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In 2017, just days after medical euthanasia was legalized in Canada, Vancouver’s most prominent euthanasia doctor commented on the initial high numbers, which startled even one provincial health minister.

In less than six months, Canadian doctors had killed 744 adults who requested assisted death—four Canadians a day.

In Quebec, where the provincial government was already allowing doctors to euthanize patients a year before Ottawa legalized it, Health Minister Gaetan Barrette was caught off guard. His province was euthanizing people at more than 2½ times the rate he had predicted. “That, in itself, is surprising to me.”

But the numbers didn’t faze Vancouver’s Dr. Ellen Wiebe, who claimed responsibility for at least five per cent of the 744 deaths. “I know that it will increase,” said Wiebe, who assisted in at least 40 of those deaths. “I expect that we’ll get to the point of the Netherlands and Belgium because their laws are similar to ours, and that would mean about five per cent of all deaths.”

Wiebe’s crystal ball was fairly accurate. In 2023, Canada reported 15,343 MAiD deaths, accounting for 4.7 per cent of all deaths—not quite the Netherlands’ 2022 rate of 5.1 per cent (9,195 cases), but well ahead of Belgium’s 2.5 per cent (2,966 cases).

Last year The B.C. Catholic published a special edition on MAiD, projecting that at its current growth rate, Canada would hit 18,000 deaths in 2024. Final numbers are still pending, but if accurate, that would push Canada past the Netherlands for the world’s highest euthanasia rate. There’s no reason to think we won’t get there—or didn’t long ago—given that euthanasia data is often incomplete and largely self-reported.

Canada’s bishops have consistently condemned all aspects of Canada’s MAiD legalization, calling euthanasia and assisted suicide “morally unacceptable” and “affronts to human dignity and violations of natural and divine law” in a November 2023 statement.

It’s remarkable how quickly a society’s natural aversion to suicide can be reversed. It didn’t happen by accident.

A new article in The American Journal of Bioethics identifies three factors that make Canada’s soaring euthanasia rates unique:

1. The “significant” number of cases where patients didn’t want to die but found MAiD their easiest option.
2. The rapid acceptance of MAiD, now the sixth leading cause of death in Canada.
3. An “active movement” more interested in expanding euthanasia access “in law, policy, and practice” rather than focusing on safeguards.

Euthanasia activists appear to have the government’s ear—and, in some cases, its wallet. Health Canada has provided millions of dollars in funding to MAiD provider group the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers, a registered charity that received $1.2 million in government funding in 2023.

Project Advance set a new milestone in 2024, raising a record-breaking $7.7 million to support parish initiatives, Catholic education, and outreach efforts across the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, expressed his deep gratitude to donors whose generosity helped surpass previous fundraising efforts. 

“Together, you have raised over $7 million to strengthen your parish while also growing our ministries and extending outreach to those in need,” he said. “Your generosity is helping build a vibrant community of faith that supports families across our Archdiocese.”

The achievement comes despite economic uncertainty as well as recent confusion surrounding charitable donation deadlines. The cost-of-living crisis, inflation, and financial uncertainty have led many Canadians to cut back on giving, making this year’s Project Advance total even more remarkable.

The Fraser Institute said in 2024 that the share of Canadians claiming charitable donations has been in decline, dropping from 19.4 per cent in 2018 to 17.1 per cent in 2022.

Further complicating matters, last year’s postal disruption led to a severe drop-off in year-end giving for many charities. As a result, the federal government extended the charitable donation deadline to Feb. 28, 2025, to allow additional time to make donations. 

Then came the proroguing of government in early 2025, raising uncertainty about whether the extension would happen. To clarify the situation, the Department of Finance on Jan. 23 announced draft legislation supporting the extension while the Canada Revenue Agency confirmed it will proceed with administering the 2024 deadline extension.

Despite all these uncertainties, 13,758 donors helped Project Advance surpass all previous fundraising efforts.

