Category: BC Catholic

It can be a challenge to decide what to watch on streaming services. With that in mind, I consulted several friends for recommendations. The result was decidedly dark.

Secret Agent was a 2025 winner at the Cannes Film Festival. Set in 1977 Brazil, before the revolution, it tells the story of Clovis (award-winning actor Robson Andrade), a widower hoping to reunite with his young son. He soon discovers that life is difficult and dangerous in a country rife with petty crime, bribery, and murder. He becomes caught up in this world and eventually a target for a crime boss.

The narrative is intriguing and often suspenseful, but too often I found scenes difficult to place, as action unfolds without sufficient introduction. At times the result is confusing, even if clarified later. Despite this, director Kleber Mendoza carries the viewer along in a complex narrative crowded with a wide range of characters.

Filmed in Spanish, requiring subtitles, Secret Agent is nonetheless a powerful portrait of a corrupt society, with an engaging hero and a complex but dark storyline.

Even darker is Civil War, a film clearly aimed at the current political situation in the United States. Many will object to its portrayal of a president who has assumed autocratic powers as too politically biased. Others, however, may find themselves drawn into a narrative focusing on war correspondents attempting to cross several states to report on events in Washington. Along the way, they witness savagery that many will find stark and disturbing. It is an ugly account of an uglier situation.

Clearly intended as a cautionary tale for American audiences, Civil War can be accused of adding gloom and doom to what many already see as a critical moment.

The fact that the film, written and directed by Alex Garland, is exceptionally well made and acted may itself frustrate some viewers, depending on their political outlook. Others may simply find it too horrific.

And that brings me back to the concern that so many films are dark. Looking at this year’s Oscar nominations, one may wonder what has happened to escapist comedy and romance. Is this merely coincidence, or a reflection of the spirit of the times in which we live?

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We just closed the books on another Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina, Italy. Amid the hype and some controversy, some athletes cemented their names in history while others jump-started their careers. Events of this magnitude offer a chance at glory and a moment on the world stage — but also a platform for witness. Some athletes did just that. Here are some Catholic Olympians from past and present.

Britta Curl-Salemme, who played on the U.S. women’s hockey team that broke Canada’s hearts, winning gold in overtime, says she draws strength from her Catholic faith. Hockey is her “path to becoming a saint,” she said, because in a team sport “you sometimes have to die to yourself and put the team first,” she told The Catholic Spirit. St. Therese of Lisieux helped reignite her faith in college.

Jadin O’Brien competed in bobsled for the U.S. and has overcome a serious health issue. “I use my platform to glorify God,” she said. At every event she blesses the race location with holy water. “At competitions I just dive into my faith; I stop thinking and just do.”

Kacpar Tomasiak, a Polish ski jumper, drew attention after placing his silver and bronze medals on the altar of a church in Predazzo, Italy. He became the first Polish jumper to medal three times in one Olympics. Instead of celebrating, he asked for a Mass of thanksgiving, Father Edward Plen said. “His humility is striking, especially given the scale of his achievements,” he told the Catholic Register. He crosses himself before every jump and serves as an altar server in his parish. “You do not need to loudly proclaim your faith; people who look at your life will begin asking about Jesus and that is the greatest victory,” Father Plen said.

Maxim Naumov lost both parents in a 2025 plane crash over Washington, D.C., but his faith helped him return to competition and qualify for this year’s Olympics. He spoke of skating with love in his heart and Mary by his side. His second piece was set to Ave Maria. He crosses himself before every routine and wears his cross. After his final routine, holding a picture of his parents, he said, “I love you. We did it. God is good,” according to Aleteia.

Yuna Kim, Olympic gold and silver medalist from South Korea, converted to Catholicism in 2008 after a knee injury and care from Catholic doctors. “I had a providential encounter with these Catholic doctors who would quote from the New Testament to keep my morale high,” she said, according to Catholic Review. She also met met a priest in the hospital who gave her private lessons in understanding more about the Bible and Church teachings.

“I thirst.” Mother Teresa loved this phrase of Jesus from the cross so much that she had it inscribed in prominent places in her convent chapels.

This saying of Jesus — one of seven that he spoke from the cross despite his great suffering — has profound implications for the Church militant here on earth. For us, it’s go time. For those who love, when we hear Jesus say “I thirst,” we hear him say, “Bring me as many precious souls as possible. I yearn to be loved by the souls I have died to save!”

