Pilgrims during last year’s Camino at Our Lady of the Mountains in Whistler. The pilgrimage, like one at St. James in Abbotsford, reflects a growing trend among local Catholics to embrace rediscovered traditions and deepen their faith. (Caio Resende photo)
By James Risdon The pastor at Whistler’s Our Lady of the Mountains Parish, Father Andrew L’Heureux, tucks his Mass kit into his backpack every year at this time. It adds another roughly two kilograms to the load the 48-year-old priest will have to carry over the three-day, 100-kilometre pilgrimage he plans to make in late...
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A lawsuit launched last August against the Quebec government by pastor Art Lucier and Harvest Ministries International (HMI) was, according to their lawyer, never about the money. HMI left a $100,000 settlement offer on the table and has opted for a moral rather than a purely monetary victory in its case which claims the organization’s...
I hadn’t expected Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič to be as forthright as he was. He described the shock of arriving in Canada during the residential school crisis and finding flags at half-mast for months and irresponsible statements being made. My interview with Canada’s Apostolic nuncio appears here. For him, the key to preventing what we’ve seen...
Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital’s policy of not allowing euthanasia onsite is the subject of a lawsuit by the parents of a terminally ill woman who was transferred to another facility to be euthanized. (Terry O’Neill photo)
The parents of a terminally ill woman who was transferred to another facility to be euthanized after St. Paul’s Hospital refused to allow the procedure on its premises are suing the provincial government and Providence Health Care, the Catholic health-care provider that operates St. Paul’s. The couple’s lawsuit says their daughter’s Charter of Rights and...
Steve Weatherbe holds a Christians for Israel sign in Victoria with other supporters. The group gathers to protest pro-Palestinian rallies in Victoria. (Contributed photos)
Sometimes, a free afternoon is all you need to start a counter-protest. Catholic pro-life organizer and retired journalist Steven Weatherbe was visiting Vancouver with his wife, who was attending a conference. He was at a loss for what to do with his afternoon, and then he saw a pro-Palestinian rally forming at the Vancouver Art...
Parishioners pray before the pilgrim Our Lady of Fatima statue at St. James Church in Abbotsford. The World Apostolate of Fatima wants to revive devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in Canada. (Paul Schratz photo)
For Ethelyn David, Catholic event organizing seems to be second nature. From Marian conferences to parish missions, she has been promoting and coordinating celebrations of faith and devotion across the Archdiocese of Vancouver through her Mediatrix Conferences organization. But she hadn’t intended to be front and centre in Our Lady of Fatima’s visit to Vancouver....
Decorating or “writing” Easter Pysanky eggs can be a metaphor for the Resurrection. Just as Christ’s body was made bloody and scarred before its renewal on Easter Sunday, so too is the egg made ugly before its beauty can be unveiled with a candle flame. (Nicholas Elbers photos)
For decades, the Madonna House Apostolate has been practising the Ukrainian tradition of pysanky, the “writing,” or dying of ornate eggs. Now the tradition has taken on new significance by helping to create a sense of solidarity with people in Ukraine, says Madonna House community member Emmanuella Kim. The centuries-old Ukrainian practice of pysanky is...
A First Nations choir sings at Mass to mark the Easter Sunday signing of a Sacred Covenant between the Kamloops First Nation, the Archdiocese of Vancouver, and the Diocese of Kamloops. There appear to be no plans for other Canadian bishops to immediately follow suit. (Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc photo)
By Anna Farrow Montreal Correspondent Though Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller called the Easter accord between the Kamloops First Nation and two British Columbia Catholic dioceses a significant and historic “milestone,” there appear to be no plans for other Canadian bishops to immediately follow suit. Andrew Ehrkamp, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Edmonton, noted...
Former Kamloops Chief Manny Jules presents Archbishop Miller with a stole marked with symbols Tk’emlúps historical events. On Easter Sunday, Archbishop Miller and Kamloops Bishop Joseph Nguyen signed a Sacred Covenant with the Kamloops First Nation to forge a new relationship between the Church and Indigenous peoples in British Columbia. (Matthew Furtado/Archdiocese of Vancouver)
The journey to the Easter Sunday signing in Kamloops of a sacred covenant between the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops First Nation) and Catholic bishops from Vancouver and Kamloops took several years, and it was the efforts of two men that began the process, say Kamloops Chief Rosanne Casimir and Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller. Both...
A message to Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller conveys greetings and a blessing for participants of the reconciliation event in Kamloops on Easter Sunday. (Archdiocese of Vancouver)
Pope Francis has sent prayers and greetings to the Kamloops First Nation, the Archdiocese of Vancouver and the Diocese of Kamloops to mark the signing of their Sacred Covenant on Easter Sunday. In a message to Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said, “His Holiness Pope Francis sends...