With this year’s theme, “Building Our Parish Community,” Project Advance emphasized parish renewal and support. The campaign’s success means that $4.28 million will be returned to parishes through the rebate program, funding parish projects.

Project Advance 2024 will strengthen key ministries across the Archdiocese, including:

•    Expanding Catholic education by building new secondary schools.

•    Supporting spiritual care in hospitals and health-care facilities.

•    Evangelizing through programs such as Alpha, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and PREP.

•    Supporting youth and young adult ministries.

•    Providing outreach to Indigenous, Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese communities.

•    Fighting human trafficking, supporting refugees, and assisting migrant workers.

•    Extending marriage, parenting, and relationship enrichment programs.

•    Supporting prison ministry and faith formation for former inmates.

•    Providing grants to organizations such as Catholic Christian Outreach, Catholic Street Missionaries, and Catholic Addictions Recovery Ministries.

Archbishop Miller said parishioners’ gifts “will continue to bear fruit in your parish for years to come” by supporting education, youth initiatives, and care for the vulnerable. 

Project Advance has been a cornerstone of Catholic generosity in Vancouver since it was launched over 40 years ago with an original goal of $3 million.

A year after issuing a pastoral letter on the use of social media, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a new video series to help Catholics navigate social media with faith and integrity.

The series, part of a new webpage for the CCCB’s Pastoral Letter on the Use of Social Media,  contains new resources and materials inspired by the letter to help Catholics “unpack the observations” and apply guidance from the bishops on using social media from a Catholic social and moral perspective.

The main element of the resources is a five-part video series on YouTube that brings the letter’s key messages to life. Bishop Scott McCaig, CC, bishop of the Military Ordinariate of Canada, hosts the English version, while Bishop Pierre-Olivier Tremblay, OMI, of Hearst-Moosonee, Ont., presents the French videos.

The pastoral letter was published in January 2024 by the CCCB’s Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace. Entitled Let Your Speech Always Be Gracious, the letter explains the ethical and moral dimensions of digital communication.

The CCCB resources include the video series, a social media toolkit, and a downloadable version of the letter to encourage Catholics to reflect on their social media use in a way that is consistent with Catholic values.

The pastoral letter “addresses the complex and rapidly evolving world of social media,” says Bishop McCaig in his video introduction to the series. “It offers guidance, reflections, and insights for navigating these digital spaces in a way that aligns with our faith and values.”

The video series highlights seven key themes from the pastoral letter:

•    Check for accuracy before sharing information.

•    Seek greater perspective to avoid echo chambers.

•    Value human dignity by treating others with respect online.

•    Bring curiosity into conversation and engage with openness.

•    Distinguish between intention and impact in communication.

•    Privilege in-person encounters over excessive digital engagement.

•    Tend to time spent online and balance social media with real-life relationships.

Bishop McCaig emphasizes the importance of verifying information before sharing it. In an era when misinformation spreads rapidly, “It’s crucial to ensure that what we share online is accurate and trustworthy.”

He also addresses the need to seek perspective, warning against the dangers of being limited to one-sided or biased perspectives. “We are encouraged to look beyond our own viewpoints and understand the broader context of an issue,” he says. 

“By doing so, we foster empathy and avoid echo chambers – spaces where people only encounter viewpoints similar to their own.”

The letter also presents a call to value human dignity in all online interactions.

When communist forces shuttered Vietnam’s seminaries decades ago, they closed the door on Peter The Hoang Truong’s dream of priesthood. Years later, his unwavering faith would inspire his son to complete the journey he never could.

On Jan. 11, that son, Thomas The Hiep Truong, became the newest priest in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, joining the Congregation of St. John the Baptist (CSJB), a missionary order whose presence stretches from its 1928 origins in Taiwan to its current ministry at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Vancouver.

On a day filled with joy and grace, Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, ordained Father Truong to the priesthood at St. Francis Xavier.