We in the West love to daydream about our retirement. We pine for it. We thirst for it. In affluent nations like ours, we believe that at a certain point we have “earned” a rest. But can one take a vacation from loving? Can we retire from serving Jesus with our lives?

We would do well as Christians to meditate often on the shortness of our lives here on earth. Like the Psalmist, we need to beseech the Lord for wisdom: “So teach us to number our days that we may gain wisdom of heart.” (Ps 90) And how few days we have to quench the thirst of Jesus! Tomorrow makes one less day.

It is so easy to become dizzy with indecision over how to serve Jesus. There are so many around us who do not believe. What do we do with our own families who have rejected the faith? Where do we start?

The starting point is very simple. We must attend to the thirsting Jesus in front of us.

As a parent, there is no shortage of opportunities to satisfy the thirst of a child — thirst for water, yes, but also thirst for attention, thirst for playtime, thirst for comfort. There is no shortage of people out there who thirst for a listening ear. There is no shortage of people who are difficult to love or who need help with daily living.

When we give to all of these little ones, we mystically and actually satisfy the thirst of Jesus. In attending to these little needy ones, we simultaneously attend to Jesus and also welcome little ones into the caring arms of Jesus, which look a lot like our arms, come to think of it.

Jesus yearned for consolation from the cross — consolation for all of the blasphemies and indifference that would follow even after his offering of his life for us. Will we ignore his cries from the cross and seek our own comfort and rest as our ultimate goal?

It is justice that we seek to open the eyes of those around us.

If an angel appeared to you and announced news that caught you off guard, how would you react? I wonder how I would respond.

The feast of the Annunciation is on March 25, nine months before Christmas, when the Church celebrates Mary’s vocation and the Incarnation. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, she was surprised and full of wonder. Mary did not need time to prepare her body, mind, and heart for receiving the Holy Spirit. Her whole life was spent in union with God, as she herself was born without original sin. She was ready. It was her faithful response to the angel’s message, her fiat, that began the work of redemption.

Dominican spiritual writer Father Luis de Granada said, “When God decided to create the first man, he first took care to create a fitting environment for him, which was the Garden of Eden. It makes sense, then, that when God made ready to send his Son, the Christ, he likewise prepared for him a worthy environment, namely, the body and soul of the Blessed Virgin.”

When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant, we were overjoyed. I can only imagine how Mary might have felt at the news that she would be carrying a child — especially since it wasn’t just any child, but the Son of God.

There was a mixture of feelings for me: fear, joy, and excitement as I began a new life. Becoming a family of three was a change that made me realize how important it was to prepare my body, mind, and heart for motherhood. Mary must have felt fearful because she was unwed, betrothed, and pregnant. At the same time, she must have felt joy to be chosen as the Mother of God.

It was with patience and prayer that I could trust in God’s plans for our family. Mary’s “yes” to God was a beacon of faith to me. In my pregnancy, I started to pray for my unborn child to be healthy and happy. I began to take more care of my physical, mental, and spiritual health as my unborn child needed the best environment to develop and grow.

I remember thinking that so many women have gone through this same journey. This thought made me feel connected to the whole of humanity, which made me excited to be a co-creator with the Master Creator.

“Without Christ, life has no meaning… it is only through Christ that we will come to comprehend our inner self and everything that matters most to us: the hidden value of pain and of work well-done, the authentic peace and joy which surpass natural feelings and life’s uncertainties, the delightful prospect of our supernatural reward in our eternal homeland.”

Perhaps today, more than even a month ago, we can see the reason for a call to go to our knees in prayer to repent on behalf of Canada, and to call out to the Lord to have mercy on our nation.

Initially, the impetus for this came from reflecting on the darkness of the rampant “culture of death” that has spread its tentacles across our nation—through unbridled, unrestricted abortion and physician-assisted suicide, and the coercive tactics used to pressure individuals to choose MAiD as a solution not only to health challenges but to an array of social challenges, from poverty to lack of appropriate housing and other issues that can be resolved if the choice is there for service agencies to advocate and come alongside those facing such situations to resolve them.

Now, with the loss of life at Tumbler Ridge, BC, we have added to the mix situations where individuals, feeling such a degree of isolation and alienation, turn on their own family and community, and on themselves, becoming agents of death in such a horrific, tragic fashion.

