CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - After 83 years, the Sisters of the Precious Blood have bid adieu to Charlottetown.

A farewell Mass and reception was held Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption, at St. Dunstan’s Basilica in Charlottetown to honour the Sisters of the Precious Blood as they close their monastery and the remaining Sisters move on to other parts of Canada. The basilica was filled to capacity, and under the direction of Leo Marchildon, a massed choir sang Marian hymns appropriate to the feast.  

Declining numbers and a lack of new vocations were cited for the end to the Sisters presence in Charlottetown, a presence dating back to 1929.

The Precious Blood Sisters, in a statement, said, "We are deeply grateful for the 83 years during which we have carried you and your parents and grandparents in our hearts and held your needs up to the Lord. We are saying farewell, but this is not an ending. Prayer is not bound by time or space or geography. And though we will no longer have a presence in Charlottetown, we will still hold you in our hearts and lift your needs up to the Lord. We will not abandon you. You are etched in our hearts forever."

Charlottetown Bishop Richard Grecco told the audience that the Sisters will be greatly missed in the diocese.

"We shall miss dearly the prayerful touch with which you reached out to so many individuals and groups," said Grecco. "We are grateful that God called you to the religious life, and sent you to us for 83 years. Now as God sends you elsewhere, we ask you to keep us in your prayers, as we will all of you."

OTTAWA - Twelve Crossroads walkers who hiked through Canada for the past three months wearing "Pro-Life" t-shirts ended their trek in Canada's capital convinced public opinion is turning against abortion.

"We have such a great country," said Patrick Wilson, 21, the leader of the Canadian Crossroads group that ended its cross-country trek Aug. 11. "We had a lot of positive support. I think the tide's turning."

"There was so much encouragement in the most unexpected places," said Lindsay Richey, 20, of Armstrong, B.C. "People that we expected would be angry or aggressive ended up being pro-life."

Richey said at one point a man driving his car past them on the highway turned around to come alongside them again to tell us "how proud he was to see people of his generation standing up for pro-life."

"It inspired him and made him happy," she said.

And in Winnipeg, a man driving a souped-up sports car pulled up near the group at a stoplight and asked Wilson what the group was doing. "Why are you pro-life and not pro-choice?" he asked.

"He looked like a complete dude," Wilson said. "I just liked his car."

But then the man stunned him by saying, "I'm adopted and if it wasn't for people like you I wouldn't be there today."

"He was just so touched," Wilson said. "This came at a time when we were encountering a lot of opposition."

Wilson said these hopeful signs would happen just when the walkers were feeling a little discouraged and wondering if they were doing any good.

The opposition they encountered included "a lot of middle fingers flashed at us, long glances and people yelling at us to go home," but what Wilson said bothered him the most was apathy.

"I'd almost prefer people take a stand, stand for something instead of living in la la land, with no sense of morality, and have no reaction at all."

For Richey, her most discouraging moment came inside a Catholic Church in Toronto when a parishioner told her he was pro-choice and didn't like what she was doing. She asked how he could be pro-choice and Catholic at the same time. "I'm a realist," was his response.

"It was very challenging, but at the same time so fulfilling," Richey said. "I could offer up all the hardship and difficulties for the cause of pro-life."

The Ottawa pro-life community welcomed the walkers.

"We're proud of you," Wanda Hartlin, Campaign Life Coalition communications co-ordinator, told the walkers upon their arrival on Parliament Hill.

Pro-life activist Frank Barrett presented each of the walkers with a certificate of appreciation from Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux, a pro-life MP who was unable to attend in person.

Crossroads groups began their walks in the mid-1990s. The Canadian group was one of five that began walks on May 13, leaving from Vancouver.

OTTAWA - Groups opposing euthanasia have expressed alarm over a B.C. judge's recent ruling that allows Gloria Taylor, a B.C. woman dying of a degenerative nerve disorder, a constitutional exemption to an assisted suicide should her symptoms worsen in the next year.

Taylor, one of the plaintiffs in the controversial Carter case decided last June, had been granted the exemption when B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lynn Smith struck down Canada's laws against assisted suicide and euthanasia as unconstitutional on Charter grounds. Smith ruled the laws would be kept in force for a year so Parliament can react with new legislation, but allowed Taylor the exemption while the law is still in force.