“God has made me his priest—a man who can act in the person of Christ,” Father Truong said in his thanksgiving speech, his voice filled with emotion.

Born in Buôn Ma Thuột, the capital of Đắk Lắk Province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, Father Truong’s early life was steeped in Catholic faith and devotion. His hometown, home to two vibrant parishes serving over 10,000 faithful, provided fertile ground for his vocation through frequent Mass and strong communities.

“My father, a former seminarian, was my first inspiration,” Father Truong said. Despite the hardships of war and the closure of the seminary during the communist takeover of his home country of Vietnam, his father’s unwavering faith became a guiding light in Father Truong’s vocation.

During his second year of college, Father Truong felt a stronger calling to the priesthood, a moment that would transform his life. His path to the priesthood and CSJB formation took him from his formative years at the congregation’s motherhouse in Taichung, before leading him across three continents, including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Canada. He completed his theological studies at the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission.

Father Truong expressed his gratitude to Archbishop J. Michael Miller for his encouragement and for laying hands upon him in ordination. He also thanked his congregation, St. Francis Xavier Parish, the Vietnamese communities of St. Joseph’s in Vancouver and St. Matthew’s in Surrey, and the many priests, formators, mentors, friends, and family whose prayers and encouragement strengthened him.

He also mentioned his late father, as well as his mother who wasn’t able to attend the ordination, his words reflecting the deep impact of his family’s love and sacrifices on his vocation.

“Mom, thank you for teaching me to pray and for stepping into Dad’s role in shaping my faith,” he said.

Father Truong then had a request of the faithful.

I was greatly encouraged by Father Hawkswell’s article in the Jan. 20 edition entitled “Worship as one body.” 

We should indeed be united in our worship and follow the guidelines of our bishops, as described in The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), which can also be found on the Canadian bishops’ website, cccb.ca. 

The word Catholic means universal, so the more we deviate from the guidelines of our bishops and make up our own individual rubrics, the less Catholic we become. I think it important for all priests, choir directors, and all involved in the leadership of liturgy to be familiar with the GIRM.

I was glad that Father Hawkswell emphasized the importance of silence in our liturgical worship. Silence during Mass renews our sense of wonder and is essential for effective contemplative and meditative prayer. When I was a teenager, it was the silence during Holy Communion that led to moments of deeper conversion and a maturing of my faith. I would argue that it is only in silence that a conversion to Christ is possible.

So my plea to my fellow Catholics is: please don’t deprive us of silence in church. Our lives are already noisy enough. We do not need to fill every second of the Eucharistic celebration with sound. “Even before the celebration itself, it is a praiseworthy practice for silence to be observed in the church … so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred celebration in a devout and fitting manner.” (GIRM 45)

Devotions, such as the Rosary, are good, but fitting preparation for the liturgy is of greater importance, so devotions should be prayed individually in silence rather than communally.

A long quiet time after Communion is important. “When the distribution of Communion is over, if appropriate, the Priest and faithful pray quietly for some time. If desired, a Psalm or other canticle of praise or a hymn may also be sung by the whole congregation.” (GIRM 88, emphasis mine).

A Communion hymn is not mandatory, but optional, because silence is of greater importance.

Mark Norbury OP
Port Moody

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Near the end of Pope Francis’ new autobiography, appropriately titled Hope for the Jubilee year, he shares a poem from the 20th-century Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet.

The poem is at the end of a chapter titled For The Best Days Are Still to Come, and the poem’s title, On Living, serves as a fitting close for a book titled Hope.

The last lines of the poem are:
“And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you
I haven’t said yet …”

We can pray that the most beautiful words that haven’t been said yet will soon be allowed to be said, because we’ve been steeped in times when speaking freely has not always been possible.

Jan. 24 is the feast of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists, and a moment to reflect on the importance of freedom of speech, not just as a political issue but as a teaching of the Church. In 2025, we might ask ourselves whether the fundamental right of speech, as the Church puts it, is gaining or losing ground.

