, associations and movements linked to family pastoral care, including the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day, the Association of Families for Welcoming, Nonno Banter 57 APS – Giochi di Strada, Le Muse di Archimede, and the Emmanuel Community. All the details relating to the piazzas hosting events and activities can be found on the Jubilee website.

On Saturday May 31, the pilgrimage to the Holy Doors will continue from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Please note that, due to organizational requirements in the Vatican Basilica, the Holy Door of St. Peter’s will not be accessible from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm on Saturday.

From 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, the “Dialogues with the city” will continue offering celebratory and educational activities, organized by, among others, the Centro Oratori Romani (COR), Italian Catholic Action, the CHARIS Association (Catholic Charismatic Renewal), the Neocatechumenal Way, the Community of Sant’Egidio, Family Global Compact and the international network of family associations, and also Le Muse di Archimede and Nonno Banter 57 APS – Giochi di Strada. For these events too, all the details can be found on the Jubilee website.

Saturday’s events will culminate in the late afternoon, from 6:30 pm to 8.00 pm, in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, with the “Family Festival” and the Prayer Vigil during which the Rosary will be recited to conclude the Marian month of May.

The celebration, which will be packed with music and testimonies, will be hosted by Lorena Bianchetti, an Italian television presenter, and will see the participation of, among others, special guests such as the actor Giovanni Scifoni, the Christian Music bands The Sun and Gen Verde, and Alfio Russo, a very young saxophonist.