Religious charities in the crosshairs
The following is excerpted from Church for Vancouver by publisher Flyn Ritchie on Jan. 8:
Roughly 40 per cent of all charitable organizations in Canada are religious. Their status was threatened just before Christmas, when the Standing Committee on Finance released its “Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2025 Budget“ in the House of Commons on Dec. 13.
One of the report’s many recommendations was to “Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose.” Local NDP MP Don Davies was one member of the standing committee.
The proposal has been overshadowed by the turmoil within the ruling Liberal Party. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland quit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet following the weekend, on Dec. 16, instead of delivering the government’s fall economic statement.
Trudeau himself announced on Jan. 6 that he will be stepping down as leader of the party; he also prorogued Parliament (which includes ending committee activity).
And it is fair to say that even if the Liberal government were not in such disarray, it is by no means clear that this government would have acted on the proposal – or another, which called for no longer providing charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.
However, the issue is popping up more and more, and one local organization is very invested in the proposal.
Ian Bushfield of the BC Humanist Association posted a comment about the situation on Jan. 6, noting, “Both recommendations mirror submissions made by the BCHA in July.”
Last summer, the BCH wrote to the House of Commons Finance Committee with three asks for Budget 2025: No charitable status for anti-abortion organizations, Remove “advancement of religion” as a charitable purpose, and Repeal the clergy residence deduction. . . .
“Already, evangelical and conservative religious groups are in uproar over this suggestion. This is why we’re asking you to write to your MP to support these changes.”
He was right, at least, about the response from Christians.
The potential damage to churches and other religious organizations – and to the nation itself – could be very significant. The prompt response by religious leaders shows how seriously they are taking the issue.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, writing for the National Post on Dec. 29, acknowledged that the finance committee’s many proposals were broad-ranging and non-binding:
“The committee holds many hearings during the fall, inviting various experts, advocates and rent-seekers to make their case that the government should do this or that thing. . .
“The committee bundles it all up, decides what recommendations to adopt, and then reports it all to the House.
Preserving the past: St. Matthew’s historian revives parish stories in hope of inspiring gratitude
While many amateur historians who delve into the depths of parish records can find the exercise frustrating, this has not been the experience for St. Matthew’s parishioner Daisy Wong.
She has been enjoying collecting bits and pieces of the Surrey parish’s history. Driven by a desire to share that history with newcomers, Wong hopes they will gain a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the parish community they have inherited. If it helps them contribute to the parish or join even a single ministry, all the better.
Storytelling is a profoundly human activity. It not only gives shape to the world but it also helps to bridge the gap between people who may not have shared experiences. Like St. Matthew’s, growing communities sometimes struggle to integrate the new with the old, and stories can help.
“I feel that if people knew a little bit more about the human aspect of things, maybe they would have a sense of gratitude about what they have now,” Wong told The B.C. Catholic.
Since the summer, she has poured over binders full of parish records and tracked down stacks of old parish bulletins saved by the Stones, one of the parish’s founding families.
She has run into some surprising hurdles. Photos were more plentiful before the advent of digital photography. People seemed more intentional about documenting happenings at the parish when it took some effort. Social media, it would seem, has made us lazy.
Wong is still determining how she will ultimately share the stories she gathers through her research. However, she feels a sense of urgency. Older parishioners are passing away, and with them go their stories.
In addition to archival materials, Wong has begun collecting interviews with significant St. Matthew’s community members, as well as its previous pastors, such as founder Father Glenn Dion. Talking about it gets her teary-eyed.
“Gratitude is the biggest message I want to portray,” she said, “because I truly feel that without these people who work so hard we wouldn’t have such a vibrant and wonderful parish.”
“I just feel like the baton needs to be passed,” said Wong, adding that many parishioners who built that parish deserve some recognition.
Wong has been at St. Matthew’s since its early days, and she remembers kneeling on the hard gym floor before the church building was completed, an experience she believes is difficult to communicate. Without kneeling on the hard gym floor, it’s hard to appreciate the entire story of the parish founders, she said.
