Category: BC Catholic

To understand the psyche of a city government that not only refuses to declare December as Christian Heritage Month but won’t even say why, we needn’t look any further than the official celebrations and observances  it does approve of. 

In Vancouver’s case, the list is long: Sikh Heritage Month, Black History Month, Pride Week, Italian Heritage Month, and on and on. Each one includes a small testimonial about why the observance matters and how the city is richer because of it.

At the bottom of the list of is one that likely reassures city staff they’ve already “done” Christmas: it’s a statutory holiday, and employees get the day off. But unlike all the other observances on the list, the description of Christmas is strangely sterile. Where the other entries speak warmly about the community being honoured, Christmas is written like a Wikipedia entry, except Wikipedia would offer more substance on what is one of the most significant holidays in the world.

I ran the city’s list past an AI model without giving it any direction and asked whether it noticed anything different about the Christmas entry.

It saw it immediately. “It jumps off the page,” it said. Every other observance explains what the day is about, who celebrates it, why it matters, and the traditions or values behind it. Then we get to Christmas. There’s no mention of Christ, Christian Canadians, or even the cultural heritage of the holiday. It frames Christmas almost as an obligation the city observes only because everyone else does.

The AI summed it up with more courage than most city departments: “Every other entry has a heart. The Christmas one reads like it was written by a nervous anthropology student trying not to get cancelled.”

Which brings me back to the question: what goes on in the mind of a bureaucracy or political culture that will acknowledge the date of a holiday but not the meaning behind it? Are the values Christmas represents really that unimportant to a city like Vancouver which, although less Christian than other parts of Canada, still has a civic history shaped by Christian-based health care, education, social services, charity, and institutions?

I accidentally stumbled on some explanation when thinking about the psychology of Christmas songs. Listening to a familiar Christmas tune on the radio and feeling that spark of joy they bring got me wondering what it is about these songs that resonates in us. Is there something unique about Christmas music that keeps drawing us back year after year? Is it just nostalgia, or is something deeper going on?

So back to AI again: is there something distinctive about the appeal of Christmas songs beyond sentiment? 

Vancouver’s public health-care provider has confirmed that it is operating a secret euthanasia clinic on the ground floor of an office building, directly across the lobby from a dialysis clinic.

In response to a B.C. Catholic freedom-of-information application, the Vancouver Coastal Health authority confirmed on Dec. 9 what its public-affairs office had refused to verify for more than two months—that an office-type area called Horizon Space is, indeed, an area where patients are euthanized.

The B.C. Catholic reported in its Dec. 7 edition that it had received tips earlier this year that a Medical Assistance in Dying facility was operating in the five-floor building, located at 520 West 6th Avenue.

Our on-site investigation revealed that an area bearing a sign reading “Horizon Space” is located across the building’s ground-floor lobby from a dialysis clinic operated under contract by Providence Health Care, Vancouver’s Catholic health-care provider.

Vancouver Coastal made no public announcement of Horizon Space’s opening, and no record of its existence can be found on any Vancouver Coastal website. In fact, there is not even a listing for Horizon Space in the building’s lobby directory.

The authority’s public-affairs office responded to requests for information about Horizon Space with a vague email explaining it has no designated locations for patients requesting MAiD.

“Patients will have their requests addressed, assessments performed and, if eligible, receive an assisted death in the care location consistent with their care needs and wishes,” Vancouver Coastal stated in an Oct. 16 email.

In response, the B.C. Catholic filed an FOI application on Oct. 22, requesting “reports, records, memoranda, emails, contracts and any other pertinent records regarding the planning, construction, and operation of Horizon Space.” The newspaper paid a standard $10 fee upon filing.

However, the authority’s FOI office responded five days later with a notice that supplying all the requested material would cost an estimated $570—and it could be even more.

Mindful of the expense, the B.C. Catholic narrowed its request on Oct. 30 to one asking for “a single record, memo, email, report, or document that explains what Horizon Space is used for.”

And that’s exactly what we received—a single, four-page document designed to be distributed to incoming patients, explaining what Horizon Space is, how to find it, and where to park and enter the building (details of which were redacted in the copy given to the B.C. Catholic).

“This guide will provide you and your loved ones with important information about the VCH Horizon Space,” the document reads.

A hint about how long the clandestine facility has operated can be found in text at the top right corner of the document’s first page, which reads, “Vancouver Coastal Health, Assisted Dying Program, October 2024.”

Michael Bublé called meeting Pope Leo XIV on Friday “one of the greatest moments of my life,” adding that as he prepares to headline the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert for the poor, he hopes his example will encourage more people to speak openly about their faith.

