Rob moved into his new apartment on Feb. 13, 2018. After six years of sleeping in a room that held up to eight men a night, he was eager to wake up in his own space. Since Valentine’s Day 2018 marked the day Rob would be able to get up when he wanted, he went to bed excited by the promise of the next day. After six years of not having a home to call his own, he looked forward to being able to make himself a cup of coffee he could drink while watching the morning news. He planned to sit at the table given to him by a new neighbour and watch a TV donated by another resident of his new apartment building. Life, finally, looked good.

But sleep was difficult.

“For the first week and a half, it was tough,” remembers Rob. He’d slept on the floor before, so the fact that he didn’t yet have a bed was the least of his worries. The real issue was the wall-to-wall silence. “At the DI (Drop In), there was always noise. Here, it was so quiet.” 

Walking for change

Hundreds of people will participate in the Downtown location of four Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) walks being held in Calgary on Saturday, Feb. 23. Money raised at the CNOY Downtown event funds two of the Calgary Catholic Diocese’s biggest social justice projects, says Samantha Jones, Event Coordinator, on staff with the Diocese. “This is a fun and family-friendly fundraiser and we really encourage Catholics to come out with their families and friends. You can walk two, five or 10 kilometres and the money supports Feed the Hungry and KAIROS Calgary.”

KAIROS is an ecumenical group of churches focused on Social Justice issues in Calgary. Its share of the money raised at CNOY Downtown goes to HomeSpace, a charitable real estate developer that owns 521 units of rental housing in 27 properties across Calgary. KAIROS used CNOY funds to help pay off the mortgage on an affordable housing project in Acadia. Money from the 2019 walk will help pay the mortgage on Bankview Apartments, the building where Rob rents one of 27 units rented to single people, couples and small families.

Affordable, safe, supported -- and quiet

HomeSpace properties are operated in cooperation with other community agencies, including The Alex, CUPS and Alberta Health Services, explains Rina McDermott, who works with HomeSpace. “It’s important to help people find a place to live. But people who have been homeless often need additional support. They may need help preparing meals or learning how to clean their units. At Bankview, CUPS provides that wrap-around service to our residents. We want them to be successful.”

This year, McDermott will walk the downtown route with her work colleagues and a group of Vincentians from St. Peter’s parish in the northwest Calgary. “St. Bonaventure, St. Patrick’s and the youth group from St. James in Okotoks are regular contributors, too,” says Jones, who’d like to see more Catholic churches and church-based groups support the walk.

“We typically get about 400 walkers—but there is room for 900. One of the best things about this event is that kids are welcome and the route we take often gives people an opportunity to meet and visit with some of our homeless neighbours.”

​As an added bonus, the Saturday-night event includes a rest stop with hot chocolate and it ends with a chili supper sponsored by Boardwalk Rental Communities, one of the city’s largest housing rental property managers. Boardwalk also funds a Feed the Hungry dinner once a year.
 
Peace, at last

A year after moving into his apartment, Rob spends his days helping out around the building and working on cross-stitch pictures he sometimes sells. He looks forward to being able to use his balcony when the weather warms up—and he treasures its view of the city where he’s lived most of his life.

Unable to work but determined to stay busy, he sometimes goes back to the DI to help prepare and serve lunch and to visit friends. Having struggled with addiction, he never invites those friends back to his apartment; that would be too risky. Rob knows what it’s like to be evicted and he doesn’t want to live that pain again, especially not when he has it so good at Bankview. While he doesn’t know all of his neighbours, Rob volunteers to help cook when they gather for communal suppers. “I really like cooking. I did a lot of that at the DI and I like doing it here, too.”

These days, he also treasures the night-time silence at Bankview Apartments. The peace and quiet used to hinder his ability to fall asleep. A year later, that’s what “home” sounds like to Rob.

​Written by: Joy Gregory

Starting off a new year with at least one resolution is a common practice.  We promise our self to change something, to put something behind, or to embark on a newly formed habit.  This new year 2019 consider a pilgrimage as part of a new year’s resolution.  Pilgrimage can be as varied as the people considering them; not only as a metaphorical image of life itself, for we are all on a journey heavenward. What we hope to gain or to satisfy is part of an inner journey that we make, often to a physical place of religious significance.  It can be an act of curiosity, a devotion to atone for sins or to implore a grace for ourselves or others. 
 
If you are one of those who are contemplating a pilgrimage this year or perhaps leading a group yourself there are some tips that you should consider when planning or organizing a pilgrimage.  