She hopes her children will one day look at their lives and see their parents’ hard work, the same way she is trying to help newcomers understand the work done to create the parish community they are part of and enjoy.
MAiD toll now almost five per cent of deaths in Canada
Health Canada’s new annual report about medical assistance in dying (MAiD) revealed that euthanasia now accounts for nearly five per cent — 15,343 people — of the nation’s total fatalities (326,571) in 2023.
Rebecca Vachon, health program director for the non-partisan think tank Cardus, declared the report “reconfirms that Canada has one of the fastest growing euthanasia and assisted suicide programs in the world. The dramatic rise in MAiD deaths since 2016 is far faster than the federal government, the courts or pro-euthanasia activists ever publicly predicted before or since legalization.”
The data patently reveals that Vachon is over the target with her argument. Consider that it took the Netherlands, for decades viewed as a leading nation in the medical-killing department, until 2021 — 40 years after euthanasia was legalized — for the procedure to account for at least 4.7 per cent of all deaths. Canada reached that dubious threshold in just seven years.
Even the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the group that filed the Carter v. Canada constitutional challenge that ultimately legalized MAiD, is now heralding the guardrail gospel. Liz Hughes, the association’s executive director, told the National Post the group is “aware of concerning reports of people being offered MAiD in circumstances that may not legally qualify, as well as people accessing MAiD as a result of intolerable social circumstances.” Hughes affirmed that “governments must put in place, actively review and enforce appropriate safeguards to ensure that people are making this decision freely.”
Alberta wrapped up a process on Dec. 20 that invited the public to weigh in on the province’s euthanasia policies.
Mickey Amery, Alberta’s minister of justice and attorney general, urged Albertans in November to participate in the process because she said the governing United Conservative Party recognizes “that medical assistance in dying is a very complex and often personal issue and is an important, sensitive and emotional matter for patients and their families. It is important to ensure this process has the necessary supports to protect the most vulnerable.”
Depending on the survey results, some of the possible changes to Alberta’s euthanasia-related “processes, procedures, oversight and protections” that could arise in the coming months include:
- Creating a new agency and legislation to provide assisted suicide oversight;
- Forming a mechanism to empower families or other eligible individuals to dispute MAiD cases;
- Enacting a framework to allow for “appropriate sharing of confidential medical information related to MAiD determinations”; and
- Introducing new criteria that limits MAiD eligibility.
Along with conducting the survey, the government canvassed various academics, advocacy groups, public bodies, religious organizations and regulatory organizations.
Nicole Scheidl, executive director for Canadian Physicians for Life (CPL), shared via email some of the actions CPL hopes Danielle Smith’s government will take.
Epiphany: Finding ourselves changed at the manger
“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.’” (Mt 2:1–2).
The Epiphany has always been a favourite feast of mine. I love hearing how the magi knew they needed to search for a king and how they found him in the humblest of circumstances. During Advent, I benefitted from daily reflections reminding me of the magi and their importance in the story of our salvation. In this article, I will share a collection of the words of wisdom I have recently acquired.
The magi brought their earthly gifts to the Christ-Child and then returned home a different way due to the threat of King Herod. Not unlike today, Christianity from the beginning was humbling, uncomfortable, and even dangerous. Emily Stimpson Chapman reflects on the fact that being Christian is worth the risks:
“Look at the babe in the manger and the man on the cross and bow down before him in wonder, gratitude, and awe. Let the holy fire of his love wash over you. Trust it. Risk everything for it. Risk everything to share it, too. Because in the end, it’s the only love worth having. It is not safe. But it is real. It is glorious. And it does save.”
Author Danielle Bean reflected, “The regal splendor of the magi contrasts with the simplicity of the manger, reminding us of Mary’s song in the Magnificat: ‘He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly’ (Lk 1:52). In Baby Jesus, we see the perfect union of humility and exaltation. God humbles himself, taking on human flesh, so that we may be lifted into his divine life. Where is God inviting us to be humbled and where does he desire to lift us up? When we lay down our pride and earthly treasures at his feet, we open ourselves to joy.”