Scripture says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Ps. 33:12)

As a nation, Canada has turned away from the holiness of God, adopting and embracing attitudes and practices that grieve the heart of God. We as believers must be the ones to go to our knees and call out to God for forgiveness on behalf of this nation that we are citizens of, and to beg His mercy so that His favour might be restored to Canada and to us, so that we might all live “…peaceable lives” (1 Tim. 2:2) as citizens of this nation.

We began our call for 40 days of prayer and penance starting on Ash Wednesday to coincide with the season of Lent, based on Joel 2:12–13a, 14a:

Yet, even now, says the Lord, return to Me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
And return to the Lord, your God.
…
Perhaps He will again relent,
And leave behind Him a blessing.

Therefore let us pray:

Lord God, You who are merciful and just,
who have created us in your image and likeness,
and called us to live in holiness and righteousness,
we have sinned against you, as a Nation,
in acceding to the death-dealing of abortion
and euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide,
blatantly transgressing your Law
that we are not to commit murder.

Forgive us, Lord, and remove the stain
of the sin of shedding innocent blood
that has polluted the land
and seeded darkness and death into our cultural fabric.

Forgive us for the hardness of our hearts,
for harbouring antagonism, hostility, hatred and blame
towards those whose views differ from ours.

For Charles King and the students at Saint John Paul II Academy, the presence of the Shroud of Turin Exhibition is elevating their Lenten experience beyond ordinary fasting and sacrifice, deepening their reflection on the suffering Christ endured through his Passion.

The exhibit, making what could be its final appearance in Vancouver while organizers look for a permanent home, includes a life-sized replica of the Shroud of Turin, the ancient cloth imprinted with the image of a crucified man believed by many to be Jesus. It also includes replicas of items associated with Christ’s Passion, such as nails, a crown of thorns, and the spear that pierced his side.

During Lent, the exhibit is capturing students’ imagination about the meaning of Easter. “It’s really helped us to reflect on the Crucifixion,” King told The B.C. Catholic. “Just seeing the shroud and the crown of thorns and even the nail that Jesus may have been pierced with—it’s a really special invitation to reflect on [his Passion].” 

The exhibit has given King a reminder to pick up his own cross and follow Christ. “Everyone has to carry the cross, especially during Lent,” he said. “If Jesus carried such a heavy cross for us, then we should also follow him and offer up parts of our lives that are difficult.”

That the actual identity of the shroud is uncertain simply adds a valuable element of faith to the experience for King, who says “it’s fitting that there is some sort of ambiguity to the shroud, because after all he’s God and there’s supposed to be mystery there.”

For King, the shroud exhibit is the perfect Lenten feature during the school’s first year in its new building, which opened in September.

“The fact that the shroud is here for our first Lent at our new school is cool because it’s building this culture of strong Catholic faith,” he said.

In addition to the exhibit, students will hear from shroud expert Dr. Cheryl White, who has studied and spoken about the famed burial cloth for over 30 years.

The exhibit typically visits churches, and to have it in a school is a special gift, she said. “All day during your school day, it’s accessible!”

Speaking about the shroud with younger students only became a focus of her career in the past decade, and the experience has been rewarding. The shroud is “a unique intersection between faith and reason,” she said.

Speaking moments before hundreds of catechumens and candidates signed their names in the Book of the Elect in anticipation of baptism and Confirmation at Easter, Archbishop Richard Smith addressed the doubts some might feel as they prepare to become Catholic.

Speaking at the Rite of Election, held over two days to accommodate the historically high number of people seeking entrance and communion in the Church, the archbishop referenced the Gospel reading of Christ’s temptations in the desert, highlighting the devil’s role in raising doubts that may plague those coming into the Church.

“Here, the devil is seducing Jesus away from fidelity to the will of his Heavenly Father,” Archbishop Smith told those gathered at Holy Rosary Cathedral on Feb. 22. “These same temptations can beset those who are chosen to follow Jesus. We need to be aware of them and resist them with the help of God’s grace.”

Such temptations can’t be overcome by our will alone, he said. “Jesus alone is able to stand steadfast against the evil one, and he gives you—he gives us all—a share in his strength, so that we too, [in Christ], can also overcome [the devil].”

