Category: BC Catholic

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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TORONTO (CCN) — Catholic Women’s League of Canada members called on the federal government to create its long-promised Office of Palliative Care, saying too many Canadians — especially seniors and dementia patients — still lack access to the universally recognized health right.  

The resolution was one of four passed by more than 400 delegates from across Canada attending the CWL’s 105th annual national convention, a four-day gathering that wrapped up Aug. 13.

Participants were eager to share their hopes and enthusiasm for the league’s future, and some of their enthusiasm surrounded the resolutions, which also called on the federal government to support military chaplaincy, recognize the life of the unborn in the criminal code, and centralize the reporting of cybercrime in Canada.

“These are a big part of putting our money where our mouth is,” said Barbara Dowding of Vancouver. “It’s not just wringing our hands but growing spiritually, offering service and also taking it on to the legislature.”

Founded in 1920 and federally incorporated in 1923 under poet and writer Mary Ellen (Bellelle) Guerin, the CWL is built on three pillars: faith, service and social justice.

In interviews, members shared stories of local service, such as supporting women’s shelters for abuse survivors, aiding a hospital in Bethlehem, and providing meals for the homeless in rural parts of Canada.

According to the league’s 2024 annual report, more than 55,000 members in more than 1,000 parish councils collectively contributed more than $2 million to local organizations, over $200,000 nationally, and another $200,000 earmarked for international organizations.

Calgary Bishop William McGrattan, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, served as spiritual adviser for the CWL during his first five years as a bishop and said its members have an “understanding of the impact of certain social and moral situations.”

For Bishop McGrattan, it is no surprise that league members have “an attentiveness to the marginalized.”

CWL membership stood at more than 56,400 at the end of 2024, across more than a thousand councils in 11 provinces. Despite a loss of 1,000 members from the previous year, delegates say challenges, such as aging demographics and volunteer shortages are opportunities for renewal.

At the age of 84, Eleanor Arless of Montreal still has the fervour she experienced when she joined the league at 16. “I’m always excited [to attend],” she said. “I’ve just always loved being here.”

Plans for membership revitalization include mentorship programs for younger women and outreach campaigns offering more flexible volunteer roles.

Those efforts to reach new members are also an opportunity to connect with people who are searching, said Karen Rossiter of Prince Edward Island. “This is our time.”

Florie Mariano of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, was a first-time convention attendee and said she was grateful that another woman in her local CWL chapter encouraged her to get more involved.

A number of “Case for” titles have been popularized in Christian circles lately, several of them written by former atheist journalist Lee Strobel, including The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for the Real Jesus. (I was looking forward to his eventual penning of The Case for Catholicism, but that one’s already been covered by Catholic apologist Trent Horn.)

Next week in Toronto, a group of Catholic journalists will make their own case — The Case for Religion Journalism — in a public panel discussion exploring the current state of religion reporting, why it still matters, and its place in today’s media landscape.

It wasn’t long ago that religion had a regular home in Canadian newspapers. Across the country, newspapers like The Vancouver Sun had writers like Douglas Todd who would explore religion and faith on a regular basis. But slowly, religion pages vanished, and then so did the media that once carried them.

On Aug. 14, veteran religion journalists will gather at St. John Henry Newman Catholic Church in Toronto to reflect on what’s been lost, and what the future might hold. The event is part of the “God in the City” Catholic journalism course, offered all week by Canadian Catholic News (CCN).

I’ll be moderating the panel, which features:

• Barb Fraze, longtime international news editor for Catholic News Service

• Michael W. Higgins, columnist and religion commentator for The Globe and Mail and CBC, affiliated with St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, and former interim president of St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi Colleges in Vancouver

• John Longhurst, Order of Canada recipient and freelance religion writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, Religion News Service, and CBC Radio

• Michael Swan, award-winning journalist and former associate editor of The Catholic Register, now freelancing for Canadian Affairs, will serve as respondent

The summer course is organized by CCN, with Matthew Marquardt of Catholic Conscience; Laura Ieraci, editor of ONE magazine; Barb Fraze; visual journalist Jermaine Bagnall, and me.

The initiative will build on CCN’s recent Teaching Truth in Charity journalism courses, as well as a recent session Ieraci, Fraze, and I presented in Phoenix — “What Makes Journalism Catholic?” — where we unpacked Canada’s MAiD debate and the broader collapse in media credibility. 

