Category: BC Catholic

For someone who never attended his own university graduations, it’s ironic that I’ve ended up in a profession where I spend upwards of 10 to 12 hours a year on convocation stages. Such is the somewhat charmed life of an academic: we have the opportunity to join a platform party and watch the excitement — sometimes the outright terror — of our students as they reach a critical milestone shared with family, friends, and the community at large.

As a university and college president, I have had the honour of delivering dozens of convocation speeches — to my own institution or as a commencement speaker for others — and I am always impressed, and sometimes humbled, by the energy and passion of the teams that put these events together. Standing in front of sometimes hundreds of nervous graduands, it is easy to see that few, if any, take the momentousness of the occasion for granted.

I always begin my speeches by quoting one critic who observed that convocations are strange events “where a speaker tells hundreds of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that individuality is the key to success.” While that’s certainly a playful truth, it’s also always evident how unique all students are as they move toward you to shake your hand, to shyly or boldly wave to the crowd, or even to deliver a student address that moves you to the core.

This year’s St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi College Convocation was bittersweet. Sweet because the largest graduating class in our history marked St. Mark’s 70th anniversary, and Corpus Christi’s 25th anniversary, as Catholic post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. Bitter because we bade farewell to our longtime chancellor, Archbishop Miller, spiritual head of the Archdiocese of Vancouver for nearly 19 years.

In a typically powerful closing address, Archbishop Miller — himself a former university president — reminded us of the value of education generally, and of the special quality of a faith-based post-secondary experience.

“The education you’ve received here entails more than a diploma. It is a calling to lead with the integrity of truth, to serve with compassion armed with the Church’s social doctrine, and to walk humbly with the Lord. Let faith be your compass, knowledge your guide, and love be the virtue imbuing your future,” he said.

He also noted:

“You are receiving diplomas at the beginning of a new Pope’s term, a Pope who has taken the name of the symbol of St. Mark’s College, the lion, which in Latin is leo. I want to suggest that this might have particular significance for you.”

Our student address, delivered by actor, boxer, and newly ordained deacon Zak Santiago, spoke with equal passion:

“It is about equipping yourself for professional ministry … to approach any vocation through a life-lens of service, grounded in the Gospel.”

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Is 66:10–14
Second Reading: Gal 6:14–18
 Gospel Reading: Lk 10:1–12, 17–20

Traditionally, we can substitute the word Church for Jerusalem in the Psalms and the Old Testament readings. It is the Church — “that Jerusalem which is above,” whom Christ “loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify her,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “It is she whom he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he constantly nourishes and cherishes.”

Therefore, we can say this Sunday, “Rejoice with the Church and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her — that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast.”

Is this how we see the Church? Perhaps we see her more as our own parish — with a building that may depress us, a priest who may bore us, a congregation that may sing flat, and laws that say “no” to everything we want to do.

Perhaps we forget that God has “put all things under Christ’s feet and made him, thus exalted, Head of the Church, which is his body.” Through him, “the whole body grows, and with the proper functioning of the members joined firmly together by each supporting ligament, builds itself up in love.”

The Church is not just a human institution. True, it has you and me in it, so it is finite, weak, sinful, and unattractive. However, it has Christ as its Head, so it is infinite, strong, true, good, and perfect.

Many people see only the human members of the Church, who often let them down. However, even they are far better than we sometimes realize.

First, there is the man Jesus, who was sinless. He never let us down: he healed, consoled, forgave, and comforted or strengthened us.

Second, there is Mary, who was completely without fault.

Third, there are the saints.

To the canonized saints we may add the millions of “ordinary souls” who have gone before us with little or no recognition. We may also add the many good people we know in our own lives — people who try to do God’s will and usually succeed.

Despite all the good there is around us, we often see only the bad. We are often guilty of what the Catechism calls rash judgment: the assumption, without sufficient foundation, that someone else is morally at fault. To avoid this mistake, the Catechism says, we should be careful always to interpret other people’s thoughts, words, and actions favourably, as far as possible.

Euthanasia has moved beyond targeting baby boomers and now poses risks to their children’s generation, says Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Schadenberg delivered a keynote address for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Euthanasia Resistance BC  on May 26 at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre.

Although legally termed Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) after being legalized in Canada in 2016, Schadenberg said MAiD is actually a soft word for homicide.

In 2023, Canada reported 15,343 deaths by euthanasia, up from 13,241 in 2022 and 4,493 in 2018. Schadenberg predicts the 2024 totals will hit be over 16,000.

Those are just the official numbers. The actual number of euthanasia deaths is likely much higher since underlying medical conditions are often listed as the cause of death for those who undergo MAiD rather than the euthanasia procedure itself.

A report by the Ontario Chief Coroner evaluated euthanasia deaths from 2018 to 2023 and found that requests were driven by homelessness, fear, and isolation. Schadenberg said that indicates Canadians with disabilities are needlessly dying by euthanasia.

The Ontario report also found at least 428 non-compliant euthanasia deaths in the province.

In 2021, the federal law was expanded by removing the terminal illness requirement and the 10-day waiting period. There are now two tracks for accessing MAiD: one for the terminally ill with no waiting period, and another for non-terminal cases, which requires a 90-day waiting period. Both tracks require individuals to have an “irremediable medical condition.”

The Canadian government had been moving toward permitting euthanasia solely for mental illness but delayed the expansion until 2027 after opposition from the medical and disability communities.