In July, the federal government appealed the Carter decision, including the constitutional exemption.

On Aug. 10, B.C. Justice Jo-Ann Prowse, however, ruled removing the exemption would cause Taylor "irreparable harm" by taking away the solace and peace of mind of knowing she could obtain an assisted suicide and by removing her ability to have one before her symptoms became unbearable.

"The suggestion that denying Ms. Taylor the exemption would have caused her irreparable harm is absurd," said Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) assistant director Peter Murphy. "Surely to kill or to facilitate killing is to do irreparable harm.

"Do we really want to live in country where individual judges hold the keys to life and death?" he asked. "The value of human life can never be measured by some subjective notion of its quality."

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) executive director Alex Schadenberg questioned whether judges were "overstepping" their bounds. He pointed out the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Parliament's laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide in the 1993 Rodriguez case. Sue Rodriguez, who also had ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, found an anonymous doctor who helped her end her life in 1994.

"It appears to me that judges are trying to make decisions that fit what they want rather than the law and judicial precedence," Schadenberg said. "They're writing their laws, their own script, and it's very concerning to me."

The Carter decision will be argued before the B.C. Court of Appeal March 4-8, 2013 and many have argued the constitutional exemption is an exception only for Taylor. But Schadenberg pointed out that others may seek exemptions under the principle of equality before the law.

"Other people who fit the criteria would have to be taken seriously," he said, noting he expected lawyers in the Ginette LeBlanc case to be argued in Quebec this December to ask for one. LeBlanc also suffers from ALS.

"Technically, the law has not changed. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are still completely illegal. Rodriquez is still upheld," Schadenberg said.

"But a judge is saying it is okay in this circumstance, the laws do not apply. It's not about Parliament, not about the Supreme Court, it's about a single judge. We're putting the power of life and death in the hands of a judge or a doctor."

Schadenberg said the federal  Attorney General can appeal this latest ruling on the constitutional exemption and urged Canadians to let Justice Minister Rob Nicholson know they want him to do so.

Schadenberg said that assisted suicide is the intentional killing of a human being.

"That's homicide," he said. "We are creating an exception to murder."

TORONTO - On Aug. 11 campers travelled about three hours from Toronto to St. Mary of Egypt Refuge for the inaugural week of the "Youth Camp ... with a difference."

"We're not so much wanting to entertain kids,” said Mary Marrocco, the refuge’s executive director. “We really want to help them to become strong, solid people by teaching them skills (and) doing that in a community way and having them actually contributing to the building of the place."

That’s literally building. These campers, aged 13 to 18, were to spend seven days evaluating design concepts, learning basic woodworking skills and constructing a physical structure — in this case an outhouse.

They’ll do this while still enjoying the 1.16-square-kms of wooded property in Queensborough in eastern Ontario, working on crafts and participating in prayer (which is optional as the camp is non-restrictive).

According to Marrocco, even money didn’t get in the way of registration for campers.

"Our priority is for the people for whom the fee might be difficult,” she said. “If people phone us and say, 'I'd really like to send my kids there but I really cannot afford to pay the $250,' then we say you're first on our list."

A limit of 15 campers ensures all-inclusiveness as each person will have a designated role during the construction process, said Marrocco.  

"Another difference is that it's not a big camp with a couple hundred kids and staff, it's more of a family atmosphere," she said. "None of the kids are building it by themselves, but they'll all be given a real part to do that will contribute to the real building."

Overseeing the construction is Luc Lafond, a 58-year-old semi-retired automated equipment designer. Lafond’s involvement, as well as the camp itself, came about last fall when he stepped forward to organize a group of volunteers and lead them in building a cabin for the refuge. During the three weeks of construction something changed in Lafond.

“In the past I was always giving my money, doing what I would have called my share,” said Lafond. “I realized that it is never too late to start helping others and it’s not just by putting money in an envelope that is the most efficient.”

With this new sense of satisfaction from community service, and having observed a lack of basic construction skills in young volunteers, Lafond offered to co-ordinate a construction-themed summer camp.

