Category: BC Catholic

Spiritual growth was on the agenda. Ants were not. Yet an insect invasion is part of what 14 Vancouver pilgrims encountered at the Jubilee of Youth in Rome this summer.

It was the final day of the event, and the pilgrims had to camp overnight on the University of Rome Tor Vergata field in anticipation of the closing Mass with Pope Leo XIV. 

Space was sparse, and the group accidentally ended up neighbouring a colony of ants. Chaos ensued. The ants weren’t happy and crawled over pilgrims’ sleeping mats and into their sleeping bags. Despite the struggle, there was no choice but to stay put and suffer the tiny terrors.

The ant attack became part of the struggles and sufferings that are usually part of a pilgrim’s journey. Even as they were swarmed, one pilgrim described the total experience as one of transformation and enlightenment.

Ava Gravela was one of 14 young adults from seven parishes around the Archdiocese of Vancouver who joined more than half a million pilgrims in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee of Youth.

“When I first began the pilgrimage, my mindset was focused on how can I be holier?—only for God to reveal instead how much I need Him in order to be holy,” the St. Andrew’s, Vancouver, parishioner told The B.C. Catholic.

According to one of the trip coordinators, Louisa Gietz, the highlights included staying with 22,000 other pilgrims in a repurposed exhibition centre, meeting fellow Canadians, attending the opening Mass in St. Peter’s Square, and, of course, eating gelato in Rome.

Still, for many of the pilgrims, including Gravela, seeing Pope Leo XIV drive by in the papal vehicle was the most significant moment of the trip. Travelling can be frustrating, but for Gravela and her fellow Vancouver pilgrims, the buggy struggles of the pilgrimage “washed away” and were “replaced by joy” when they saw the Pope.

“Seeing the Pope was the highlight of the entire journey,” she said. “I imagine this joy must be a small fragment of what Mary Magdalene felt when she saw our Lord in the garden after the Resurrection. Her words, ‘I have seen the Lord!’ now echo in my heart as, ‘I have seen the Pope!’ Suddenly, all the little ‘sufferings’—from unreliable transit to sleeping on an anthill—felt worth it.”

Pope Leo also inspired Caroline Francis, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Parish in Delta, but for a slightly different reason. Working in a secular environment, she said she struggles to keep faith central.

Students at the new Saint John Paul II Academy in Surrey will soon eat their lunches beside a bronze Christ, the latest work from the Canadian sculptor whose most famous piece, Homeless Jesus, has been installed in cities around the globe, including at the Vatican.

The Surrey high school is preparing to install The Last Supper Table, a massive granite work with 12 empty seats and Christ at the centre. Designed by Timothy Schmalz, the interactive sculpture invites students to sit with Jesus daily — making them, in his words, “the apostles of today.”

Donated by Star of the Sea parishioners Joseph and Holly King, whose donations to the school include its chapel, The Last Supper Table will be placed in the heart of the school’s new campus courtyard. With garage-style doors opening from the dining hall, students will see it every day and be able to gather around it, turning the artwork into a living part of school life.

“When you look at it late at night, Jesus is sitting there alone, beckoning,” Schmalz said in an interview with the Saint John Paul II podcast Catholic Education Matters hosted by academy founder and chair Troy Van Vliet. “But when people sit down — whether children at lunch, or a family gathered together — they complete the sculpture. They become part of the art.”

Schmalz, now 55, has spent the past 35 years devoted exclusively to Christian sculpture. His journey began as a teenager in Elmira, Ont., when he discovered a magnetic love for sculpture. At 16, after completing a school piece depicting a man dreaming, he knew he wanted to spend his life creating in clay and bronze.

Raised in a secular, art-filled home, he had been baptized Catholic but with little religious formation. At 17, he experienced a profound conversion. “I absolutely identified as a Christian at that point,” he told Van Vliet in the interview.

