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Pope Francis has canonized 14 new saints, including St. Marie-Leonie Paradis, a nun from Montreal known for founding an order dedicated to the service of priests.

In a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 20, the Pope declared three 19th-century founders of religious orders and the 11 “Martyrs of Damascus” as saints to be venerated by the global Catholic Church, commending their lives of sacrifice, missionary zeal, and service to the Church.

“These new saints lived Jesus’ way: service,” Pope Francis said. “They made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, and generous to the end.”

The newly canonized include St. Giuseppe Allamano, a diocesan priest from Italy who founded the Consolata missionary orders, and Francis Massabki, a father of eight children and one of the Martyrs of Damascus, a group of 11 men killed in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam.

Also among the saints are St. Elena Guerra, hailed as an “apostle of the Holy Spirit,” and St. Manuel Ruiz Lopez and his seven Franciscan companions, all martyred in Damascus in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith.

The final three canonized are siblings, Sts. Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, lay Maronite Catholics martyred in Syria along with the Franciscans.

Thousands of pilgrims prayed the Litany of the Saints together in St. Peter’s Square before Pope Francis declared the 14 as enrolled among the saints “for the honor of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.”

“We confidently ask for their intercession so that we too can follow Christ, follow him in service, and become witnesses of hope for the world,” the Pope said.

In his homily, Pope Francis highlighted how service embodied the lives of each of the new saints. “When we learn to serve,” he said, “our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love. And so we continue Jesus’ work in the world.”

St. Marie-Leonie Paradis: ‘humble among the humble’

St. Marie-Leonie Paradis (1840–1912), a Canadian religious sister, also took her place among the new saints. She founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, an order whose spirituality and charism is the support of priests through both prayer and by taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in rectories in “humble and joyful service” in imitation of “Christ the Servant.”

I appreciate your recent coverage of our event at Our Lady of the Assumption (“Starry-eyed young Catholics dance the night away”), but there were several inaccuracies that need to be addressed.

The event was organized solely by Our Lady of the Assumption, not in collaboration with the Catholic Young Adults of Surrey as stated.

The article implied the dance suffered from poor weather conditions; however, we experienced sunny and warm weather, which was ideal for the event. God graciously blessed us with a clear night sky. The original plan included a bonfire and sparklers, so everything went as intended.

While our previous event drew inspiration from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, this year’s inspiration was on fostering community among young adults in the archdiocese.

The article also inaccurately reported attendance as over 150 people, whereas we had over 200 participants at the dance.

Jose Lopez
Coquitlam

(We regret the errors, some of which were made because we accidentally referred to information from last year’s event—Editor)

I note that in Dr. Gerry Turcotte’s Oct. 21 column “Every day is Thanksgiving Day,” Pope John Paul XXIII is referenced.

I suspect that Dr. Turcotte isn’t intentionally foreshadowing the future but, in fact, means Pope John XXIII.

Mark Nikkel
Abbotsford

I would like to thank The B.C. Catholic for the comprehensive B.C. Election Catholic Voters Guide in Oct. 14 issue. It covered a wide breadth of issues that should be of concern to Catholics, helping us be better informed in deciding whom to vote for in the provincial elections.

Mark Norbury
Port Moody

(The lion’s share of the work, and credit, belongs to Catholic Conscience, which is now producing Catholic voter guides for elections all over North America. Check them out at catholiconscience.org—Editor)

I just want to thank Father Hawkswell for his clear and concise homily in the Oct. 21 issue, “Jesus didn’t leave behind a movement, but his Church.”

Ron Beaulieu
Powell River

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It was Christmas time when Joe came out to me as an atheist.

His text was unprompted and depressing: “My grandmother told me I was possessed by the devil when I told her I don’t believe in God anymore,” he wrote.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t feel anything anymore.”

Ultimately, this collision of his grandmother’s reference to the transcendent – albeit demonic – with his cynical millennial materialism was the final straw, and he embraced the creed of Dawkins and Hitchens shortly after.

His explanation was time spent on Reddit atheist forums and books about evolution; but I don’t think any of that is true. The real reason was right there in his message: “I just don’t feel…”

Around that same time, another Catholic school friend, again unprompted, confided in me that when we were kids he had wanted to be a priest. It clearly haunted him, but he managed to shrug it off.

“That was just brainwashing,” he said.

In spite of a gnawing sense of loss, he chose the same path most of us had at the time. Waiting at home was all the alcohol, video games, and porn anyone could ever hope would fill the void. 

Somewhere in between the old-world faith of Joe’s grandmother and the early 2000s-era Catholicism that raised us, something went wrong for Joe and the rest of my cohort.