In examining Botticelli’s painting, Adoration of the Magi, Bean also writes, “This scene weaves together majesty and humility. Kings bow before the infant Jesus, beautifully reflecting Jesus’ words: ‘The first will be last, and the last will be first’ (Mt 20:16). Though the magi were esteemed in the eyes of the world, they laid their treasures at the feet of a child born in poverty, acknowledging him as the King of Kings. God calls us to reorder our priorities. Are we putting Christ first in our hearts, or are we clinging to worldly distractions? By humbling themselves, the magi found their true treasure in Jesus.”
At creation, God had baptism in mind
Baptism of the Lord, Year C
First Reading: Is 40:1–5, 9–11
Second Reading: Ti 2:11–14; 3:4–7
Gospel Reading: Lk 3:15–16, 21–22
In 1955, Pope Pius XII separated the Feast of the Lord’s baptism from the Epiphany (then Jan. 6) and moved it to Jan. 13. In 1969, Pope St. Paul VI transferred it to the Sunday after Jan. 6. In 1996, Pope St. John Paul II made Christ’s baptism one of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.
Why is it so important? John proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” but Jesus was sinless; why did he need baptism?
Jesus first took on the sin of the human race at his Incarnation, when he became man. With his baptism, at the beginning of his public life, he accepted and inaugurated “his mission as God’s suffering Servant,” allowing “himself to be numbered among sinners,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As John realized, he was already “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
Jesus told Nicodemus that to enter God’s Kingdom, he must be “begotten from above” of “water and Spirit.” Just before his Ascension, he told his apostles that anyone who believes in the good news and “accepts baptism will be saved,” while he who “refuses to believe in it will be condemned.”
Baptism is “the basis of the whole Christian life,” the Catechism says: the “gateway” to supernatural life and “the door which gives access” to the other sacraments, all of which “are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.”
The ordinary minister of baptism is a bishop, priest, or deacon, but “in case of necessity such as danger of death, anyone may baptize”—and anyone should know how to.
Some years ago, a young man who had intended to become Catholic but had to relinquish his studies twice due to cancer returned to China to die. There, in an ICU where only his father, a Buddhist monk, was admitted, he asked to be baptized. His father phoned a woman who had taken my course The Catholic Faith in Plain English, and she, reading from my material, told him what to do: pour water three times over his son’s head, saying, at the same time, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
By the power of the Holy Spirit, that water and those words actually accomplished what they signified: namely death to sin and rebirth into the life of the Holy Trinity.
Indeed, water—which drowns us, cleanses us, refreshes us, and keeps us alive—symbolizes baptism very clearly.
Canadian group that led push to MAiD warns of abuse of system
An activist group that led the push to legalize medical aid in dying (MAiD) in Canada is now warning that additional government safeguards are needed to combat reports of abuse of the program.
Liz Hughes, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), told the National Post that the organization has become “aware of concerning reports of people being offered MAID in circumstances that may not legally qualify as well as people accessing MAID as a result of intolerable social circumstances.”
The BCCLA was a key figure in Canada’s legalization of euthanasia, having filed the suit Carter v. Canada that led to the Supreme Court of Canada’s striking down the government ban on the procedure.
In the roughly nine years since euthanasia became legal in Canada in 2016, the practice has become increasingly popular. The latest government figures, released this month, showed another double-digit year-over-year increase in the procedure, with 15,343 Canadian citizens euthanized by medical officials in 2023, accounting for 1 in 20 deaths there.
Yet a bombshell report in November revealed that out of hundreds of violations of the country’s controversial euthanasia law over the course of several years, none of them have been reported to law enforcement, with whistleblowers warning of numerous “issues with compliance” in reportage.
Hughes told the National Post that the country’s federal and provincial governments “must put in place, actively review, and enforce appropriate safeguards to ensure that people are making this decision freely.”