"What I realized was that the kids who were helping us, they didn't know how to hold a hammer or use a screwdriver,” he said. “I said this is mind boggling. When I was a kid I grew up with my dad in his garage and he showed me everything. I never realized how lucky I was to have a father that showed me all that so I thought maybe I could turn around and do the same for those kids who do not have that opportunity.”

Marrocco, and the refuge’s sponsors who were involved in the conversations, liked Lafond's idea so much that soon he found himself volunteering for a second camp. Week two is aimed at the parishioners of St. Silouan the Athonite, mission parish of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. With campers slightly older, most between 16 and 18, and of a specific faith, the projected will reflect their Orthodox faith.

“The second week is mainly directed to the kids at our church,” said Lafond, who was baptized Catholic but attends an Eastern Orthodox church with his wife and daughter. “We’re building the Iconostasia, the wall in an Orthodox Church separating altar and the people.”

Although St. Mary of Egypt Refuge is a Catholic faith-based refuge, the parish’s mission, St. John the Compassionate Mission, has partnered with the site since opening in 2001.

“We are really in a partnership with the refuge. It has to do with the personal relationship that Mary Marrocco had over the years with the mission,” said Deacon Pawel Mucha. “The relationship between us and the refuge is so good. I would say the distinctions (between religions) are pretty blurred.”

He repeatedly said what is more important is the “common ideal of service” shared between the mission and refuge.

The second camp begins on Aug. 17.

Every Jesuit chooses poverty. They all vow to live their lives poor, chaste and obedient. But Fr. Jim Webb kept choosing poverty – over and over.

The former provincial superior of the Jesuits in English-speaking Canada died 6:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 9 surrounded by his Jesuit brothers in Rene Goupil House, the Jesuit infirmary in Pickering, Ont. A long dormant cancer came back and metastasized, forcing him to resign as provincial superior and enter palliative care in May, 2012.

"One of the things that was most amazing about watching him the past few months was that, regardless of what was going on with his body, there was a radiance in his face. He was very much at peace," said Jesuit Fr. Philip Shano, the director of Rene Goupil House.

As provincial superior Webb moved out of the six-bedroom home in a leafy west-end Toronto neighbourhood which had once served as home base for the Jesuit leadership team. He and his socius moved into a small apartment in St. James Town – Canada's most densely populated neighbourhood and one of the poorest parts of Toronto.

Living his vow of poverty among poor people was important to Webb.

"If you say that material things are not important but then there's no sign of it, it lacks credibility," Webb told The Catholic Register in 2009. "Our commitment to social justice and solidarity with the poor is very strong. In terms of vocations, I think that is one of the things that is attracting younger people to the Jesuits."

But moving into St. James Town wasn't the first time Webb chose a more unambiguous sort of poverty. In over twenty years of service in Jamaica, the elegantly educated Canadian chose to spend every minute he could with the poor. Between 1986 and 2008 he was pastor of St. Peter Claver Church in Kingston, chair of the St. Mary's Rural Development Project, founding director of Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections and regional superior of the Jesuits in Jamaica. In 2009 he received the National Union of Co-operative Society Award for helping to found the St. Peter Claver Women's Housing Co-operative.

He always believed there was more that could be done, however difficult it might seem, said Shano.

"Where others saw missions impossible, Jim was eternally optimistic about how things could work out," he said.

As superior in English Canada, Webb responded generously to the request for a greater Jesuit presence in Vancouver. It was a decision that may yet stretch Jesuit resources thin elsewhere, but thin resources and trusting in God make up a good portion of what it means to be poor.

Webb chose to live among the poor and work for the poor as soon as he was ordained in 1973. He and Jesuit Fr. Michael Czerny moved into South Riverdale just east of the Don River, long before gentrifiers began installing wine cellars and stone countertops in what had once been crowded boarding houses. There he helped found the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice, became a founding director of the Taskforce on Churches and Corporate Responsibility, helped get The Catholic New Times newspaper up and running, worked to bring the South Riverdale Community Health Centre into existence and founded the Canadian Alternative Investment Co-operative.