A day earlier, another Rite of Election was held at St. Matthew’s in Surrey, where, like the cathedral, the pews were filled with soon-to-be Catholics and their sponsors.

Archbishop Smith assured about 650 catechumens and nearly 120 candidates seeking Confirmation that becoming Catholic has “nothing to do with personal merits or worthiness,” and that the love of God makes them worthy.

“You’re chosen by God to follow his Son to eternal life. Today, God, through the Church, elects you to celebrate Easter sacraments so that through those sacraments, you’ll be united to Jesus and become a member of his Church.”

As new Catholics, they will also be “surrounded and supported by the Church,” he said. “We look forward with great anticipation to welcoming you among the community of disciples of Jesus Christ.”

The Archbishop also reflected on the meaning of the word election, saying it’s usually thought of as making a personal choice. “In this sacred moment, the Rite of Election highlights a reverse dynamic,” he said. “You’re not choosing, you are chosen—the one electing you is God.”

“God bases this choice not upon any merits you have for having considered and weighed what you propose to do, but solely on the basis of his wondrous love for you.”

I found your articles about the history of Catholic health care in Canada interesting. I have a personal connection to that history.

In 1929, my grandmother, Marie, worked with the Sisters of Service who operated a small hospital in Edson, Alberta. She worked in the laundry and it was gruelling. In the photo you can see her outside the hospital, and you can glimpse the conditions. 

I am thankful to the faithful women and men who built up health services in our country. 

Marianne Nederend
Ladner

The B.C. Catholic’s one-sided Venezuela coverage seems to be catering to local expats who support the Venezuelan opposition, without presenting a broader historical context.

At a Jan. 17 rally I listened to a history lesson delivered by a Venezuelan gentleman who describe life before Hugo Chavez. There was abject poverty, illiteracy, massive unemployment, and high infant mortality. After Chavez won in 1998, there was improvement in many sectors including literacy.

U.S. interference has wreaked havoc in Venezuela, causing uproar and leading to today’s disputes. Trump’s quotes in the article trying to justify the Jan. 3 actions show the extreme hegemony of the U.S. Much of the discontent and difficulties in Venezuela today stem from years of U.S. sanctions and other measures that have crippled Venezuela.

How many readers support the U.S. invading another country and kidnapping its elected leader? A  balanced article is desperately needed educate Canadians about America’s toxic foreign and domestic policy.

Penny Oyama
Burnaby

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The question “How is your Lent going?” is not one I would be apt to ask another person directly, but it is one I regularly ask myself.

I usually begin by looking at my life in terms of the pillars of Lent: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. I appreciate the opportunity Lent provides to remove distractions and “extras” from my life and get back to basics in my diet, in my relationship with God, and in my outward actions toward others.

After the Christmas season, my physical health benefits from removing chocolate and snacks from my days and increasing fish, legumes, and vegetables in my diet. Lent is not intended to be a weight-loss program, but fasting can help us develop reverence for our bodies by focusing more earnestly on healthy choices. Fasting also makes us appreciate the gift of food; as we hunger for physical satisfaction, we are reminded that our souls hunger and thirst for God in a way only he can fill.

Prayer leads us toward filling that hunger and thirst, for communicating with God is essential to our spiritual health. In Lent, we are reminded to increase our prayer habits in ways such as attending Mass more than once per week, visiting the Adoration chapel, praying the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross, or getting out of bed a few minutes earlier than usual to read Scripture, a prayerful reflection, or listen to a religious podcast. 

Lent is not a time to decide to make every possible change or to do everything at once, lest we fall flat on our faces before the first week is over. We must pace ourselves by creating attainable goals so that, ideally, once Lent is over, some of our practices remain as permanent habits. It is through these habits that we come to know God in a more intimate — ultimately life-saving — way.

Almsgiving may seem more difficult in our economy, especially since Lent falls during tax season; however, giving to others does not always need to be financial. For many, the money saved by not having extra foods during Lent can be set aside for charity. For others, donating food, clothing, or recyclable containers allows us to think outside ourselves. Even random acts of kindness or extra prayers for others — particularly those who challenge us, or even strangers — allow us to spread God’s love in the world. Knowing God through prayer and sacrificing from our own physical needs through fasting both lead us outward, in keeping with the pillar of almsgiving.

Are these Lenten pillars always easy? No. In fact, Chris Stefanick states, “Lent reminds us that love costs something.