In the words of Pope Francis, there’s some reason to hope the best days are still to come, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that the past decade hasn’t been the best time for freedom of expression, in Canada and around the world. There’s no need to wade through the quagmire of ways limits on speech have been imposed. Let’s just say it’s been easier to talk about some issues than others.

It’s been difficult to watch, particularly from a journalistic perspective. Reporters and commentators did not shine over the past few years, in large measure leaving their traditional post as gatekeepers and joining the ranks of censors and regulators.

They and their news organizations, through programs with Orwellian names like the Trusted News Initiative and the Trust Project and the proliferation of media “fact-checkers.” Financial incentives – from Google to government – ensured traditional media weren’t going to upset any apple carts, not when those carts carried the apples that fed them.

The increasing clampdowns on freedom of expression in the last decade aren’t just disappointing. Catholic teaching calls freedom of speech a fundamental human right that’s essential for human dignity and the common good. We are created in the image of God, and human dignity includes the right to freely express our honest thoughts and opinions.

The Second Vatican Council document Communio et Progressio, which I often quote during journalism talks, says, “It is absolutely essential that there be freedom to express ideas and attitudes” if public opinion is “to emerge in the proper manner.”

In the first half of chapter 6 of the First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:1–8), St. Paul accused the Corinthians of suing each other in Gentile court. He wrote, “To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” (1 Cor 6:7).

St. John Chrysostom commented, “But someone will say, ‘It is a terrible thing to suffer wrong and be maltreated.’ No, my friend, it is not terrible, not at all. How long will you be distressed about present things? God would not have commanded this if it were terrible. Consider this: the one who has committed injustice leaves the court with money but with a bad conscience, but the one who has suffered injustice, even if he is deprived of his money, has confidence before God, a possession more precious than countless treasures.…

“But someone will object, ‘What are you saying? I have been deprived of all my possessions; do you order me to keep silent? I was maltreated; do you exhort me to bear it meekly? How can I?’ You are quite mistaken; it is easy, if you look up to heaven, if you behold its beauty and see where God has promised to receive you if you suffer injustice nobly. Look up to heaven, therefore, and, as you do so, consider that you have become like the One who sits there above the cherubim (see Heb 9:5, 25). He too was insulted and bore it, he too was reproached and did not seek revenge, he was struck and did not strike (Mt 26:67–68). He repaid his enemies, who had done such things, with innumerable acts of kindness, and he ordered us to be imitators of him.”

Father George T. Montague, SM, wrote, “What stands out in this section is how real Paul considers the new family of Christians to be. How much does our being a Christian and our belonging to this family affect our identity? Our identity as citizens of our country is reinforced at every turn: the media, the traffic lights, our taxes on income or sales. If Sunday worship is the only reinforcement we receive for our Christian identity, it is likely to fall far short of what God means it to be. That is why other means—prayer, Scripture reading and study, parish ministry, retreats, faith-sharing groups—are needed to strengthen our Christian identity. If our secular identity is primary, we would probably rather sue than be reconciled within the Christian community, as Paul would expect.”

The second half of Chapter 6 is against immoral conduct (1 Cor 6:9–20). The Corinthians used two slogans to justify sinful behaviours: “All things are lawful for me” and “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” (1 Cor 6:12–13).

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Neh 8:1–4a, 5–6, 8–10
Second Reading: 1 Cor 12:12–30
Gospel Reading: Lk 1:1–4, 4:14–21

To appreciate this Sunday’s First Reading, we must know its background.

In 587 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, including Solomon’s temple, and deported the inhabitants to Babylon. In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia, who had defeated Babylon the year before, allowed the Jews to return home and instructed his governors (“satraps”) to help them rebuild.

(In 1879, archaeologists discovered a clay cylinder bearing an inscription by Cyrus confirming the above Biblical account, and on April 16, 2015, Israel issued a stamp commemorating the event.)