Of his 68 years, Webb spent 48 living the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He was born in Halifax to J. Hilus Webb and Mary Somers July 29, 1944. He earned a B.Sc. from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. before entering the Guelph, Ont. novitiate in 1964. He made final vows in 1979 and along the way studied philosophy at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., taught high school at Brebeuf College in Toronto and studied theology at Regis College in Toronto.

In January of this year, as his own cancer spread, Webb was at Fr. Bill Addley's side when Addley died.

"He said that in those few minutes in the hospital as Bill died he realized that Bill was teaching him how to die," said Shano. "I noticed this Sunday, the (Feast of the) Transfiguration, you could look at Jim and see him being so, almost literally and physically, transparent because he was so thin. But his face still shining."

Webb was consistent his whole life long, said Fr. Michael Czerny – one of Webb's closest friends for 50 years.

"Jim understood that the Gospel drove us out into those worlds where, by being honest and helpful, we could encourage others to know God's love in their lives. This he did, his life long, and this he inspired many young Jesuits to do, too," said Czerney in an email to The Catholic Register

TORONTO - Each Sunday laughter, Tagalog chatter and tear-drenched tissues fill the pastor’s lounge at Our Lady of the Assumption Church.

That’s where about 20 women meet each week for the Live-in Caregivers’ Ministry that runs out of the parish in the Bathurst and Eglinton area of Toronto. All of the women have families in the Philippines that they have left behind to work as nannies in Toronto. The ministry was formed to help ease the suffering caused by separation from their loved ones thousands of kilometres away.

“Every day is a struggle for me because I am not happy any more,” said Riza San Pedro, a 34-year-old live-in caregiver. “What I am doing for me to cope is in the morning I’m just reading some passages in the Bible and sharing it with some of my friends through texts. Then in the evening I’m praying the rosary. That’s every day.”

Prior to coming to Canada in 2009, San Pedro worked as a nurse. Now she’s a nanny, a single mother of two and separated from everyone she knew back home in the Philippines — including her family who she supports by working abroad.

San Pedro came to Canada through the federal government’s Live-in Caregiver Program. Since her arrival, San Pedro has bounced from abusive employer to abusive employer while constantly seeking some sense of comfort.

“I was trying to find a church that could understand a caregiver like me and what I’m going through,” she said, a search that lead her to Our Lady of the Assumption and the Live-in Caregivers’ Ministry which has helped her to rediscover dignified employment, self-esteem and friends she can relate to.

“All of them have their children in the Philippines. They’re all sacrificing over that and they have different ways of coping with that loneliness that they feel from being away from their children,” said Faye Arellano, the ministry’s volunteer co-ordinator. “It’s almost like an extended family (here). Everyone can relate to each other, even in their problems.”

Formed three years ago, the ministry was originally named the Grass Roots Hub but quickly rebranded itself as the Live-in Caregivers’ Ministry to provide greater clarity for caregivers seeking a consoling outlet. This comforting happens through Bible study, socializing and accessing the Internet which many use to communicate with the family they’ve temporarily left behind.

“I take my hat off to them for having that strength and bravery to just focus on their purpose for coming here,” said Arellano, adding the women’s goal is permanent residency in Canada and eventually bringing their families here. “For most of them it’s that they want to provide their families with some food on the table and even the basic needs that their family requires.”

The government’s Live-in Caregiver Program, which underwent adjustments in 2010, offers what Manuela Gruber Hersch, president of the Association of Caregiver and Nanny Agencies Canada, called “a very generous immigration path to become permanent residents.” She says this with authority having emigrated from Austria as a live-in caregiver while a teenager — but things were much different then.

Today a six-month caregiver course is required before entering the immigration program. Graduates can then use agencies, such as those represented by Gruber Hersch, to find an employer in Canada who must pay travel costs at no penalty to the employee. Once here, employees must complete 3,900 hours of work, 10 per cent of which can be overtime based on a 37.5-hour work week, within a minimum of 22 months and maximum four years. Upon meeting these conditions, they can apply for an open work permit which allows them to move out of their employer’s home, and the caregiver industry if desired, as well as apply for permanent residency.