The theme of Rise Up 2018 was “Come and See” (John 1:39). I was amazed at how much I felt called to “come and see” what God was doing throughout the conference. I was raised Catholic and have placed God at the centre of my life, but I knew that there was still so much that the Father wanted to reveal to me.

On the third night of the Rise Up, all of the students were given the opportunity to be prayed over by a CCO missionary and member of the religious. While I was being prayed over, I could tangibly feel God’s presence and knew that He was calling me to be bolder in my faith and how I share it. Having been Catholic my whole life, it had been easy to fall into the routine of the sacraments and campus ministry, forgetting how life-changing the message of Jesus is.

After being prayed over, I went back to my seat and told God in prayer, “Before I can go out and do your work, I need to be truly convicted in my Christian identity”. Right away, He answered my prayer. God gave me a beautiful image of myself adorned with a crown of flowers and spoke the word “daughter” to me! This reminded me that I truly am a child of the King and that God desires for all His children to come to this realization, as well.
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The conviction I received that night at Rise Up gave me the confidence to be more courageous in how I evangelize to the people in my parish, school, and day-to-day life. Experiencing God again and His personal love, I’ve been filled with the desire to invite other people into a relationship with Him and to “come and see” what He has to offer them.

Written by: Mary Serafini
Photo: Catholic Christian Outreach

You are called to become a saint. You have a God-given mission. Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) has been speaking these truths into my life since I met the university student movement while on campus 13 years ago.

I came to know the personal love of Jesus by doing a faith study with a CCO missionary when I was 22. Since then I’ve been to the annual Rise Up Conference seven times in six different Canadian cities, but this time was different. I got to go as a workshop presenter with my husband on the topic of ‘holiness in the world.’ It was inspiring to hear the ways young adults are boldly living their faith in the world, and eye-opening to hear the challenges they are up against in the culture.

Sharing with you a baptism story of Yuan Wang, a member of the University of Calgary Catholic Community. Wang is a Mechanical Engineering student at U of C, and he was baptized on Dec. 8 (Solemnity of Immaculate Conception) by Fr. Cristino Bouvette at Sacred Heart Church, Calgary.

​There is no arguing that digital technology has become a way of life for nearly all of us. We use our smartphones, tablets and other devices to stay ‘plugged into’ the world. We connect, we search, we share, we communicate …all through our devices. It is an internet generation, but is it too much? How do we navigate through this digital world and how do we help students do the same?

Christ The Redeemer (CTR) Catholic Schools has launched a new initiative in its 17 schools that focuses on supporting students living in this busy and noisy digital world. As author, speaker and podcaster Matt Fradd puts it, “helping maintain an internal filter in an unfiltered world.”

The purpose of the initiative, called #Relationships in a Digital Age, is to develop both curriculum and school culture which will help students to examine the impact that screen time and smartphones have on their relationships with God and each other, with an overarching personal wellness focus. CTR will challenge students to unplug, be present and look up and notice the world around them.  

With support from parents and school staff, students will be able to challenge today’s cultural norms and look thoughtfully into the areas of mental health, relationships, sustained attention and responsible decision-making. There are growing concerns surrounding the increased use of technology by students in our care such as cyberbullying, shaming, sexting and pornography.  The motto of #Relationships is: “to create a culture around the use of technology that teaches balance between our digital lives and the lives we lead face-to-face to love in community as God intended.” 
 
Students in our care need support in evaluating the impact of all the “noise” in their lives. Our faith is the logical starting point in developing a response to some of these online safety and relational issues. The first relationship our students need to cultivate is the one with God, followed by Christ’s second greatest commandment, which is love thy neighbour.  Drawing on concepts related to the Theology of the Body philosophy and the Fourth R© (relationship) program, lesson sets will be developed for students in Grades 4 to 11, focusing on students' relational safety and personal wellness as it relates to our increasingly online world.

Partnering with parents will be a key part of this initiative. We will share information with parents relating to healthy best practices regarding screen time for the benefit of their toddlers through to the teenage years. The issue of smartphone use becomes something parents should reflect on the moment they consider letting their children access a smartphone.  With older children, parents are the school’s key partner in talking to their children about what they are learning in school about screen time and smartphone use.
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We were blessed to be the recipients of funds raised at this year’s Bishop’s Dinner. Those funds will help to support this initiative by gathering teachers in the spring of 2019 from Grades 4-11 to create the lesson sets at each grade level. Lesson sets will include detailed plans and developed resources, with implementation scheduled for September 2019. Teacher professional development will be a part of the implementation process.