He was accepted into the Ontario College of Art after winning a national sculpting prize, but he lasted only three months before dropping out, disillusioned by what he saw as shock-for-shock’s-sake art. He returned home, briefly worked in a fabric factory, then set up his first studio in Toronto at 19.

It was then he made a fateful decision: he would sculpt only Christian art.

“Art schools always told me: develop a style. But I realized I didn’t want a style. If the sculpture is great, the style disappears,” he said.

One of the defining features of the new St. Paul’s Hospital was front and centre during a recent tour of the state-of-the-art facility under construction in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats: every patient will have a private room.

Archbishop Richard Smith said he found the concept of private rooms “revolutionary” and shows how the new hospital has been designed to put patient dignity at its centre with features like private rooms.

Patients feel vulnerable in a hospital, he said during the tour with Providence Health Care leaders, and something as simple one’s own space can make a difference by allowing privacy, better conversations with doctors, and a sense of safety.

“Sometimes you hear people say, ‘I don’t want to go to a hospital, I don’t feel safe there,’” he said. “We want to let them know they are surrounded by safety and love.”

The tour began with an elevator ride to the roof, followed by a descent floor by floor, stopping at key areas such as the patient rooms, surgery, and ending at the hospital’s chapel, just off the main entrance.

Archbishop Smith described the chapel as another visible sign of the hospital’s Catholic mission. “It’s a great reminder of who we are and why we do what we do.”

Catholic health care carries forward the healing ministry of Jesus, the Archbishop said. The chapel not only reminds staff and patients of that mission, but its prominent placement near the hospital entrance is “a testament to the faith that inspires everything we are doing here,” he said.

 “You see right away who we are. You see this is our identity. This is why we do what we do.”

Francis Maza, Providence’s vice president of mission, ethics, and spirituality, said the project builds on more than a century of Catholic health care in Vancouver.

“Providence and St. Paul’s is well known by the community,” he said. “[The new building] stands as a testament of the commitment we have to the people in the community.”

The Archbishop is bringing to the project a “new energy and desire to be involved in health care,” reaffirming the organization’s commitment to social justice and serving the poor.

“When I think of the mission of Providence Health Care as it’s transferred from archbishop to archbishop—130 years later we are still here serving the people of Vancouver.”

Kevin Hunt, the construction site’s chief project officer, said design decisions were shaped by collaboration with clinical staff, right down to practical details such as door hinges. 

This is my second and final column on some of the similarities between mental training in high-performance sports and the development of one’s spiritual growth.

1. Playing with a big lead and our attitude when life is going great
 During competitions, when a team or individual builds a big lead, there is a tendency to take the foot off the pedal and relax. Victory seems assured, the opponent appears conquered. The player leading starts to feel prematurely good about themselves, resulting in a loss of focus and a drift from what brought success in the first place. This opens the door for the opponent.

The same can happen in our daily lives. In times of prosperity, many of us become comfortable and self-congratulatory. We often forget about God, who gave us all that we have. We may stop praying and let pride convince us we are fully responsible for our success. We start thinking of ourselves as self-made men and women. This is a serious mistake that allows the devil to infiltrate our lives.

As with the winning athlete, we must never forget the tactics that got us there. For Catholics, that winning tactic is love of God, prayer, and the sacraments. Never relax in your faith life; keep a sense of urgency. Athletes who are ahead are advised to keep setting micro goals to stay hungry and focused. Likewise, we should continue meeting with our spiritual directors, who provide tools to renew our love of Christ daily and to foster a hunger for heaven.

2. Visualization
 Top athletes, along with their coaches, work on learning to visualize positively. If they can see themselves in the winner’s circle, on the podium as gold medallists or as world champions — and do this regularly — it can strengthen self-belief and motivate them to work harder.

In the same way, our faith calls us to keep our eyes on the prize: Jesus our King. Picture heaven in all its beauty, love, and joy. See yourself praising God in his majesty once your pilgrimage on earth is complete. Let this vision inspire you to fall more deeply in love with our Lord and his holy Church, and to pray and serve more fervently.