The civil rights organization “will continue to hold the government accountable” for its policing of the euthanasia program, she said.
At its launch, the country’s euthanasia regime was billed as a last-resort choice for terminally ill adults undergoing terrible suffering. In the years since, however, activists have called for its expansion to include much broader categories of applicants.
An activist group sued the federal government earlier this month, calling for an immediate expansion of the country’s euthanasia program to allow physician-assisted suicide for those suffering from mental illness.
The federal government had earlier been set to expand the program to those with mental illnesses; that measure was delayed early this year and is now projected to take effect in 2027.
The Quebec government last month began allowing assisted suicide for individuals who cannot consent at the time of the procedure, permitting “advance requests” by those who have “been diagnosed with a serious and incurable illness leading to incapacity” such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The federal government, meanwhile, is actively soliciting citizen input for a proposal to legalize “advance requests” at the national level.
Your voice matters! Join the conversation by submitting a Letter to the Editor here.
Mary a sign of ‘certain hope’ in the Jubilee Year
On Wednesday, Jan. 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, a holy day of obligation for Catholics.
The Gospels usually call Mary “the mother of Jesus,” but when Mary greeted her cousin Elizabeth after conceiving Jesus, Elizabeth cried out: “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
This was the first use of the title “mother of the Lord” or its equivalent, “mother of God.” (Out of respect, the Jews always substituted God’s title, “Lord,” for his name.) However, it continued to be used.
It went unchallenged until the fifth century, when Bishop Nestorius of Constantinople began to argue that Mary had given birth to Christ’s human nature, but not his divine nature. However, St. Cyril of Alexandria noted that a mother gives birth to a person, not a nature, and that Christ is one person, although he has two natures.
Finally, at the Council of Ephesus in 431, under Pope Celestine I, the Church declared Mary to be “the mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his very conception united to himself the body he took from her.”
Mary did not originate God, but she “mothered” him in the sense that a man “fathers” a child.
Thus God began the events that led up to our redemption – the only secure grounds we have for hope even today.
On Ascension Sunday, May 9, 2024, Pope Francis issued a “Bull of Indiction” entitled Spes Non Confundit (Hope Does Not Disappoint), proclaiming 2025 a Jubilee or Holy Year, starting throughout the world on Dec. 29, 2024, and ending on Dec. 28, 2025.
By ancient tradition, the Pope proclaims a jubilee year every 25 years. This one will lead up to the extraordinary jubilee of 2033, the 2,000th anniversary of our redemption.
“We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence,” Pope Francis said. “The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope.”
He cited the widespread desire for peace and the enthusiasm for life – the “joy of living” – that leads married couples to have children.
He called on Catholics to become “tangible signs of hope” to prisoners, migrants, the sick, the disabled, the young, the elderly, and the poor. In the spirit of Old Testament jubilees, he implored “the more affluent nations” to “acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them.”
‘Recognize the Child Jesus in faces of the world’s children,’ Archbishop Miller says in Christmas message
Dear brothers and sisters:
“To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). Those words spoken by the Angel in the heavens above Bethlehem so long ago are just as clearly addressed to us today. That the Lord has been born for us fills us with hope and trust because the Son of God has made his home among us. This is the good news that has changed the course of history and the life of each one of us.
As we look towards the upcoming Jubilee Year of Hope, we recall that the reason for our hope is this: God is with us; he accompanies us; he is always by our side.
I encourage you in these special days to kneel before the Nativity scene to experience the joy that comes from the nearness of Jesus, the tenderness of God himself. With haste and enthusiasm, let us set out to see the Saviour lying in the poverty of the manger and adored by Mary, Joseph, the Angels, and the shepherds.
This Christmas I invite you to recognize the Child Jesus in the faces of the world’s children. From the manger, this Child directs our gaze to all children who are suffering and abused: to children killed in their mother’s womb; to children brutalized in their homes by terrorists; to children hiding underground to escape bombardment; to children at the bottom of a boat overladen with immigrants; to children who go to school hungry in our own City; to children without the blessing of a happy family home; to children who are victims of human trafficking, the pornography industry and every kind of appalling exploitation in our own Downtown Eastside.