Psychiatrist Dr. K. Sonu Gaind of the University of Toronto has argued that predicting whether a mental illness is irremediable is impossible since mental suffering is subjective. In an article he co-authored earlier this year, he wrote, “Research shows that assessors attempting to determine whether a mental illness is irremediable would be wrong more than half the time.”

Awareness of those limitations may help explain the delay in allowing MAiD access for mature minors and those with mental illness in a country that is already so permissive when it comes to euthanasia. Schadenberg attributes the pause on MAiD expansion to a wave of media attention reporting controversial cases that emerged after the second expansion of the law.

Take Amir Farsoud, an Ontario man whose doctor suggested MAiD when Farsoud feared becoming homeless. Farsoud made it clear to his doctor that he did not want to die – he simply could not live without financial support.

In another case, a 23-year-old man in Quebec was approved for euthanasia solely due to diabetes, a serious but manageable condition.

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The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the Delta Hospice Society are calling for a comprehensive review of Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation, citing increasing cases of coercion, confusion with palliative care, and a lack of protections for those who want nothing to do with the practice.

Speaking at a joint press conference on May 7, EPC executive director Alex Schadenberg said that although MAiD has expanded rapidly since its introduction, a full review of the law has never taken place.

“We are calling on the federal and provincial governments to provide a complete review of Canada’s medical assistance in dying law. The reason is simple: it’s never been done,” said Schadenberg.

The coalition fears the increasing integration of MAiD into Canadian health care is eroding trust in hospices and hospitals, especially for vulnerable populations. Both organizations say MAiD is incompatible with traditional palliative care, which aims to neither hasten nor postpone death.

“We support the World Health Organization’s definition of palliative care, which intends neither to hasten nor to postpone death,” Schadenberg said.

Canada’s MAiD law was expanded in March 2021 through Bill C-7, which removed the requirement that a patient’s death be reasonably foreseeable, eliminated the 10-day reflection period for those deemed terminally ill, and introduced a two-tiered system where non-terminal patients must wait 90 days, while the waiting period for terminally ill patients was removed.

The petition comes in the wake of increasing international scrutiny of Canada’s MAiD programs and laws. On March 21, 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities urged Canada to repeal the provision allowing MAiD for those who are not terminally ill (known as “Track 2”). The committee also rejected proposals to expand MAiD access to mature minors, to allow advance directives for euthanasia, and to include mental illness as the sole underlying condition.

Schadenberg emphasized that a genuine review of MAiD must include all perspectives and take into account the personal stories that have emerged.

“I’m not saying [the review] should be focused on limiting the law or not,” he said. “Let the stories come out, and let people see without judgment how this law is working—and how it needs to change.”

He pointed to findings from Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner, which reported that poverty, homelessness, fear, and isolation were driving some people to request MAiD. Between 2018 and 2023, the province recorded 428 MAiD deaths that did not comply with legal safeguards.

“These 428 non-compliant deaths prove that the Carter decision [on which the legalization of assisted dying was based] is not being followed. There is no scrupulosity,” said Schadenberg. “This needs further investigation.”

Angela Ireland, president of the Delta Hospice Society, echoed the call for MAiD-free spaces and legal protections for Canadians who want traditional care at the end of life.

It was providential that the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s newly formed Mental Health Ministry launched with its new coordinator, Jane Waldock, just as news broke of the tragedy at the Vancouver Lapu Lapu Festival on Saturday, April 26.

“The Church has a place in supporting the mental health of the whole community,” Waldock told The B.C. Catholic, “and that really has been my focus from Sunday morning on.”

In response to the carnage, the Archdiocese quickly published best practices for supporting trauma victims, along with lists of resources for those struggling in the wake of the tragedy. Parishes across the region also held memorial Masses for the deceased.

Beyond the immediate crisis, Waldock said the launch of a mental health ministry is timely. Nearly three in four members of Canadian congregations report either struggling with mental illness themselves or have a close relationship with someone who does.

“There has been a felt need for a long time,” she said. “Pope Francis has said that mental health ministry is essential. The goal is to help all of us be aware of what mental illness is, what supports good mental health, and to overcome the stigma that keeps people from reaching out to our parishes for help.”

The ministry won’t provide therapy but will focus on training parishioners to listen well and to welcome into parish life those facing mental health challenges.

Waldock, who has a background in psychology, is a licensed PRH (Personality and Human Relations) educator. She helped lay the foundations of the ministry alongside Father Brian Duggan, who provides counseling services for the archdiocese and Sister John Mary Sullivan, a licensed family therapist and director for the archdiocese’s Ministry and Outreach office, and felt called to step into the coordinator role as the initiative took shape.

She is also certified as a mental health first aid facilitator and will soon offer a one-day course to equip participants with a basic toolkit for responding to mental health situations—and for maintaining their own mental wellness.

At the institutional level, Waldock hopes to see at least one parish per deanery become a local hub for mental health ministry. These parishes would organize outreach and educational initiatives for surrounding communities.

The ministry’s mission is rooted in three key principles: awareness, accompaniment, and advocacy.

Waldock says the stigma that surrounds mental health and those struggling with it is a core problem. People who need it often won’t seek help because of shame or lack of understanding.

Some of the problems are cultural, and Waldock admits that within the Church, there has been a long-standing, vocal skepticism towards psychologists and psychiatrists. “The formation of a mental health ministry, headed by lay people, goes a long way to normalizing mental health care within the local Church,” said Waldock.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Masculinity provides this gift, states Fedoryka.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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