Whether Canada’s faith life is hidden, secret or just ignored, it represents a rich vein of news for any enterprising journalist, as far as Winnipeg Free Press columnist John Longhurst is concerned. 

Regina Contreras was in her second year at Red River College in Winnipeg when she found herself talking with a friend last summer about their struggles with anxiety and depression. 

WINNIPEG – In 2008, members of Holy Cross Parish in the Archdiocese of St. Boniface had an idea for something new: 24/7 perpetual Eucharistic adoration.

I love my Church, but I admit I have at times found it difficult dealing with its sins against the Indigenous community.

The summer of 1968, with France undergoing a social revolution and America burning, was not a congenial time for a reaffirmation of traditional morality in face of the sexual revolution. But the courageous Blessed Paul VI did just that in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, published 50 years ago this month.

Two hundred years ago, a trio of missionaries were sent westward to bring peace and stability to an untamed colony.

All summer long Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Hospital has been in the eye of a storm over its right as a religious health care institution to refuse to provide euthanasia and assisted suicide.

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg community of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions honoured Sr. Aileen Gleason for seven decades of a life of service to others and for changing the lives of thousands of refugees.

A Jesuit-inspired middle school in Winnipeg’s poorest, most violent neighbourhood has been met with accusations of cultural genocide and comparisons with the infamous residential schools that devastated native communities across Canada.

Archbishop Raymond Roussin’s life of dedication, faith, struggle and hope is over. The retired archbishop of Vancouver died in Winnipeg April 24. He was 75.

A recent cover story in Maclean’s magazine christened Winnipeg as Canada’s most racist city. Even if it were possible to prove that claim — that Winnipeg is more bigoted than Vancouver,  Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, etc. —  censuring one Canadian city that way is an unworthy exercise.

WINNIPEG - Carmela Finkel remembers feeling terrified.

OTTAWA - Canada faces potential violence unless a just solution is found to the plight of Canada’s aboriginal people, warned Winnipeg Archbishop-emeritus James Weisgerber.

WINNIPEG - Ukrainian Catholic bishops from four continents gathered for a final celebration Sept. 16 as they closed their weeklong Synod of Bishops.

One of their emphases was on the role of the laity, and the final "gala," as it was billed, included the Hoosli Ukrainian Male Chorus, an honour guard and the Selo Ukrainian Dancers.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, the elected head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, challenged his audience of 800 to live Christian life to the fullest and not as "lukewarm, nominal Christians."

"If we allow ourselves to be overcome so we don't pray or enter into liturgy, we will cease to be a Church," Shevchuk said. "We are called to be people of prayer, gasping for the air of the Holy Spirit.

"Sometimes our churches are more like Ukrainian museums. We need vibrant parishes, a place to encounter the living Christ. May our encounter today fill us with new faith, energy and perseverance."

Reinvigorating Ukrainian parishes is part of Vision 2020, the long-range pastoral plan for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which was suppressed for decades under Soviet rule.

After an opening Divine Liturgy in Winnipeg Sept. 9, the 38 bishops in attendance moved to Portage La Prairie, a city of about 13,000 west of Winnipeg. Focusing on the theme "The Role of the Laity in the Life and Mission of the Church," they heard presentations and reports before breaking into smaller thematic groups.

A statement issued at the end of the synod said the bishops acknowledged the role of the laity in preserving the faith when the Church was suppressed in the 20th century, and they issued a pastoral letter to the laity; it was not immediately available in English.

"The laity must be collaborators with the bishops and priests in pastoral work and, with their giftedness and by their talents, contribute toward the building up of the body of Christ," the statement said.

The bishops proclaimed a patron of Ukrainian Catholic laity: Blessed Volodymyr Pryjma, a choir director from the parish of Stradch, Ukraine, who in 1941 was tortured and murdered by Soviet paramilitary agents in a forest after taking Communion to a sick woman with his priest.

They also pledged to support Ukrainians who have emigrated from their home country.

Bishop Borys Gudziak, newly named bishop for Ukrainian Catholics in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland, told Catholic News Service before the synod began that in the last 18 years, Ukraine has lost up to 15 per cent of its population to emigration.

"People have been leaving in droves," he said, noting that, in many countries, the Ukrainians are illegal and living on the margins of society.
Gudziak was one of four bishops elected to the permanent synod for the next five years. Others were Archbishop Volodymyr Vijtyshyn Ivano-Frankivsk,

Ukraine; Bishop Ken Nowakowski of New Westminster, B.C.; and Bishop Jaroslav Pryriz of Sambir-Drohobych, Ukraine.

Next year's general Synod of Bishops will be Aug. 11-13 in Kiev, Ukraine, and will have as its theme the new evangelization.