The Grammy-winning singer, who grew up in Burnaby, B.C., and first sang publicly in local talent shows and hockey arenas, said faith “changes everything in my life, every single interaction.” Bublé has often spoken of his close-knit Canadian family, his grandparents’ influence, and the Catholic upbringing that shaped his early years.

“When you say that you have strong faith, this is shocking to people, which is sometimes hard for me to understand,” Bublé said in response to a question from CNA at a Vatican press conference on Dec. 5.

“And with the platform I have, my hope is that … there’s a young person who might listen to me today who might be afraid to share their faith or to be open about it, and they look at me and they say, ‘Wow, look at Bublé. He’s not afraid to share it,’ and maybe it will give them the strength to do the same.”

Bublé met Pope Leo XIV on Friday along with other artists participating in the Vatican’s sixth annual “Concert with the Poor” on Saturday, Dec. 6.

“I am overwhelmed,” he said. “This morning, I had the opportunity to meet the Holy Father. For me, this was something that I knew was going to be one of the greatest moments of my life.”

This year marks the first time a Pope will attend the concert, which is free and offered to 3,000 people in need served by volunteer organizations around Rome. They will receive a hot takeaway dinner and other necessities after the event.

“We know that times are difficult for many people, and there’s a lot of darkness,” Bublé said. “I feel like when you have faith, you have your own pilot light. And the lights can go out everywhere, everywhere, but if you have that faith and you have that light inside you, you can find your way.”

I asked Michael Bublé about how his faith at a Vatican press conference today and this was his response: pic.twitter.com/WF80pnhNzf

— Courtney Mares (@catholicourtney) December 5, 2025

The singer told EWTN News after the press conference that it was especially meaningful to introduce the pontiff to his mother, who was his childhood catechism teacher.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and Toronto’s Cardinal Francis Leo are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to withdraw the Liberal Party’s reported agreement with the Bloc Québécois to remove religious-belief exemptions from Canada’s hate-speech laws.

In a letter published Dec. 4, CCCB President Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière warned that repealing Section 319(3)(b) of the Criminal Code — which protects good-faith expressions or opinions based on religious texts from hate-speech prosecution — would have a “chilling effect on religious expression.”

“The removal of this provision risks creating uncertainty for faith communities, clergy, educators and others who may fear that the expression of traditional moral or doctrinal teachings could be misinterpreted as hate speech and could subject the speaker to proceedings that threaten imprisonment of up to two years,” wrote Bishop Goudreault.

The CCCB urged the government to retain the religious-text defence. Alternatively, the bishops proposed two steps: a public assurance that “good-faith religious expression, teaching and preaching will not be subject to criminal prosecution under the hate-propaganda provisions,” and mandatory consultation with religious leaders, legal experts, and civil-liberties groups before any changes affecting religious freedom.

Cardinal Leo echoed the concern the next day in a letter to Toronto Catholics that he shared with MPs in the archdiocese. “As Catholics, we must always firmly reject all forms of hatred and discrimination,” he wrote. But “the ability to express and teach our faith freely — without fear that sincere, good-faith proclamation of the Gospel might be misunderstood as unlawful — is a cornerstone of a healthy, democratic Canada.”

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton welcomed the bishops’ intervention. He said he was “very happy to see” the letter and similar concerns raised “from members of the Jewish community, Muslim community and Indian religious traditions such as Sikhs or Hindus. All people of faith need to understand that this will target everyone.”

Lawton had been scheduled to attend a justice and human rights committee meeting Dec. 4 on a proposed amendment to the Liberals’ Combatting Hate Act (Bill C-9). The bill would criminalize intimidation or obstruction outside institutions used by faith-based groups and ban the public display of certain terrorism or hate symbols.

The meeting was cancelled by Liberal chair James Maloney, who told media he wanted members “to regroup to find a path forward.” Maloney became chair after former chair Marc Miller was appointed Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture on Dec. 1.

After the cancellation, Lawton told The Catholic Register the Liberals were “refusing to say on record where they stand on this amendment to strip away religious protection and freedom,” adding that the lack of clarity “leav[es] tremendous uncertainty surrounding people of faith and what the future looks like.”

Archbishop Richard Smith says the 62 Indigenous cultural items received from the Vatican marks “a gift freely given” and an important step in rebuilding trust between the Catholic Church and Indigenous Peoples.

The artifacts, including a rare century-old Western Arctic kayak, were formally transferred to Indigenous leaders in Montreal as part of the Jubilee of Hope declared by Pope Francis. Before his death, the Pope expressed his wish that the items be returned. Pope Leo XIV carried out that intention, gifting them from the Vatican Museums’ Anima Mundi collection to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops for immediate repatriation.