Sadly, trust in journalism has cratered, particularly in Canada. Recent surveys show trust in Canadian news as low as 32 per cent, with Statistics Canada reporting only 16 per cent of Canadians have “high trust” in the media.

Is the decline of religious journalism a symptom of media collapse or a cause? Maybe we’ll find out next week. But I do know that when the search for truth disappears, it’s not surprising that the search for God isn’t far behind.

The Legion of Mary was founded by Frank Duff, a Servant of God, on Sept. 7, 1921. The Legion of Mary honours Our Lady under the title of “Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of all Graces.”

In his 1894 Rosary encyclical Iucunda Semper Expectatione, Pope Leo XIII emphasized Our Lady as “Mediatrix of Divine grace.” He wrote:

“The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven. Now, this merciful office of hers, perhaps, appears in no other form of prayer so manifestly as it does in the Rosary.”

Leo XIII invited the faithful to contemplate the Blessed Mother as “Mediatrix of Divine grace” in the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary:

“First come the Joyful Mysteries. The Eternal Son of God stoops to mankind, putting on its nature; but with the assent of Mary, who conceives Him by the Holy Ghost. Then St. John the Baptist, by a singular privilege, is sanctified in his mother’s womb and favoured with special graces that he might prepare the way of the Lord; and this comes to pass by the greeting of Mary who had been inspired to visit her cousin. At last the expected of nations comes to light, Christ the Saviour. The Virgin bears Him.”

Regarding the Sorrowful Mysteries, Leo XIII wrote:

“She knew beforehand all these agonies; she knew and saw them… It is certain, therefore, that she suffered in the very depths of her soul with His most bitter sufferings and with His torments. Moreover, it was before the eyes of Mary that was to be finished the Divine Sacrifice for which she had borne and brought up the Victim.”

Regarding the Glorious Mysteries, Leo XIII wrote:

“Though worthy of Heaven, she abides a while on earth, so that the infant Church may be directed and comforted by her… Mary is in the room, and there, praying with the Apostles and entreating for them with sobs and tears, she hastens for the Church the coming of the Spirit, the Comforter, the supreme gift of Christ, the treasure that will never fail. And later, without measure and without end will she be able to plead our cause, passing upon a day to the life immortal.”

St. Bernardine of Siena said, “Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.”

Emmanuella Kim has been a quiet, humble, and loving presence in Vancouver for the past 18 years. The third local director of Madonna House in our city, she recently left Vancouver to return to the Madonna House Motherhouse in Combermere, Ont.

Her departure marks not only a personal transition but also comes during a season of significant change for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. This spring and summer of 2025 — our Jubilee Year of Hope — saw the arrival of a new Pope and Archbishop, and the farewell of three remarkable consecrated women who profoundly affected our faith community: Sister John Mary Sullivan (Franciscan of the Eucharist), Lioba Na (from the Focolare Movement), and Emmanuella of the Madonna House Apostolate.

Emmanuella will be deeply missed by many in Vancouver, and I was moved to reflect on what she leaves behind: a legacy of deep friendship, faithful teaching, and a lived witness to God’s love through everyday presence and service.

When asked about the highlights of her time in Vancouver, Emmanuella answered without hesitation: it was the people. For her, the friendships and the unique beauty of each person she encountered were the true treasures of her ministry.

Speaking about her transition, she reflected honestly on the nature of detachment in her vocation. The most difficult separation, she said, happened many years ago when she first left her family in Korea to join Madonna House. In those early days, she felt profoundly homesick — her heart still anchored in Korea while her body was in Canada.

She admitted there were many tears. But what kept her going, she said, was the clarity of her calling: the unmistakable signs, graces, and encounters with God that confirmed her path.

Over time, Madonna House became home. And just as she came to embrace her life in Canada, she now carries the love and bonds formed here as she returns to Combermere.

Before joining Madonna House, she served as a social worker in Seoul. Here in Canada, she was known for her humble service, her gift for connecting people, and her quiet attentiveness to those in need — especially the sick, the grieving, and the lonely. She journeyed closely with many families, offered retreats in the Ignatian tradition, and, alongside her fellow community members, welcomed countless guests into their home with warmth and sincerity.