The faith had been offered, but for whatever reason, be it self-obsession or the influence of secular culture, he had found it wanting. Most, if not all, of my Catholic school friends – some far more sobre and faithful than Joe – took that same path towards the spiritual periphery that he did, and they wandered off into the spiritual wasteland.

A lot has been said about this phenomenon, about the rise of the so-called “nones,” those unchurched and unaffiliated wanderers. Various answers have been proposed, but one of the most interesting and explanatory has probably come from Bishop Robert Barron, who decries the impact of what he terms “beige Catholicism,” the bland cultural whitewash of the post-Vatican II era that eroded our sense of religious mystery and majesty, replacing them with kumbaya niceties and liberal affectations.

No redemptive suffering. No challenge. No adventure. Just comfort. The violence of the Crucifixion and the regal visage of Christ have no place in “beige Catholicism.” Only a bland and colourless gospel, bereft of all challenge and weight, can remain.

Perhaps this is a tad overwrought. After all, we all know good and faithful Catholics who made it through the beige haze – there would be no young people in the Church at all if they hadn’t – and Vatican II is hardly the sole cause of many of the most pressing crisis of the twentieth century Church.

I don’t often have fast food but on a whim I recently popped into an A&W near my campus. Waiting for my order, I noticed a wall decoration with the familiar company logo. Beneath the large letters, were the names Allen & Wright. There’s a phenomenon that was popular on social media recently that begins a discovery of something obvious with the phrase: “I was today year’s old when I discovered…” that A & W stood for the names of its founders.

Other “discoveries” people have made late in life include realizing the division sign (÷) is just a fraction sign with both the denominator and the numerator left blank. Or that a turtle isn’t inside its shell — it actually is its shell. As a specialist in the gothic, I was stunned to discover Grant Wood’s famous American Gothic painting Wood features a father and daughter, not a husband and wife. The story may be even more complex. Rumour has it the model, embarrassed at being mistaken for the wife of a man twice her age, went overboard reassuring everyone it was a father and daughter. The painter never corrected her nor confirmed her version.

Other discoveries: There’s a bear in the mountain face of a Toblerone chocolate bar. The hole in a pasta serving spoon represents the recommended single serving size. The word “footage” comes from film being measured in feet. The first episode of a television show is a “pilot” because it’s the first time it’s “on air.” You say “break a leg” to an auditioning actor in hope they end up in a cast. Hold your horses is a pun telling you to be stable. We are surrounded by things that are as plain as the nose on our faces but we never see, or perversely misapprehend, them. 

I was easily in my late teens before I realized Canadian and American Thanksgiving are on different dates. Researching the origins of the event, I was stunned to read Martin Frobisher first celebrated Thanksgiving in 1578 on Baffin Island. It was not a celebration of a successful harvest, but sheer relief for successfully crossing the Atlantic into what would become Canada. Thanksgiving is also more popularly understood as the celebration of American Pilgrims in 1621, which has often been presented as a romanticized celebration of community between Indigenous people and settlers.

Thanksgiving isn’t a holy day of obligation but was always a part of parish life. Then I moved to Australia and a bunch of holidays shifted. Father’s Day was in September not June. Christmas was celebrated in July, a tradition that arose so Aussies could have a hot roast dinner in the cooler winter months.

A continuing series looking at progress made in healing and reconciliation initiatives between the Archdiocese of Vancouver and Canada’s Indigenous peoples since their first encounter. This week, the Archdiocesan Synod’s recommendations on First Nations, and Archbishop Raymond Roussin.

Part 1. ‘Dialogue and sharing’: a century of Indigenous and Church relationship and reconciliation

Part 2. ‘We have heard their cries of distress’: a century of Indigenous and Church relationship and reconciliation: 

In November 1998, Archbisop Adam Exner joined B.C. faith leaders in signing a statement supporting in principle the Nisga’a Treaty, giving the Nisga’a control over 2,000 square kilometers of land, self-government, and $190 million.

Archbishop Exner said he didn’t necessarily endorse all aspects of the agreement but he supported it in the interest of justice and because it was negotiated by all parties.

In 2001 the federal government started negotiations with the Christian churches on a compensation plan for settlements with former students claiming abuse. The government ultimately agreed to pay 70 per cent of the settlement costs.

The complexity of the issue of jurisdiction, responsibility, and vicarious liability was evident in two Supreme Court of Canada decisions in 2005. The court ruled the United Church of Canada was 25 per cent liable and the government of Canada 75 per cent liable for general damages in a B.C. residential school case involving sexual abuse.