“This gesture is a gift freely given—an act of reconciliation rooted in the grace of the Jubilee Year of Hope,” said Archbishop Smith, a member of the Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council and one of the CCCB’s key representatives during the repatriation process. “A gift, unlike restitution, is offered in freedom and friendship, as a sign of renewed relationship and mutual respect between the Church and Indigenous Peoples.”

Leaders from the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and the Métis National Council travelled to Montreal to receive the items. Local First Nations leadership held ceremony to welcome the sacred items and bundles back to Canada.

For the Inuvialuit, the return of the rare kayak marks the culmination of a long-held hope. “We are proud that after 100 years our Kayak is returning to the Inuvialuit Settlement Region,” said Duane Ningaqsiq Smith, Chair and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. “It is believed to be one of only five of its kind built more than a century ago… This is a historic step in revitalizing Inuvialuit cultural identity and values within our changing northern society.”

Indigenous leaders noted that Elders and Residential School Survivors have worked toward this moment for decades. A 2017 Assembly of First Nations resolution mandated efforts to secure the return of sacred items taken abroad, while the IRC has pressed specifically for the kayak’s repatriation.

“This step reflects the courage and persistence of the leaders, Elders, and Survivors who came before us,” said Victoria Pruden, President of the Métis National Council. “But this is not the end of the journey… Reconciliation is ongoing work, grounded in relationships, responsibility, and the continued pursuit of truth, justice, healing, and dignity for our Peoples.”

A week after The Catholic Register revealed that pro-life advocate Alissa Golob went undercover while 22 weeks pregnant to test whether late-term abortions were accessible in Canada without medical justification, the national response continues to intensify, with a new twist: a fourth hidden-camera video that Golob says she is legally barred from releasing.

Golob, co-founder of RightNow, posed as an undecided pregnant woman in abortion facilities in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary in 2023. The Nov. 19 Register story detailed her conversations with counsellors and physicians who told her late-term abortions could be arranged at nearby hospitals, sometimes “up to 32 weeks,” without needing to provide medical reasons.

Staff described procedures as a “mini stillbirth,” advised her she could “expel the fetus in the car,” and said reasons such as already having two children or “not wanting to be pregnant” were acceptable.

Those recordings — three of which have now been released — directly contradict long-standing political claims that late-term abortions in Canada are only performed in cases of maternal health risk or severe fetal anomalies.

In an email interview with The B.C. Catholic, Golob said the reaction from Canadians has been more visceral than she expected.

The dominant response has been “overwhelming shock and horror from the average Canadian who didn’t think late-term abortions were possible,” she said.

Many who describe themselves as pro-choice wrote to her saying the recordings were disturbing and that unrestricted late-term abortion “just shouldn’t be allowed.”

By contrast, she said some abortion-rights advocates have reacted with confusion and contradiction. “They were basically trying to throw everything they could at it to see if anything would stick,” she said. “Some said the videos were lies, some said late-term abortions don’t happen — despite the videos proving otherwise.”

Golob said the most significant development since the Register story broke is her discovery that she cannot release the Calgary footage at all.

“Alberta, shockingly, has the most extreme and over-reaching bubble-zone legislation in the country,” she said. “Distributing any footage recorded in the bubble zone could result in a fine or jail time.”

She called the legislation “worse than Ontario and even Montreal,” meaning the fourth video will remain unreleased unless the province changes its law.

Although no physician has contacted her privately, Golob says some health-care professionals reacted strongly in group chats and medical forums.

“Doctors were trying to disprove that late-term abortions happen until others in the chat posted my undercover videos,” she said.

I am generally not a fan of television series, usually finding myself weary of the attempts to provide novelty to something that merely becomes predictable. Of course, there are exceptions. I found myself spellbound by Ken Burns’ Civil War series and fascinated by his most recent American Revolution feature, though I recognize that neither is the sort of thing that is normally dubbed a “television series”.

In that realm it is a mark of my television watching that I gave up on Downton Abbey within a few episodes of the first series, despite recognizing its superb production values. So it is that the only series I remember with pleasure, admiration and continued fascination is The West Wing.

However, my reaction to television has recently undergone an enormous change thanks to a limited series (available on Netflix): Adolescence.

This series has much to recommend it. To begin with, it consists of only four one-hour episodes. While it seems to start with a fairly familiar scenario – police invading a home and accusing a 14-year-old boy of murder – it follows a far less obvious plot development. Each episode shows the impact of the murder investigation on the boy, his family, his school and the investigators. The result is not only fascinating as a study of people involved in crisis, but a storyline which raises a multitude of concerns about the justice system, the world of today’s adolescents, approaches to parenting and intergenerational relationships. It offers stimulus for many hours of dinner conversation around the kitchen table.

As if all this were not enough, the series has been filmed with astonishing bravura.