Hospitality is central to the Madonna House charism — a hospitality not just of the home, but of the heart. Foundress Catherine Doherty spoke of the “Chit Chat Apostolate,” where the simple act of listening and being present allows people to feel seen, heard, and loved, and in that, to encounter Christ.

Governments have a remarkable way of framing issues differently from how the average person sees them.

Take the B.C. government, which marked the UN’s World Day Against Human Trafficking by announcing a new specialized anti-trafficking policing unit. B.C. Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger said the unit will investigate human trafficking crimes and support victims. She added that its education team will train officers on responding to human trafficking and on differentiating between what is and isn’t human trafficking.

Wait, what? A key element of the unit is ensuring it doesn’t go after what isn’t human trafficking?

Krieger clarified: although human trafficking victims are often forced to engage in sex work, the unit will not target sex workers who are there by choice.

Just in case there was any doubt, reiterated: “To be clear, those who engage in sex work out of their own choice are not the targets of our province’s response to human trafficking.”

Apparently the unit’s role needs to be so well defined that an education team is tasked with keeping the lines from blurring.

Then police said the same thing. BC RCMP Chief Supt. Elijah Rain said the unit “will not focus on sex workers engaged in consensual sex work.”

It almost sounded like an effort to reassure sex‑worker advocacy organizations that present prostitution as a freely chosen profession. It even sounded a bit compassionate as police suggested they have better things to do than monitor what consenting adults do for money. But characterizing sex work as comparable to restaurant work, with staff tolerating conditions because of flexible hours and good tips, ignores the reality of exploitation.

To confirm what was being said, The B.C. Catholic’s Terry O’Neill asked the RCMP about the remarks. Doesn’t Canada’s Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) reject the notion of sex work as a neutral market service? Doesn’t its preamble state: “It is important to denounce and prohibit the purchase of sexual services because it creates a demand for prostitution that leads to the exploitation of vulnerable persons, especially women and children.”

The RCMP didn’t back down. A spokesperson confirmed the unit is not interested in sex workers engaged in consensual sex work or their clients. “These individuals are not being trafficked. The clear focus of the unit is to target individuals and groups who are trafficking persons that are typically forced into the sex trade or other forms of forced labour.”

Authorities appear confident they can draw a clean line between human trafficking and the sex trade: a lot of trafficked individuals do sex work, but not all sex workers are trafficked.

Taking that approach, however, ignores the disturbing data.

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Wis 18:6–9
Second Reading: Heb 11:1–2, 8–19
 Gospel Reading: Lk 12:32–48

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” we hear in this Sunday’s Second Reading. Accordingly, people of faith are also people of hope, or—better—trust.

We are like the Israelites in the First Reading, who had been told beforehand of their delivery from slavery in Egypt “so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted.”

We are like Abraham in the Second Reading, who stayed “as in a foreign land, living in tents,” waiting for “the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

We are like the servants in the Gospel Reading, dressed for action, our lamps lighted, “like those who are waiting for their master to return … so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks.”

Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year of Hope, thus continuing the message of his first encyclical, The Light of Faith, begun by Pope Benedict XVI.

“In God’s gift of faith, a supernatural infused virtue, we realize that a great love has been offered us, a good word has been spoken to us, and that when we welcome that word, Jesus Christ the Word made Flesh, the Holy Spirit transforms us, lights up our way to the future, and enables us joyfully to advance along that way on wings of hope,” Pope Francis said. “Thus wonderfully interwoven, faith, hope, and charity are the driving force of the Christian life as it advances toward full communion with God.”

Many people today reject the idea of faith as a light, for they associate it with darkness, he noted. It appears to give “an illusory light, preventing mankind from boldly setting out in quest of knowledge.”

Other people admit faith only where the light of reason does not lead to certainty. They understand faith “either as a leap in the dark, to be taken in the absence of light, driven by blind emotion, or as a subjective light, capable perhaps of warming the heart and bringing personal consolation, but not something which could be proposed to others as an objective and shared light which points the way.”

Faced with the fact that “the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future,” the Pope noted, people have “renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself.” Instead, they have contented themselves “with smaller lights, which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way.” People can no longer distinguish between “the road to our destination” and “roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.”