In a separate ruling, the court ruled the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in B.C. were not vicariously liable for sexual assaults an employee carried out at another residential school because the employee in question had not been hired to supervise children.

In November 2005, an offer by 41 Catholic religious orders and dioceses was included in an agreement-in-principle to settle Indian residential schools abuse claims.

Described as an “historic milestone” by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine, the $2-billion compensation package would give $10,000 to each of 86,000 residential school survivors, plus $3,000 for each year spent at a school. An advance payment of $8,000 would go to survivors 65 and over. The average age of former students was 60. The 41 entities would contribute $29 million in cash and real property and $25 million in “in-kind” contributions for programs such as Returning to Spirit, programs on self-esteem, programs for healthy mums and healthy babies, and other works the groups do in Aboriginal communities. The agreement settled the liability of the 41 groups in various class-action suits.

In the few short months since his ordination to the permanent diaconate on June 1, Deacon Tim Kostamo has done it all – weddings, funerals, and everything in between. But he recently went far beyond the deacon’s call of duty when the orthopedic surgeon found himself performing surgery on Our Lady of the Assumption pastor Father James Hughes after the Port Coquitlam priest ruptured his Achilles tendon.  

Father Hughes recounted how the injury happened, with his getting a bit carried away during a basketball game with some young parishioners.

“In my pride and hubris, I decided to show these students what Michael Jordan used to look like,” Father Hughes told The B.C. Catholic. 

He jumped, and when his feet hit the ground, he felt a tear and knew something was wrong. 

As fate would have it, his doctor recommended Dr. Tim Kostamo, of Christ the Redeemer in West Vancouver and a recent addition to the growing ranks of Vancouver’s permanent deacons.

Father Hughes remembered joking with Deacon Kostamo just before the operation, warning him, “You’d better do a good job, because if you’re ever assigned [as a deacon] to my parish, I’ll remember!” 

Thankfully, there will be no need for that. The surgery went well, and Father Hughes is recovering apace. At the time of writing, he is walking without assistance. 

For his part, Deacon Kostamo, who has 23 years’ experience as a surgeon, described the experience of operating on a priest, or any of his patients since his ordination, as more profound now.

“It’s a completely different spiritual avenue. I can feel it in my practice – like how I listen to people,” he said. “I can feel it will be a big part of my life.” 

While his vocation has given him a deeper sense of purpose within his profession, something else happened during Father Hughes’ surgery that emphasized the deacon’s role as a helper of priests. 

“I was cradling him” on the operating table, said Deacon Kostamo. 

Because the Achilles rupture surgery is performed with the patient face-down, at some point Father Hughes needed to be rolled onto his back again. Deacon Kostamo found himself cradling an unconscious Father Hughes like a small child. 

Holding the priest in his arms brought home for him the essence of his vocation, as well as the need to care for priests. “It hammered it home for me,” he said. “What struck me was I felt the care more deeply.” 

Although he’s still freshly ordained, his experience with Father Hughes in the operating room helped him feel more strongly the deacon’s vocation of service.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller released the following letter in advance of the B.C. provincial election, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.

October 10, 2024

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

A provincial election is a rare and important opportunity for British Columbians to directly influence the direction of government. It is a time to prayerfully discern how to exercise our civic responsibilities and put our Christian values into action in ways that aren’t possible in the years between elections.

It is disappointing that many Catholics have chosen to stay home on election day in recent years. Polls show that we vote less than our secular counterparts, giving them a greater influence than we do over the government responsible for more than 5 million people who live in this province.

On Saturday, Oct. 19, I urge you to take the important step of positively influencing our society by going to vote. There are many critical issues where our informed Catholic conscience must be heard: religious liberty, conscience rights, Catholic and public education, the economy, health care, the drug overdose crisis, and certainly life issues, including the rise in euthanasia – misleadingly called MAiD – and the more than 13,000 abortions that occur every year in our province.

No party perfectly aligns with the needs of British Columbia, and only you can decide which candidate is best suited to bring your values to the legislature, whether as an independent or a member of a political party. But our civic participation, particularly on election day, is essential.

We are living in a time of immense social change, and Pope Francis has even raised his concern in Fratelli Tutti that the very notion of democracy as “government by the people” may be in jeopardy. If so, none of us knows what impact our vote might have on society in the years to come.

I urge all Catholics and people of goodwill to bring Christ’s compassion for humanity to those we live with and contribute to the common good by making a responsible decision at the ballot box.

With the assurance of my prayers, I remain

People with mental health problems have much to teach, especially in humanity, a much-needed virtue in our individualistic world, say members of a religious congregation dedicated to caring for people with mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, and other special needs.