These reflect some of the policy changes that came into effect April 1, 2010 which sought “to protect live-in caregivers from abuse and exploitation and make their transition to permanent residence simpler,” said Bill Brown of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

As these policies were developed during Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s 2009 coast-to-coast consultations with caregiver agencies, media outlets began publicizing the struggles of these workers, who are almost exclusively women.

This heightened attention struck a nerve at Our Lady of the Assumption, prompting pastor Fr. Ben Ebcas Jr. to call upon his parishioners to form a ministry.

“He called a community meeting asking people what can we do about our suffering caregivers and that’s where I first started getting involved,” said Arellano. “We thought the church would be good to step into that, to step up to the plate, because as Catholics this is really the only way to live the Gospel challenge of really helping the marginalized. From there on it’s just built up.”

Now Arellano assists about 20 caregivers on any given Sunday, some who aren’t even Catholic but still find relief with the ministry. That number swells to more than 45 when events are held at the parish by the Archdiocesan Filipino Catholic Mission, of which the ministry is a branch.

While an absence of family is the common thread of sadness for these workers, it is not their only struggle. Many, like San Pedro, suffer work-related problems ranging from abusive conditions to self-esteem issues derived from a sense of social status demotion from becoming a nanny.

“Everyone would acknowledge that they are going through a tough time but alas, because of this faith that we believe in, even suffering takes on a different meaning,” said Arellano.

Four tales of hardship, separation

Meet four women from the Philippines working abroad as live-in caregivers. While their experiences in Toronto are different they share a hardship — sacrificing family life to provide for those they love and left behind.
This suffering brings them back to the Live-in Caregivers’ Ministry every Sunday where they temporarily find relief from the pain. Here are but four stories of many as told to The Register’s Evan Boudreau: the good, the bad, the unjust and the tragic.

The good

At 46 years of age, Gina Magcalas has already spent half her life working abroad, including all 12 years of her son’s life.
“In the Philippines it’s hard to find a job,” said Magcalas, who holds a bachelor of commerce and specialized in accounting. “After I graduated I applied (for jobs) and they always asked you where is your background. How can I have ...  experience with a job if they will not accept me.”
This forced Magcalas to search elsewhere for work. She began working abroad as a nanny travelling to Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and now Canada, the furthest she’s been away from her son Ralph Jacob.
Magcalas medicates homesickness by cladding her living quarters with photos, most of them containing her son.
Despite this hardship of the heart, Magcalas considers herself fortunate.
“I’m one of the lucky nannies who came here (because) I have a good employer and nice accommodations,” said Magcalas, who lives with a middle-aged couple and their four-and-a-half-year-old son Finnigan. “My employer told me if I wanted to go home I can but I said I wanted to wait until I got my open work permit.”
So when Magcalas received her permit last December she immediately bought a plane ticket to attend her son’s elementary school graduation in April. It had been four years since they last saw each other.
Now back to work in her employer’s St. Clair Avenue West and Bathurst Street home, Magcalas is anxious to receive permanent residency status and sponsor her son’s immigration to Canada.

The bad

When Riza San Pedro decided to come to Canada she mistakenly thought it would be a paradise.
“I’d heard that Canada is a very good country with more opportunities when it comes to jobs,” said San Pedro, who first worked abroad in Saudi Arabia as a nurse for five years. “But when I came here I was not so lucky because I struggled with employers. That first two years living here was like a living hell because I struggled to find a good employer.”
Her last employer restricted food consumption, had her sleeping near the furnace and required her to scrub 10 washrooms twice a week. Then when San Pedro gave her two weeks notice on a Tuesday, they told her to leave that Friday.
But hardship isn’t new to San Pedro.
“The reason why I left (the Philippines), well it’s kind of personal. I had a very bad marriage — a nightmare,” said San Pedro, 34. “When my second child was born that’s when (my husband and I) really got separated.”
Receiving no child support San Pedro knew that a nurse’s wage in the Philippines, about $400 a month, wouldn’t cut it. As a nurse in Saudi Arabia her wage tripled but the government offers only a six-year foreign worker’s permit. So San Pedro swallowed her pride, gave up her career and enrolled in the Canadian government’s Live-in Caregiver Program with the goal of permanent residency in Canada.
That was three years ago and due to her unstable employment, San Pedro still faces several years before she can sponsor her children, aged 11 and 9.
“It’s really frustrating,” she said with tears welling in her eyes. “Actually you cannot explain the feeling.”