As the new temple began to take shape, the high priest Hilkiah announced, “I have found the book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” 

Seven months later, “the whole people gathered as one man” and “called upon Ezra the scribe to bring forth the book” and read it aloud. It took Ezra “from early morning until midday,” for it contained the detailed regulations concerning worship that God had prescribed at Mount Sinai, which fill Chapters 25–31 of the Book of Exodus.

Pope Francis referred to those regulations in his 2022 apostolic letter Desiderio Desideravi, on the “liturgical formation of the people of God.”

The authentic “art of celebrating” the liturgy is more than a mechanical observation of rubrics (at one extreme) or an “imaginative—sometimes wild”—disregard of rules (at the other). The rite is “a norm,” he said, but a norm “is never an end in itself”; it is always designed to protect “a higher reality.”

The Church’s liturgy has authority, for, like the creeds, it developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. Accordingly, priests and other liturgical ministers must take “special care” to adhere to it, Pope Francis told the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith early in 2024.

However, he said in Desiderio Desideravi, the congregation must also adhere to it in “all the gestures and words that belong to the assembly”: gathering, processing, sitting, standing, kneeling, singing, acclaiming, looking, listening, and keeping silence. Thus “the assembly, as one body, participates in the celebration”—like the “whole people” who “gathered as one man” to listen to Ezra.

Making the same gesture and “speaking together in one voice” impose a “uniformity” that does not “deaden,” the Pope said, but “educates individual believers to discover the authentic uniqueness of their personalities not in individualistic attitudes, but in the awareness of being one body.”

“Individualistic attitudes”—like extending one’s hands in unexpected or flamboyant gestures, speaking at a different pace from everyone else, or kneeling when one should be standing and vice versa—draw attention to oneself and distract others (including the priest!)

The St. John Brebeuf Secondary community had the rare opportunity to venerate a first-class relic of their patron, St. Jean de Brebeuf, alongside relics of three other Canadian saints — St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Charles Garnier, and St. Gabriel Lalement.

The relics were visiting from the Canadian Martyrs Shrine in Midland, Ont. Jesuit Fathers John O’Brien and Edmund Lo brought the relics as part of a cross-country event marking the Jubilee Year celebrating the Canadian Martyrs.

The day began with a Mass at St. James, next door to SJB, concelebrated by Fathers O’Brien and Lo and joined by Father Ron Dechant, OMI, of St. James, and Father Gio Schiesari of St. Mary’s in Chilliwack.

In his homily, Father O’Brien shared stories of the lives of the saints. After the Mass, students and faculty were able to come forward to venerate the relics.

The Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs has been designated as an official pilgrimage site for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. The Western Canada tour was organized so Canadians across the country could make a Jubilee pilgrimage.

The major relics of the Canadian Martyrs on include the skull of St. Jean de Brébeuf and bones of St. Charles Garnier and St. Gabriel Lalemant. The three men were among the eight French missionaries who first brought the Gospel to Canada and were martyred during the Huron-Iroquois Wars of the early 1600s.

Joining them is a relic of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Indigenous North American saint and the patron of First Nations peoples.

At St. Anthony of Padua in Agassiz on Jan. 11, veneration of the relics will take place from 10 a.m. until the 5 p.m. anticipatory Mass celebrated by Father O’Brien.

The relics will also visit Holy Rosary Cathedral on Sunday, Jan. 12, and Monday, Jan. 13. On Sunday, Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Miller at 11 a.m. and in Spanish by Father O’Brien at 6:30 p.m. Veneration of the relics will be available during the following times: 12:30–1 p.m., 2–4 p.m., and 7:30–8 p.m.

On Monday, Jan. 13, a Votive Mass of St. Jean de Brebeuf will be celebrated at 12:10 p.m., with veneration available from 1–4 p.m. For tour details, visit martyrs-shrine.com/relic-tour.

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