World Mental Health Day is marked on Oct. 10, 2024, with the theme: “Mental Health at Work.” In an interview with Vatican News, Sister Idília Carneiro, Superior General of the Sisters Hospitallers, emphasized that the first step is to welcome those who have mental illness “in their reality and also their families when the situation is more comprehensive.”

Illness, she noted, does not entirely define a person, it only affects certain dimensions, and each of these people possess great human richness and sensitivity.

The Sisters Hospitallers experience that sensitivity and teach them to be more empathetic and “more attentive to one another, which can be a very enriching message for the society in which we live and which is increasingly individualistic. They help us to become more human, to live life with a deep appreciation for the smallest moments each day brings,” she said.

October 10: World Mental Health Day

This year’s theme “Mental Health at Work” reflects a concern, said Sister Carneiro: that work, with its stress and demands, can lead to personal disintegration, causing even more stress. This, in turn, can make a person’s life more fragile.

According to the nun, the greatest challenge is finding a balance in work, “which also carries the dimensions of personal fulfillment, meaning, and contributing to a greater good.” Balancing work with everything a human being can offer, from their knowledge to their very being, is key.

“This, I believe, is the greatest challenge and one that contributes to mental health. Life’s rhythm, beyond just work, should help us feel human, not the other way around. It’s not just about work and mental health, but about how everything we experience helps us cultivate integral well-being.”

What the congregation does

In hospitals, the nuns are helping people with depression, including offering outpatient treatment for more resistant cases, supporting young people with personality disorders, including dependencies to the internet and other media. The congregation is also making progress in the area of brain injuries and damage, including tumour-related neurological issues, along with rehabilitation, which is another important area. They continue to grow in all mental health fields, including treatments for anxiety and cases of suicide attempts, working to help young people and older adults feel that their lives have meaning.

They are also advancing in palliative care, helping and accompanying people and their families to find peace during the final stages of life, with a sense of hope.

The education of priests and lay people, accompaniment in parishes for individuals with mental health challenges, and advocacy for institutional and societal support for those needing professional psychological or psychiatric care are the three essential components of mental health ministry in the Church, says a bishop who is personally involved in the ministry.

Speaking with Vatican News ahead of World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix underscored the importance of eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health issues, saying: “There is no shame in having mental health problems. It is like someone with a broken arm.”

Education

Bishop Dolan noted that a crucial component of mental health ministry is education, stressing the need for both the clergy and laity to be well-informed about mental health services.

“Mental health ministry focuses on educating the people in the pews… but also training priests, religious, and deacons on the value of mental health services, including counselling, psychology, psychiatry, and neurology,” he said.

The bishop noted that this education empowers clergy to speak about these issues and refer parishioners to professional help when needed.

Accompaniment

Another critical aspect of the ministry is accompaniment, which involves creating spaces where people struggling with mental health issues, as well as their families, can come together to share their experiences.

“We have accompaniment, which allows people to gather, share their struggles with mental health, or maybe allow family members whose loved ones are living with mental health issues to navigate life at home,” he said.

The bishop also highlighted the role of spiritual direction as a form of mental health support. “We do not diagnose, prescribe, or treat. We cannot do that for legal reasons, and it is not within our scope,” he noted. “We can offer spiritual guidance and assistance.”

Advocacy

Bishop Dolan emphasized the need for advocacy in promoting mental health services, speaking about encouraging government support for mental health professionals and increasing public access to care.

“We try to encourage the government to ensure proper funding to educate students of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience,” he said, pointing out that the lack of sufficient counsellors and psychologists is a global issue. “We need to advocate for that.”

Bishop Dolan shared the positive impact of mental health ministry on the lives of those involved.

“Thousands of people have responded beautifully to this mental health ministry,” he said.

The Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers

Bishop Dolan highlighted the crucial work of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers (CMHM), a lay organization that significantly supports the mental health ministry.

The CMHM describes itself as a “lay Association of the Christian Faithful whose members are called to be a healing presence in the lives of people with mental illness.”

Thank you for publishing the Sept. 2 article “Balloons over sacraments?” concerning safety for parishioners.

The article raises an issue that is not well understood or attended to in many of our churches.  I would like to add perfumed incense and perfumes in general as products that should not be allowed in our churches.

Many places of business, professional groups, and others have banned such products for 40 years or more.  I continue to suffer from the effects of exposure to a highly perfumed incense from more than six months ago. Fortunately, the church responded positively to my expressed concern. However, my personal health continues to be affected.  

Our churches should always be safe havens for parishioners. This requires knowledge, planning,  commitment, education, and monitoring.  

M. Bara
Vancouver

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