Save the Dates! 
Mary, Mother of  Hope: Jubilee Marian Week in Banff & Canmore

Join us for a sacred week of prayer, pilgrimage, and celebration during the Jubilee Marian Week at the Rockies!
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• Aug 15–18: Young Adult Jubilee Weekend & Pilgrimage (ages 18–35) in St. Mary’s Church, Banff – with indoor camping, fellowship, hikes, Eucharistic Adoration, and the Cross of Hope Pilgrimage from Banff to Canmore along the scenic Legacy Trail! Spots will be limited - watch for the registration release!
  
  

• Aug 18–22: Jubilee Marian Week for All Pilgrims at the Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies, Canmore – featuring daily Mass, Confession,  Adoration, Rosary, Pilgrimage Walk, Sacred Music, Formation Talks, and a special Jubilee Celebration Mass on Friday, Aug 22 at 7 pm, the Feast of the Queenship of Mary at 7 pm, with Apostolic Blessing imparted by Bishop McGrattan, followed by a Marian Coronation and reception.
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More details and registration coming soon!

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Our new Holy Father’s words in his first homily to the College of Cardinals contains much food for thought and prayer as we prepare for the great feast of Pentecost and develop our pastoral renewal plans.

Reflection:

• In what ways can I make Jesus known and glorified through my actions?
• Through the actions of our pastoral plan?

Let us pray the Novena to the Holy Spirit with these actions in mind.

I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer. Since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by books like “Set All Afire” by Louis de Wohl.  If you haven’t read it, this novel, which tells the story of St. Francis Xavier’s missionary journeys, is a page-turner and will set your heart on fire, too. St. Francis traversed much of Asia, through storms at sea, jungles on foot, risking life and limb to spread the Gospel of Christ. And he succeeded. Sometimes it's hard to connect the dots, but the Renewal Plans being created by your parishes are contributing to this very same mission of saving souls. 

Keep an eye out as the Parish Renewal Team in most parishes is sharing a draft of their Renewal Plan with you at any time.  You won’t be asked to sail the ocean or dodge poisonous snakes (so far as I know). Still, the plan will be filled with action items to help your parish create more missionary disciples, strengthen family life and foster an urgent sense of mission by becoming a Church of encounter and witness.  Just like in Asia in the time of St. Francis Xavier, so many souls in our families and communities are aching for the healing love of Christ, and our Lord is asking us to help Him reach them. If we pursue our Renewal Plans with vigour, they will bear fruit and change lives, and we will know the joy of helping this to happen.

As you review the draft Renewal Plan for your parish, think and pray about the action items you see and give feedback to your Renewal Team. Do they meet the needs of the parish? Do they go far enough? A key to a good plan is to have action items that you can count on to have an impact. One way to evaluate an action item is to ask, "What concrete result will this action achieve?” If you have no way of determining whether the action has been accomplished, that means it's too vague and risks not making a real impact. For example, if an action item states simply, “Be a parish that prays”, it is too vague. However, if it includes main steps similar to “Each lector commits to spend 30 minutes weekly in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament”, it has become specific, causing a concrete action and therefore result to occur.  Similarly, “Be a more welcoming parish” is too broad if left at that. However, if it is replaced by, or has as a main step “Establish a greeter/usher ministry”, it has become something actionable, concrete. You will know if you did it or not. If our parish plans are filled with action items that accomplish objectives and are measurable, we will see our parish take great strides. 

​The same goes for our own personal renewal. Big change starts with small, concrete steps—like committing to a daily prayer time or inviting someone back to church. Vague goals won’t get us far, but specific actions done with love transform our lives!
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When St. Francis Xavier arrived in India, he did so with a specific actionable plan.  First in Goa, and then beyond. And if we were to put it in one of our Renewal Plans, it would look like this:

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Action Item: Evangelize Goa

Main Steps:

1. Walk through the streets ringing a bell to attract the children’s attention;
2. Teach the children catechism;
3. The children will bring their parents, catechize them and baptize the entire families;
4. Train local catechists and encourage local vocations; and
5. Move to the next village.

Responsible Person:  Francis Xavier

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​​As our parishes finalize their Renewal Plans, let us ask the good Lord to give each of us the same love for souls as St. Francis Xavier!

Written by Ryan Schmidt, Director of Pastoral Renewal, Diocese of Calgary.
Painting: André Reinoso, St Francis Preaching in Goa, 1619, oil on canvas, 96 × 162 cm, Museu de São Roque/Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Lisbon.

The first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV is the second Roman Pontiff - after Pope Francis - from the Americas. Unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio, however, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern part of the continent, though he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.
First Augustinian PopeThe new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy. 

On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

The future Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). 
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on "The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine" and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).

Mission in Peru

The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also in Peru, as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. 

Over the course of eleven years, he served as prior of the community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later established as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.

In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.

In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held until Pope Francis appointed him on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of Sufar. 

He entered the Diocese on November 7, in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him Bishop just over a month later, on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.
His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”—words pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”

Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru,  from 2015 to 2023

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.

In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops (November 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.

Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops
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On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop. 

Created Cardinal in 2024

Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of September 30 that year and  assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He officially took possession of it on January 28, 2024. 

As head of the Dicastery, he participated in the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome from October 4 to 29, 2023, and from October 2 to 27, 2024, respectively.

Meanwhile, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.

Finally, on February 6 of this year, the Argentine Pope promoted him to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano.​

Source: Vatican News

With joy and thanksgiving, the Diocese of Calgary joins the universal Church in celebrating the election of Pope Leo XIV (Formerly Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost) as the successor of Saint Peter.
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Elected on Thursday, May 8, 2025, Pope Leo XIV now begins his ministry as the Vicar of Christ and visible head of the Catholic Church on earth. We give thanks for the faithful leadership of Pope Francis and now entrust Pope Leo XIV to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

​It has been a tradition, as a private devotion, to ask for the grace of the Holy Spirit. This practice is especially suitable during the Eastertide. To do so, families may use the following prayer.

Thank you to all who joined us for the Memorial Mass for Pope Francis and prayed for the repose of his soul. It was a beautiful liturgy that brought together a full church and a deeply moving reflection from Bishop McGrattan.

Representing the Canadian bishops at the funeral in Rome, Bishop McGrattan shared a personal and hope-filled reflection. He recalled, “It was an honour… to witness the devotion and love that the people of God have for Pope Francis.”

He reminded us that memorial Masses are not simply moments of remembrance, but acts of faith that unite us in prayer and strengthen our belief in the Resurrection.

Reflecting on the timing of Pope Francis’ death, Bishop McGrattan shared, “This, I think, is the first gift that Pope Francis received — that his passing was in the Octave of Easter… where the whole Church is focused on the promise of the Resurrection.”

As we look ahead to the conclave, Bishop McGrattan reminded us that we are not simply waiting for the next pope—but for the next successor of Peter. Let us continue to pray for Pope Francis, for the cardinals, and for the Church, trusting in God’s mercy and the promise of new life.
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• Photos from the Memorial Mass for Pope Francis on Monday, April 28 at 5 pm at the Cathedral. 

Photos courtesy of John Factura

In the midst of a growing housing crisis, the calls for help we receive are heartbreaking—and becoming more desperate.

Families are being separated and shelters are overwhelmed. Pregnant women and women with newborns are amongst the most vulnerable and typically are the most difficult to find housing for because of their unique needs. 

Elizabeth House remains one of the few programs in Calgary that specializes in housing and support for women and infants during the critical perinatal period between pregnancy and the first two years of life.  

Written by Elizabeth House Team