3. Gratitude
 Grateful athletes are successful athletes. Coaches encourage them to express gratitude in practice and in competition, after victories and defeats. They realize that very few people in the world get the opportunity to perform at their level. With this perspective, they see every chance to compete as a gift.

Is it any different in our daily life? We are not guaranteed another day, so every morning we wake up we should be thankful to God.

Triumph of the Cross
First Reading: Nm 21:4-9
Second Reading: Phil 2:6-11
Gospel Reading: Jn 3:13-17

Think of the contradiction in this Sunday’s feast: the Triumph of the Cross. Imagine celebrating “the triumph of the noose,” “the triumph of the electric chair,” or “the triumph of the lethal injection.”

Crucifixion, initiated by the Persians, was used by the Carthaginians and the Romans for treason, sedition, and rebellion. It involved public shame, humiliation, and degradation.

A condemned man was forced to carry the cross’s horizontal beam to the execution site, where it was connected to a vertical beam. He was scourged and stripped naked; then his hands and feet were nailed or roped to the beams and his midsection perhaps tied to the vertical beam so that he could not wriggle free.

The first-century Jewish historian Josephus called it the “most wretched of deaths.” Muscle fatigue, exhaustion from physical and psychological stress, lack of food and drink, and exposure to the elements usually – often over a period of days – led to asphyxiation or heart failure. The naked prisoner could not care for his bodily needs, and bystanders would observe and comment derisively.

Jesus suffered all this for us. It was the Jewish elders, chief priests, and scribes who handed him over to the Roman authorities, but we cannot foist responsibility onto the Jews alone, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In truth, we sinners were “the authors and the ministers” of his suffering. “We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins.” As St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.”

Nevertheless, the Church says we should “glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life, and our resurrection; through him we are saved and made free.” Jesus’ death was “redemptive”: by it, he redeemed, or bought back, the whole human race from Satan.

As early as 742 BC, the prophet Isaiah had intuited that one person could suffer for another. “Through his suffering, my Servant shall justify [make just] many, and their guilt he shall bear,” Isaiah prophesied. Jesus was “pierced for our offences, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole; by his stripes we were healed.”

“By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant,” the Catechism says. In fact, this was how Jesus himself interpreted the Scriptures to the disciples after his Resurrection.

No other man, not even the holiest, could have taken on the sins of the whole world and endured all their consequences, including death, for all of us.

This week’s shooting of pupils and parishioners during morning Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis has raised many questions. Some are of quite recent origin, while others are longstanding.

According to reports, the shooting began just a few minutes into Mass, as the responsorial Psalm was ending. The perpetrator, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, is said to have barricaded the church by passing two-by-fours through door handles, then stood outside shooting through the windows with a rifle, handgun, and shotgun.

Survivors hid beneath pews, in the basement, and anywhere that seemed to offer safe cover. Some students are reported to have protected younger children. Two children — one aged eight, the other 10 — were killed, and 17 others were injured. The injured ranged in age from six to their 80s.

After firing dozens of rounds, the shooter committed suicide.

Westman appears to have been a troubled individual. Born male, he at some point began to identify as female and reportedly changed names and possibly gender. For reasons not yet publicly clear, Westman acquired a significant arsenal of weapons, developed a muddled manifesto, and published alarming videos and statements online.

It is also reported that Westman was a former pupil at the Catholic school attended by the children who were shot, and that his mother had worked there.

Many questions have already been asked, such as what Westman’s motive was, and where and how the firearms were acquired. Professionals will try to determine the true motivations for the shooting, though suggestions of fear, self-revulsion, and even demonism have surfaced. Many of the materials Westman posted online have since been removed by authorities.

Broader questions are also being raised, such as why so many mass shootings occur in the world — particularly in the United States — and whether stricter gun control might provide an answer. Others are asking what additional security options may be required.