Born of the Virgin Mary, God became man in the Child Jesus, the Saviour of the world. May he who is “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12), enter your hearts, brighten your homes, bring hope to our City, and grant peace and bring joy to the whole world.
With the assurance of my prayers for you and your families, I wish you all a blessed Christmas season.
Your voice matters! Join the conversation by submitting a Letter to the Editor here.
‘Promise of salvation is ours’: Canadian bishops’ Christmas message
Below is the Christmas message from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
A Saviour has been born for us; a Son has been given to us.
Christ, who in his birth and in becoming human has allowed us to share in the glory of his immortal nature. He has freed us from death, and the power of sin and darkness. This promise of salvation is ours and thus we rejoice in the knowledge that God is with us.
In our world overshadowed by war, injustice, oppression, division and selfish concerns the Good News proclaimed by Christ continues to offer us a message of salvation and hope. His words speak to us today, they reassure us, and fill us with hope:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
I am the way, and the truth and the life.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the bread of life.
On 29 December 2024 the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope will take place in the cathedrals across Canada. In announcing the Jubilee year Pope Francis wrote: “The Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives. Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.”
May the light of hope illuminated by the Holy Spirit burn within our hearts this Christmas. May the light of God’s love shine through us, and may our witness of faith be an invitation for others to believe in the gift of salvation that Christ offers to all, and most especially in this upcoming Jubilee year.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year 2025!
The Most Rev. William McGrattan
Bishop of Calgary
President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Your voice matters! Join the conversation by submitting a Letter to the Editor here.
Bible translation brings Word to Mohawks
Since being named co-chair of the Roman Catholic Evangelical Dialogue Group in 2018, Bishop Joseph Dabrowski has done extensive work promoting unity and understanding among Christian traditions.
Bishop Dabrowski and others within the group have also been involved in educating themselves on issues of reconciliation and establishing healthy relations with Indigenous communities across the country.
Through this work, the Bishop of Charlottetown discovered a poignant testament to a lifetime of reconciliation in practice, which lay in the story of Harvey Satewas Gabriel.
The Indigenous elder from the Mohawk community of Kanesatake, south of Montreal, met with Bishop Dabrowski as part of the dialogue group’s visit in June. Following conversations on the importance of reconciliation and harmonious relationships between the two parties, Gabriel presented Bishop Dabrowski with the culmination of nearly two decades of his life’s work — a Bible translated into Mohawk.
“It was a profoundly inspiring experience, and what initially struck me was that despite his age, he spoke with eloquence, passion, and humility about his remarkable dedication to translating the Bible into Mohawk,” Bishop Dabrowski said. “We asked him to pray with us, and hearing him recite the Lord’s Prayer in his native Mohawk was moving. It brought the language to life in such a meaningful way.”
Now 83, Gabriel told the group the translation has taken nearly 17 years to complete. To the elder, the Mohawk Bible is not a translation for leisure but rather a testament to preserving his culture while making the word of God accessible to his people, the Mohawk Nation, which is part of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy in the St. Lawrence region of Canada and upper New York State.
The story goes that upon hearing his church minister translate Scripture into Mohawk in the late 1950s, Gabriel began wondering why there wasn’t a Bible in Mohawk. This sparked a lifelong journey that culminated in August 2023 when the Bible was completed.
To Bishop Dabrowski, the Mohawk Bible is more than a physical collection of books crafted with materials; it is a tangible sign that reconciliation and mutual respect between Christians and their Indigenous brothers and sisters is indeed a two-way street.
“Gabriel’s story demonstrates how Indigenous communities are not just recipients in the reconciliation process but active contributors as well. I was pleased to hear that he continues to encourage young people not to lose their language and to do so by reading the Bible,” he said. “I was also stunned to hear that a passage from his translation of the Book of Revelation was read aloud at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in Toronto, so it is already being shared in the country.”