The unjust

When Winnie Cuento left her husband and three children in 2005 she never thought her   permanent residence status would be jeopardized by her eldest daughter.
“I received a letter (from the Canadian embassy in the Philippines) ... and they put your daughter is mentally retarded,” said Cuento, explaining why her permanent residency in Canada has been denied. “It’s hard for me because I know my daughter isn’t retarded. She is only a slow learner.”
When applying for permanent residency a medical evaluation of the applicant’s dependent family members is required to determine their potential strain on Canada’s social services. Regulation 72 (1)(e)(i) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations states “a foreign national in Canada becomes a permanent resident if, following an examination, it is established that they and their family members, whether accompanying or not, are not inadmissible.”
Another letter, sent by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, explained that her daughter’s medical condition, this time labelled developmental delay, “exceeded the average Canadian per capita health and social services cost, which is currently set at $4,806 per year.” According to the Ontario Ministry of Education, Cuento’s 16-year-old daughter would require Intensive Support Amount Level 2 special education, costing $12,000 per academic year, thus exceeding the average demand and making her inadmissible.
“It’s hard for me at this time because they refused my papers and I worked so hard,” said Cuento, who appealed the decision by submitting an “individualized plan to ensure that no excessive demand will be imposed on Canadian social services,” an option contained in the letter from CIC.
Despite offering to pay the education costs, Cuento’s appeal was denied. To make matters worse, her work permit expired.    

The tragic

The second time in six years Marife Gamino went home to the Philippines, she buried her eldest son Alfred.
“That was a very hard time when I saw him in a casket,” said Gamino, who began working abroad as a live-in caregiver in 2005 to support her family. “I was never expecting that to happen to me last year in 2011.”
A motorcycle accident hospitalized Alfred just months before he was to complete his degree in human resource management. Being halfway around the world in Canada, all Gamino could do was call.
“He could not move but I knew that he heard me when I called on the phone because my sister told me and my other son told me ... he cried when I talked to him on the phone,” said Gamino, 44.
Less than 24 hours later her son, then 20, died.
“Since that has happened . . . I am stuck crying.”
But tears won’t feed her three other children, husband and parents who she financially supports. So after the funeral Gamino said goodbye again and returned to her job in Canada. Her heavy heart finally got some relief on Dec. 7 — the date her late son would have turned 21 — when she received her open work permit after waiting 18 months.
“Now I’m still hoping for that permanent residence so I can bring my family,” said Gamino, who credits the Live-in Caregivers’ Ministry for her strength. “They were praying for me, for my family, so I kept strong. I’m still strong (and) today I still survive.”

TORONTO - As the new chaplain at the Newman Centre, Fr. Chris Cauchi is looking forward to serving the spiritual needs of students at the University of Toronto.

“Newman is such a vibrant place,” Cauchi told The Catholic Register. “I’d like to first observe what’s going on, learn, and I’m very blessed I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Many priests and laypeople before me have already laid the foundation.

“My hope is to be able to nourish and support that growth that is going on here.”

Cauchi moved into the Newman Centre June 27, taking the reigns from Fr. Michael Machacek. He’ll also serve as pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, located just next door to the Newman Centre.

Cauchi, who turned 32 on Aug. 11, was first assigned to be associate pastor at St. Barnabas parish in Scarborough, where he helped co-ordinate the youth ministry. When he moved to St. Michael’s Cathedral two years later, he was involved with the young adult ministry along with being the assistant chaplain for Ryerson chaplaincy.

Born in Canada, his family decided to move to its native Malta when he was three years old. It was in Malta where he entered the seminary.

“We have the policy of the internship year,” said Cauchi. “We have to do it outside of the diocese, so being Canadian, I thought it would be good to do it here.”

He returned to Malta for his theology but his diocese of Gozo has a policy where you must serve abroad for at least two years after ordination.

“So in my case I came here and from two years it became seven and I’m still here. And I like it.”