More fundamentally, one might wonder how any human being, let alone a 23-year-old from an apparently loving home, could be driven into such shockingly violent and evil action against others — especially children from his own community.

What are we teaching pupils in our schools, through films, music, art, and social media? 

Are we focusing enough on practical skills like reading, history, and arithmetic to prepare children to face a challenging world with truth, strengthened by the gifts given to them by their Creator? 

Are we helping them seek and build lives based on shared truths, or are we encouraging them to turn inward as arbiters of their own truth, accepting impulses as determinants of right and wrong? 

Should we be asking why so many young people are so confused and enraged?

Joining religious leaders around the United States and the world, including Pope Leo XIV, the president of the Canadian bishops conference has expressed “the profound closeness of the Church in Canada” to those grieving the Aug. 27 deadly shooting at a Minnesota Catholic church.

Two children who attended Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis were killed, and 14 children and three adults were injured in the shooting at Annunciation Church during a Mass celebrated for the adjoining school. The suspect, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, also died. He is believed to have taken his own life in the parking lot. 

Calgary Bishop William McGrattan, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter to Minneapolis–St. Paul Archbishop Bernard Hebda following the shooting, expressing the Canadian Church’s closeness “to the grieving students, families, teachers, and parishioners of Annunciation Parish and School,” as well as the archdiocese’s faithful. 

“It is especially heartbreaking that children, their pastor, and teachers were targeted as they gathered joyfully for the new school year for the celebration of the Eucharist,” Bishop McGrattan said in his letter. 

Canadian Catholics are asked to pray for the repose of those who died, the recovery of the injured, “and for the comfort and healing for the entire community affected by this senseless act of violence.”

Pope Leo XIV joined his brother bishops and fellow Americans in expressing condolences following the shooting. In a telegram to Hebda, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the pontiff was “profoundly saddened to learn of the loss of life and injuries following the shooting that took place at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, and he sends his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families now grieving the loss of a child.” 

“While commending the souls of the deceased children to the love of Almighty God, His Holiness prays for the wounded as well as the first responders, medical personnel, and clergy who are caring for them and their loved ones,” the telegram said. “At this extremely difficult time, the Holy Father imparts to the Annunciation Catholic School community, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the people of the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area his apostolic blessing as a pledge of peace, fortitude, and consolation in the Lord Jesus.” 

With files from OSV News.

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I read your July 28 issue with its cover story “This is Staggering” just before leaving on vacation. On my return, I was appalled to see no reader feedback.

It is now clear that euthanasia can be provided to virtually anyone who requests it, regardless of legality. The opposite is true for those seeking authentic palliative care. With the NDP government looking the other way, euthanasia has grown exponentially, especially in B.C. The feared slippery slope is now underfoot. Waiting periods, multiple assessments, records, oversight, and safeguards are gone. Some doctors are killing with impunity.

Mental illness, poverty, loneliness, disability, or lack of resources make people vulnerable to suggestions of euthanasia. Some patients are reportedly killed for organ harvesting, and now killing children is being considered. How bad must it get before people are outraged enough to speak out against this unchecked growth?

The government would rather kill you than make you well. It seized the Delta Hospice, without compensation, because it refused to kill patients. Now it won’t even consider a new, privately funded hospice that would provide authentic palliative care.

I strongly urge everyone to act. Write your MPs, MLAs, or local politicians. Support Bill C-218, which would ban MAiD for mental illness alone. Support Canadian Physicians for Life, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the Delta Hospice Society, or your local pro-life groups.

Cathy Karsgaard
Richmond

Re: “Ignoring the reality of sex work” (Aug. 4, 2025)

Although I agree with your rejection of the term “sex work,” I feel your article missed the point that the province’s decision is long overdue and critical to stopping human trafficking in B.C.

As UN rapporteur Reem Alsalem has said in numerous reports, the term “sex work” hides a system of exploitation affecting girls and women. The new 12-person RCMP unit must focus on both investigations and a trauma-informed response, working with caregivers to help women and girls exit exploitation.