Each episode is filmed in one uninterrupted take or shot. Technically this almost defies belief, requiring as it does perfect timing for each complicated story component, as well as amazing camera work. It is a measure of the difficulty of this that some episodes took over 50 attempts before a satisfactory one could be completed. Of course, the film makes enormous demands on all involved. Most obvious to the viewer are the demands placed on the actors, whose skills are tested to the limit. What is truly impressive is that the entire cast, including several young actors, acquit themselves superbly, lending the film even greater authenticity.

In comparison, Adolescence makes the 90-minute one-shot Russian Ark look simple, though it is, of course, in itself a magnificent achievement.

Nor is this use of intricate camera work simply a filmic gimmick. The result of the approach to the filming is that it draws the viewer into the narrative in a unique fashion, forcing one to be an intimate part of the action and causing one constantly to assess for oneself and personally the social and emotional concerns of each development.

Over the past few years, I have referred to and quoted author Emily Stimpson Chapman several times. I originally discovered her essays during COVID, on the online platform Blessed Is She, and subsequently began to follow her on Instagram and Substack. I own a few of her books, and I have used some of the writing published in her weekly newsletter Through a Glass Darkly in my work with students and parents.

Emily Stimpson Chapman was educated in theology at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. She has written several Catholic books of her own and has likewise co-authored numerous books with other Catholic authors, including Scott Hahn. While her education and credentials are impressive, what has always drawn me most to Stimpson Chapman is her personable style.

She writes with knowledge and insight and does not waver on, or attempt to disguise, the truths of Catholic teaching. However, her gift for writing in a relational format — weaving personal vulnerability, real-life situations, and even humour into her work — makes readers feel as though they are sitting around the kitchen table with a friend.

Therefore, when I first heard of her work on a Bible for children, sponsored by Word on Fire, I was pleased that Stimpson Chapman’s knowledge and relational writing style would reach a younger crowd. I was intrigued to see how she would use her gift of language to present the Word to children while supporting parents as their children’s first catechists.

As the launch of the Bible drew nearer, my Catholic email and Instagram sources continued to pique my interest in this project. It is advertised as “the first distinctly Catholic story Bible that tells the entire story of salvation history through beautiful illustrations, quotes from the voices of the Church, and typological references that show how the Old and New Testaments are connected.”

I was curious about the unique style of this Bible. Additionally, the glimpses of Diana Renzina’s artwork that I saw online were outstanding. A close friend was also interested in this Bible and ordered one for each of us from Holy Family Catholic Gift and Book Store in Langley. Mine, she told me lovingly, was an early Christmas gift from her. I could not think of a better gift.

The Story of All Stories is marketed as a “Catholic Bible for children ages seven to thirteen.” While it certainly appeals to this age group and prepares them to read the actual Bible, I would like to clarify that The Story of All Stories is truly “the story for all ages” and “the story for all people.” In short, it is catholic in every sense of the word.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” With those words from the Lord’s Prayer, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is framing a new national reflection on food insecurity.

On the World Day of the Poor, Nov. 16,the bishops released Our Daily Bread: Food Security and the Call to Solidarity, a 10-page pastoral letter issued through the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace.

The document begins by grounding its message in the Gospel petition for daily sustenance, describing it as a cry heard from people facing rising food costs in Canada and severe food insecurity around the world. Citing the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, the bishops note that “more than 1 in 10 people are suffering severe food insecurity” and that more than three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. They add that even in an affluent country like Canada, more households are struggling to access nutritious food.

The letter is organized around three themes – Solidarity, Harmony, and Harvest. Under Solidarity, the bishops quote St. John Paul II’s definition of solidarity as “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.”

The letter cites the teaching of St. Paul VI and Pope Francis on the structural causes of poverty and highlights practical responses such as reducing food waste, simplifying consumption, choosing local produce, and supporting measures that improve the financial circumstances of households with low incomes. The letter cites research from the University of Toronto’s PROOF program, which studies policy approaches to reduce food insecurity, to show how it inadequate access to food declines when low-income families receive additional income.

The bishops also note that food security in Canada is connected to housing affordability and emphasize the importance of a just wage, quoting St. John Paul II’s statement that a just wage is the key measure of whether a socioeconomic system is functioning justly. They further warn that food insecurity is often worsened by conflict, displacement, environmental harm, and damage to local food systems.

In the section on Harmony, the letter encourages Catholics to renew their relationship with the land. It points to the growth of community gardens and sustainable agricultural practices as hopeful signs of stewardship and highlights the value of innovations that increase food production without degrading the environment. Drawing on Psalm 65, the bishops offer thanks for the work of farmers and harvesters who help sustain creation’s gifts.

Under Harvest, the bishops reaffirm the “universal destination of the goods of the earth” and stress that food is not merely another commodity.