His appointment to Newman came as a surprise, he said.

“But I’m very glad to be here.”

His role will comprise three components: the parish, the residency formation program and the chaplaincy outreach to students, he said.

“I want to emphasize my mission would be to try to make justice with the three of them.”

The challenges of the job will reflect the challenges of every Catholic, said Cauchi.

“How can we remain rooted in the tradition of the Church? How can we grow personally and communally in our relationship with Christ? How is Christ calling this community to leave behind what’s familiar and go to the unfamiliar territory that Christ may want us to be?

“These are some questions that every believer needs to focus on, that our community is focusing on. And I think the Holy Spirit will continue to guide this community and this process of change.”

TORONTO - If people mistake the new larger-than-life crucifix at Edmonton’s St. Joseph College for something old it won’t bother Toronto artist Gregory Furmanczyk.

Furmanczyk is getting ready to ship his new sculpture to Edmonton for an official unveiling some time this fall. The crucifix, with a corpus of hardened plaster made to look like marble hanging on a wooden cross, was commissioned by Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith for the new chapel at St. Joseph’s Seminary.

“It’s the age-old image of the story of redemption,” is how Furmanczyk describes his new work.

Smith and the seminary gave Furmanczyk leeway to produce a piece of liturgical art that would be unique.

“Firstly, I did it as my own expression,” he said. “You create something you want to create.”

While the artist makes no bones about paying homage to Michelangelo and 17th-century masters, he chose to emphasize the redemptive peace of Christ rather than suffering on the cross.

“I wanted to project a feeling of peacefulness and mysticism,” he said.

He likens his crucifix to Michelangelo’s famous Pieta.

Furmanczyk is best known as a portrait painter of official, public figures — from Heather Smith, the first female Supreme Court of Ontario Chief Justice, to Alvin Curling, the first black Speaker of the Ontario Legislature. But he has also built a career as a sculptor and painter of religious works. His Jubilee Cross was the centrepiece of Jubilee 2000 celebrations in the archdiocese of Toronto. He has painted a traditional icon of Christ the Pantocrator for Toronto’s Our Lady of Sorrows parish and has provided stations of the cross to St. Marguerite D’Youville in Brampton, Ont.

By the time Alexandria Lepore was finishing up her honours degree in Catholic studies and history from King’s University College in London, Ont., this spring, she knew she wanted to become a youth minister.

So when the opportunity came up to take a 12-day trip to do some youth programming, she jumped at the chance.

“It just sounded like the perfect opportunity to feel out what the job would be like,” Lepore said.

But this was no ordinary trip. Lepore and 13 other students, 11 from King’s College, two from St. Peter’s Seminary, along with Fr. Michael Bechard and Sr. Susan Glaab, headed out on June 28 to the Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nation reserve in northern Saskatchewan, close to the border with the Northwest Territories. It took three planes from the southwestern Ontario city to reach the reserve, located on Lake Athabasca, 1,275 km northwest of Prince Albert.

Bechard, director of campus ministry and chaplain at King’s, had visited the reserve the summer before with Glaab, and decided to organize this trip.

“I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for some of our young people to work with some of the young people up there and be involved in some sort of exchange,” he said. “They saw a part of Canada that very few Canadians will ever see.”

The group spent the better part of a week on the reserve, getting to know the community and joining its members in prayer. Then, they accompanied the Fond du Lac people on a 40-minute boat ride to a little island called Pine Channel. It is there that Bishop Murray Chatlain of the diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith — and a graduate of London’s St. Peter’s Seminary — leads an annual pilgrimage for the Fond du Lac people along with two other nearby nations.

Chatlain, with assistance from Bechard, led the adults in liturgical and devotional experiences while the students from King’s focused their attention on the kids, leading activities and crafts, and providing different educational programs.

Lepore, a youth minister at King’s, has plenty of experience working with children. But this time, she said, was different — simpler, less structured.

One day, she said, she was trying to lead the children in an activity of making knotted twine rosaries, and instead saw some of them using the twine as a jump rope.

“It was a little hard to deal with the organized chaos,” Lepore laughed. “It was frustrating at first but in the end, that’s what we’re called to do — love unconditionally and just be present.”