Canada’s current law (PCEPA) rightly targets buyers of sex. Prostituted women have been granted immunity, but change will only come when buyers are held accountable. From 2013–23, Statistics Canada reports, only one in 10 convictions resulted in a guilty verdict. Hopefully, this unit can work effectively with the courts to bring justice in a country where buying sex is a crime.

Sister Nancy Brown, SC
Vancouver

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“There’s no substitute for local knowledge,” Archbishop Richard Smith told thousands of pilgrims gathered at Fraser River Heritage Park in Mission on Aug. 16, the same kind of “local knowledge incarnate” that Jesus Christ offers to believers seeking the surest path to eternal life.

Drawing from his recent travels across the Archdiocese of Vancouver, the Archbishop compared his reliance on GPS to trusting a local driver who knows a better way — and in matters of faith, he said, that local knowledge is found incarnate in Jesus Christ.

Few Lower Mainland Catholic events embody this “local knowledge” more than the annual Our Lady of Lourdes pilgrimage in Mission. For decades, Fraser Valley Catholics have gathered there to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary, their procession a living testament to wisdom passed down through generations — local knowledge of the surest path to eternal life.

This was the first year Archbishop Smith attended the event. Drawing on his travels around the archdiocese since his installation in May, he compared his reliance on GPS with the guidance of a local driver who “knows a better way.”

“There’s no substitute for local knowledge,” Archbishop Smith told the crowd. “As we recall the solemnity of the Assumption, Mary’s assumption body and soul into heaven reminds us of the destination that awaits believers in Jesus Christ. And the one to get us there — and there’s only one — is Jesus Christ. Because Jesus, if I dare put it this way, is local knowledge Incarnate.”

The Archbishop said Jesus brings perfect knowledge of both God and humanity, and that clinging to him in faith is the surest way to eternal life. He pointed to Mary as the first and best example of such faith — the one who believed God’s promise and followed her Son faithfully.

“In our world today we are surrounded by a multiplicity of messages, a flood of voices telling us how to live and what will make us happy,” Archbishop Smith said. “But for us who are Christians, there is only one voice worthy of our trust. Jesus alone reigns, and he is the way, the truth, and the life.”

“Mary knows her Son perfectly,” he added. “The Church has always gone to her, asking her to intercede for us as only the Blessed Mother could with her Son.” He encouraged pilgrims not only to honour Mary but also to entrust their personal needs to her intercession.

Vancouver Archbishop Richard W. Smith is inviting the faithful to take part in the worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace called for by Pope Leo XIV on Friday, Aug. 22, the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Pope Leo XIV has invited the faithful to join him in a day of prayer and fasting for peace,” Archbishop Smith wrote in a message to the Archdiocese. 

“As wars continue to cause suffering in Ukraine, the Holy Land, and other parts of the world, let us unite in prayer, asking the Lord for peace and justice, and entrusting our world to Mary, Queen of Peace.”

He closed his message by asking the faithful “to join me, so that our prayers may bring comfort to those who suffer and open the path to peace.”

The Holy Father made his appeal during his Aug. 20 general audience, asking Catholics around the world to mark the Aug. 22 feast day with fasting and prayer, “imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to wipe away the tears of those who suffer because of ongoing armed conflicts.”

“Mary is the Mother of the faithful here on earth and is remembered as the Queen of Peace,” he said. “May Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path of peace.”

Pope Leo also greeted Polish-speaking pilgrims on their way to the Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa at Jasna Góra, asking them to pray for the gift of “a peace that is disarmed and disarming – for the whole world, especially for Ukraine and the Middle East.”

On Tuesday evening at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope again turned his thoughts to the war in Ukraine, expressing his hope for a solution but emphasizing the need to continue to “work hard, pray hard” for peace.

With files from Vatican News and ACI Prensa, Catholic News Agency’s Spanish-language news partner.

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