From Feb. 14 to 23, the missionaries held a parish mission at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Whitehorse, running outreach training for 17 pastoral workers and giving presentations to religion classes at the local high school. The group also completed community service work and took part in a local winter festival.
Catholic Christian Outreach is a university student movement which focuses on building strong faith leaders. It ministers on 11 campuses across Canada and hosts spring and summer missions within Canada and Uganda.
CCO missionary Kristin Konieczny, 28, co-led the Yukon mission.
“It’s honourable to go to Africa, and we do that, but there are many social issues happening in our own country. It’s a priority to be among Canadians,” she said.
The students trained for two days in Vancouver, with talks and workshops on prayer and how to share their own stories. They also attended a talk on cultural orientation.
“My great hope is that we make genuine connections with the people. That’s where everything starts,” said Konieczny before the trip.
She wants the student missionaries to learn to put others first, to encourage and go beyond the surface, deeper into people’s lives.
“When somebody is interested in learning about something faith related, that’s really significant in our day and age,” she said.
When 19-year-old Anthony Duchesne of Hampton, N.B., announced via Facebook that he was going on the Yukon mission, he said, “I got the most likes of any post I’ve ever posted.”
The Dalhousie neuroscience student says even his friends who aren’t religious were supportive because he’s volunteering his time to help others.
Prior to the trip Duchesne wasn’t sure what to expect but was looking forward to meeting new people, learning about the culture and being out of touch — his phone won’t work up North.
Whitehorse Bishop Gary Gordon often invites outreach groups to come and work in the diocese. Vacation Bible camps and sports camps have been held and high school students have come to do service work in small communities.
“It’s a big adventure for people, the North — the land of the midnight sun.”
He said the gain works both ways.
“They’re coming up to meet us. We have lots of gifts that we share,” said Gordon.
The diocese will be feeding the missionaries and sheltering them from the -30°C weather.
Gordon says the mission pairs well with Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which is “all about announcing the Gospel of joy. That’s what CCO does.”
For the trip including flight, Duchesne needed to raise $2,500. He mailed letters to family and friends and made an appeal at his Halifax parish. He said he was blown away by his supporter’s generosity.
“People were just handing me money and saying good luck,” he said.
Fr. Mark Cherry, of St. Thomas Aquinas and Canadian Martyrs parishes in Halifax, says the generosity “shows a real desire on the part of the people to support good things in the Church. There’s a need for us to give.”
Donna McCann, one of Duchesne’s supporters, said, “These are the next generation of young Catholic people that are going to help lead the Church.” She said she receives “the personal satisfaction of knowing that I’m doing a small part to help these young people go out there and spread the faith.”
(Brown, 23, is a fourth-year journalism student at the University of King’s College in Halifax.)