Lepore said the children took to the King’s students immediately — a sentiment echoed by Jolene Smith, a masters of divinity student at St. Peter’s.

“They made it very easy (to bond),” Smith said of the children. “They came to us. They were very kind and welcoming.”

Both young women say some of the best moments of the pilgrimage were when everyone spent time in prayer together.

“They have a really deep faith,” Smith said.

And Lepore notes that a highlight for everyone was a confirmation ceremony for 125 young people.

As for Bechard, he couldn’t be prouder of his students.

“They did a really, really good job in terms of the program they did for the children,” he said. “Kids were there waiting for us when we got up in the morning and we had to send them home at night to go to bed.

“There was a real interaction and mutual respect.”

Keeping camp, of course, had its challenges — “I didn’t really enjoy my shower in the lake,” Lepore laughed — but Smith notes that they were more prepared than they thought they were, and they all found themselves missing the island upon returning home on July 10.

“At the end of the trip, we all still wanted to be together,” Smith said. “Four days later, we were having a reunion. The experience really bonded us and it’s something that we share with each other.

“It’s still with us. It’s something that I’m constantly thinking about,” she added.

For Lepore, the trip, which Bechard is hoping to turn into an annual journey, just might change her life’s plan.

“Just seeing the genuine love and the faith and the welcoming of the children, it reinforced that this is where I want to be,” she said. “I don’t know if there (are) any jobs available but… I’d really consider staying there (to work). I fell in love with the culture in northern Saskatchewan. I’d really like to go back.”

TORONTO - When Fr. Fernando Couto talks about St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown Toronto, it’s as if he’s talking about a beloved friend.

“The building is talking, if anyone is listening,” he said. “It needs our help.”

One of the oldest churches in Toronto, St. Mary’s is crumbling, said Couto, who has been pleading with the archdiocese since he arrived at the parish in 2008 for more money to complete its restoration.

“It has structural osteoporosis,” Couto said of his church at Bathurst and Adelaide. “We’ve been basically ignoring it.

“The damage every year is great.”

The current St. Mary’s is the third building of the historically Portuguese parish. Built in 1885 and completed four years later, it is older than Casa Loma, the Ontario Parliament buildings and City Hall, and is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Toronto.

But there hasn’t been much upkeep, Couto said, evidenced by the sinking foundation and crumbling walls, rotten wood and cracked slates.

“One day, bricks fell from the tower,” Couto said. “Rain (was) coming in through the windows.

“We (had) to address this sooner or later before (the) structure (became) too damaged or people got hurt.”

For his part, Couto would like to see St. Mary’s restored to its former glory.

“There’s lots of history here,” said Couto, who has been collecting old photographs of the building, both inside and out. He said he would like to put the outer pews back to their original position, facing into the middle of the church, as well as fix up many other nooks and corners.

But first, the basics, like the tower, the roof and the outer structure.

“It’s like a car,” Couto said. “I can live without a phone, a good radio, leather seats. (But) I need good brakes, an engine.”

The archdiocese of Toronto lent St. Mary’s $3 million, which helped to fix most of the tower, and the parish itself has raised an additional $1.2 million. But according to Couto, it’s not enough.

“It’s like trying to buy a car with (enough) money for a bicycle,” he said. “The work we’re doing is not curtains and flowers. This is serious structural work.”

Couto said the church will need a minimum of $6 million to be properly restored, which is why he is still appealing to the archdiocese as well as parishioners, who, he said, have been very generous and understanding despite many not having much to give.

“St. Mary’s (is) one of the nicest buildings in Ontario, in Toronto,” Couto said with obvious pride. “It’s time to pay back for the neglect on many years.”

Couto acknowledges that times — and demographics — have changed: this church that used to be filled with Portuguese Canadians is becoming more and more English as the cost of living downtown has increased and condominiums have “sprung up like mushrooms after the rain.”

But all the more reason, he said, to preserve St. Mary’s.

“We’re losing it,” he said. “And once we lose it, we can’t get it back.

“There’s the busy downtown (right there),” he said with a wave to Bathurst Street. “And you come in here, and here’s the peace.”