 For more information on this initiative visit http://www.redeemer.ab.ca/Relationships.php

Written by: Cindy Nickerson, Coordinator of Communications
Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools 

What do you get when three bishops sit down for a chat?  

It sounds like the start to a terrible joke, doesn’t it? But the delegates of One Rock 2.0 got exactly that: Three bishops: Bishop McGrattan of the Diocese of Calgary, Archbishop Richard Smith of the Edmonton Archdiocese, and Archbishop Gerard Pettipas of the Archdiocese of Grouard-Maclennan sitting poised on couches, as if in our very own living rooms, not only to be heard but to hear us in a panel discussion. 

“I think our bishops were surprised by what they heard,” said Fr. Cristino Bouvette who acted as moderator for the panel. But it was with compassion and sincerity that the three responded to some fairly tough questions. 

We are a crowd of over 600 young adults. I recognize men and women who are just beginning university and young professionals deep into careers. I say hello to married friends who, like myself, have started to raise children. I get the sense that this is a crowd of people who are deeply invested in the Catholic faith; many of them “retreat veterans” as attendee Joey Lafleur aptly put it; people who’ve fully accepted the role of sheep following the Good Shepherd; people who are looking for real answers from those called to lead us amidst doubt, horror and confusion at what is happening to our beloved Church; people who are reaching deep into the roots of the Church and to the core of our beliefs and traditions looking for food. In conversations with some of these people, I got the sense that this panel of Bishops, those given the task of shepherds, was going to be one of the most important moments of the One Rock 2.0 experience. 
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The bishops spoke on a myriad of topics, but most of the discussion centered around the scandal of abuse within the Church; on the desire in some young people for more tradition and reverence in the Mass and the Church as a whole; and on our call to live as witnesses to Christ in an ever-changing and sometimes confused society.

On Systemic Abuse and Scandal in the Church

The recent report from the grand jury in Pennsylvania has rippled like a shockwave into the minds and hearts of Catholics everywhere. Even I, a self-professed news junkie, find myself turning off and shutting out these stories because it makes me seethe inside that the Church I am raising my children to love has this ugliness within it.  We want to be able to trust our bishops and priests and know that they are acting, not just giving speeches and hoping we’ll get over it.  The panel discussion gave me a sliver of hope as I heard humble words calling me and everyone else to continue in faith.

“The world wants us to respond in an authentic and credible way,” said Bishop McGrattan, “but it will take all of the Church – not just the bishops, not just the priests, but all of the Church to remain faithful and allow ourselves to become purified.”

He continued to say that the work of the bishops now is to “allow the silence that was there in the Church to be broken, so that those who’ve experienced abuse can speak and that the healing can continue.”

As I meandered through the crowd trying to get a sense of other’s feelings on the answers from the bishops, I asked Robyn Pashula, attending from Calgary, what she thought.

“They answered very honestly, and you could’ve heard a pin drop as they were speaking vulnerably about the effects of scandals.”

It was in this sentiment that Archbishop Smith responded to a question about the abuse allegations saying “there’s a particular horror when [abuse] takes place inside of the Church, and we need to acknowledge that. We need to study that deeply.”

He said he thought that the loss of understanding of human sexuality and how it is to be lived according to God’s design is a contributing factor, together with abuse of power and conscience in the abuse that has taken place not only in the Church but in society as a whole.

“Because this issue is of such gravity, we need to be striving to understand it fully,” he said.

Drawing from past experience, Archbishop Pettipas also had something to add,

“A number of years ago – this has come up very recently but we’ve been facing this for a long time in Canada – I spent first years of ministry in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Some of you might have heard of the Mount Cashel orphanage, or of the priests in that archdiocese who were found guilty of numerous counts of despicable behaviour towards young children.

“In those days people would say to me ‘Father, how can this be stopped?’ And one of my answers – and it may sound a bit facetious – but I would say, ‘When we stop ordaining human beings, then this will stop.’

“It’s because we are sinful human beings, called to holiness, but still sinful. This is where it comes from.”

He pointed out that never before have we understood the impact of sexual abuse like we do today. Referring to the #MeToo movement – thousands of people who are speaking out about sexual harassment and abuse, many of whom have been living in silence until 2018 – he said that we are now being challenged to make some real and lasting changes, not only in our Church, but in our culture as a whole.

The bishop and archbishops gave every indication that their work to be good leaders and stop horrific abuses within the Church will be ongoing and that the dialogue will be continuous.

On Traditional Practices in the Church

There is and always has been diversity within the Church when it comes to style of worship and preference of liturgical practice. During the Mass celebrated by Bishop McGrattan that day, I could see living examples across a spectrum with both chapel veils and raised hands during song, and while those things are small indicators of the different types present, the questions for the Bishops came primarily from young people who could be described as having more traditional leanings.

In making their deep desire for more Latin Mass and solemn liturgies known, I got the impression that many of these young men and women have often felt cast aside or out of place for their love of traditional worship within our faith, while still others who may prefer more contemporary forms of worship look on with puzzlement about the desire for the “smells and bells.”

“Don’t be feeling like a dweeb!” Archbishop Smith assured them, going on to say that in the Mass, “you’re rooted in tradition, you’re rooted in truth and you discover the truth of who we are, the beloved children of God, and the more that our liturgy can express that ritually, the more attractive it becomes.”

He said that he has seen a “very pervasive existential angst that is gripping the lives, the minds, the hearts of people today.”

He said he’s been hearing from young people who are looking to find their identity, which is a confusing thing with the messages we’re getting from all around us today. This is why, he said, the Church is a place of refuge.

“We’re not called to create [our identity], it’s a given. We’re children of God,” he said firmly.

This could be why for some; the liturgical practices that were the norm in our grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ era have sparked something in the hearts and minds of some of our generation. When our identity as individuals is forever in question, the Church gives us the sacraments, the Mass, and the rich traditions of the ages. The tangible signs of God’s grace upon us in the context of beautiful music, and reverent ritual are not to be found anywhere else.

The discussion on liturgical practice and preference is ongoing in the Church, but as I talked to a small circle of young men and women who could be described as having more traditional leanings, there was a sense of hope in mulling over the words of our Bishops, who heard their genuine longings with open ears.

On Living Out Our Faith Authentically

In his opening remarks, Archbishop Pettipas quoted St. Peter saying, “Always be ready to tell others the cause of your joy,” when he spoke to us about the kind of evangelization we should enact. Throughout their time with us, we heard again and again that we are not to be passive, but active and authentic in times that are good, and even in times where confusion and hopelessness seem to reign.

​“What I’m taking away from today is that I am church, and that whatever I do will contribute to it,” said Robyn Pashula.

It is that question, “what can I do?” that we all ask ourselves in the everyday, and in the difficult times. The first to ask a question to the panel, one young man recounted briefly that his good friend had taken his own life, and that he struggled to make sense of it.

“How do I move on from this?” he asked, also wondering simply, if his friend had gone to heaven.

“The Church has come to be more understanding and compassionate,” Bishop McGrattan answered, “That maybe the freedom that God gives us, and that maybe the full capacity of knowledge to know what to do and how to act -- that sometimes that is diminished in situations where people choose to take their life.”

I caught up with Spencer, the young man, so concerned for his friend’s soul and loved ones. Spencer is the only Catholic in his family (though his parents are supportive, he said) and so the loss of his friend, who had been an altar server and faithful Catholic himself was a huge blow. 

I asked him if he was satisfied with Bishop McGrattan’s answer. “Yes,” he told me, then showed me the funeral card of his friend. I took a pause. Spencer and I agreed that Bishop McGrattan’s encouragement to persevere through these troubled times in faith was uplifting.

The bishop had encouraged us all that we can lift up the souls of the faithful departed and continue to believe in the mercy of God. Adding that through persevering in acts of faith, we can be witnesses to Christ’s mercy in these difficult circumstances.

Fathers in Faith

When introducing the Bishops to us, Father Cristino referred to a beautiful part of the Mass when a concelebrating priest asks the bishops’ blessing prior to reading the gospel; it is in asking this blessing that priest addresses the Bishops as “Father”. In that spirit, he went on to say that he hoped we could think of our bishop and archbishops as father figures too.

As they answered with honesty the questions of the day, and indeed as they continue the task of shepherding Alberta’s Catholic Church, they admit to being human beings who depend on God’s grace to serve us. In their concluding messages, each man, pledging to continue in service to us, the Church, asked for our prayers, and prayed for us. 

“I pray that the acts of faith that come upon you each day might be strengthened through this gathering,” said Bishop McGrattan in his homily at Mass, “so that your lives might become a full and authentic witness of Christ.”