(CCCB – Ottawa)… His Holiness Pope Francis today named the Most Reverend Mark A. Hagemoen as Bishop of the Diocese of Saskatoon. At the time of his appointment, he was Bishop of the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith. Bishop Hagemoen succeeds the Most Reverend Donald Bolen who was appointed Archbishop of Regina on 11 July 2016. Archbishop Bolen served as Apostolic Administrator of Saskatoon until he was installed as Archbishop of Regina on 14 October 2016. Since then, the Reverend Kevin McGee has been Diocesan Administrator of Saskatoon.

Bishop-elect Mark Hagemoen was born and raised in Vancouver. After completing his undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Arts) at the University of British Columbia, he travelled throughout Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe for a year, before entering St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ontario, and completing his Master’s of Divinity there in 1990. After being ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Vancouver in May 1990, he received a National Certificate in Youth Ministry Studies and a Diploma for Advanced Studies in Ministry in 1997, and subsequently completed the Doctor of Ministry program at Trinity Western University in 2007.

He was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith on 15 October 2013 and ordained Bishop on 15 December 2013. As a member of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Bishop Hagemoen serves on the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council and is also a member of the CCCB Ad hoc Committee on the Transition of the Northern Dioceses.

According to the CCCB 2017 Directory, the Diocese of Saskatoon has 93 parishes and missions, with a Catholic population of 86,645 served by 36 diocesan priests, 36 priests who are members of institutes of consecrated life, four permanent deacons, 149 religious Sisters and nine Brothers who are members of religious institutes, as well as 45 lay pastoral workers.

(CCCB – Ottawa)… The Collection for the Needs of the Church in Canada will be held on 23 and 24 September 2017. In his letter to the parishes across the country, the Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), recalls that the collection “is an opportunity for Catholics to truly help their diocese/eparchy participate in the regional episcopal assemblies and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).” Bishop Crosby also notes that “all the faithful indeed participate in the life and mission of the Church through their active involvement in the life of their parish community, their prayers, their diverse charisms, their moral support, and the contributions of their time and talents.”

In order to promote the collection and the work of the Bishops through the Episcopal Conference as well as the Regional Episcopal Assemblies, the CCCB is making available an electronic version of the promotional kit on its website, www.cccb.ca. The electronic kit can be used by parishes, Church media and diocesan/eparchial communications services, and includes the following documents:

• the letter from the CCCB President addressed to pastors and collaborators in pastoral ministry;
• the video message of Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I.;
• two short texts intended to be adapted or printed in parish bulletins on 17 and 24 September, or distributed by other means of communication such as Websites and emails;
• suggested Prayers of the Faithful for the weekends of 17 and 24 September;
• an overview of the projects, declarations and documents by the CCCB over the course of the past year;
•  the CCCB visual for the Annual Collection.

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(CCCB – Ottawa)… On the occasion of the third World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has published a new resource entitled Living Out Laudato Si’: A Commentary and Practical Resource for Canadian Catholics. The preface of the document, written by the Honourable Graydon Nicholas, CM ONB, former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, from the Tobique First Nation, states that this new resource not only presents Catholic Social Teaching but “also raises many of the environmental difficulties facing Canadians today and challenges us to discuss them frankly.” The World day of Prayer for the Care of creation, celebrated on 1 September, was instituted in 2015 by Pope Francis.

The Canadian Catholic Bishops hope this resource would “help Catholics, whether individually or in groups, to engage more deeply with the challenge of Laudato Si’.” The resource is organized into six chapters, each based on one of the six chapters of the encyclical. Each chapter concludes with a series of reflection questions and resources for action, organized under the headings See, Learn, Pray, Act.

The Bishops also express their desire that “this resource may allow both individuals and groups to take up Pope Francis’ invitation to engage in an open and honest conversation about our current crises concerning the environment, our economies and our societies.” They continue in expressing the wish that the use of this simple resource will be “a small part of your journey to a deeper faith and a life of greater solidarity with those who share our common home.”

The 30-page document, which is available only online, can be accessed on the CCCB website at https://www.cccb.ca/wp-content/uploads/images/stories/pdf/Living_Out_Laudato_Si_En.pdf.

On 7 June 2017 the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) coordinated and launched an ecumenical and interfaith appeal in response to the famines in South Sudan and the extreme food shortages in Yemen, northeast Nigeria and Somalia. The campaign entitled “Pray-Give-Speak Out” brought together three Canadian Catholic aid and development agencies to facilitate the collection of funds: the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace-Caritas Canada, Aid to the Church in Need Canada, and Canadian Jesuits International. This appeal was intended to dovetail with the Government of Canada’s fundraising program, the “Famine Relief Fund”, in which it would match 1:1 every donation made to a registered Canadian charity between March 17 and June 30.

A special documentary program entitled “When did we see you hungry? Church Organizations Respond to the Famine Crisis” dedicated to this CCCB-led effort will be broadcast by Salt + Light TV this Sunday evening, 27 August, at 8:00 p.m. The following individuals were participants in the panel:

• The Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and President of the CCCB
• Mr. Luke Stocking, the Central Ontario animator for The Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
• Ms. Marie-Claude Lalonde, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need
• Ms. Jenny Cafiso, Director of Canadian Jesuits International

The most recent figures from each of three agencies involved in the fundraising campaign including the respective amounts eligible under the Government’s matching plan are as follows:

Aid to the Church in Need
Total funds raised as of August 2017: over $400,000
Total funds eligible for the Federal Government’s match campaign: $314, 590

Canadian Jesuits International
Total funds raised as of August 2017: $460,880
Total funds eligible for the Federal Government’s match campaign: $428,035

Catholic Organization for Development and Peace
Total funds raised as of August 2017: $2.85 million
Total funds eligible for the Federal Government’s match campaign: $1.3 million

The total amount raised is $3,710,880, of which $2,042,625 is eligible for the Federal Government’s match campaign. This means that the Catholic response represents 17.67% of the overall $21.3 million raised between March 17 and June 30.

(CCCB – Ottawa)… The Most Reverend Emanuel Shaleta has been named Eparchial Bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego, California. At the time of his appointment, he was Bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto. The Most Reverend Francis Kalabat, Eparchial Bishop of the Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit, will now serve as Apostolic Administrator, sede vacante, for the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto.

According to the CCCB 2017 Directory, the Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto has 10 parishes and missions, with a population of 40,000 served by 10 diocesan priests and two deacons. Established in June 2011, the Eparchy is the only Chaldean diocese in Canada and includes all the country’s Chaldean Catholics.

(CCCB – Ottawa) – His Holiness Pope Francis has given pontifical assent to the election by the Synod of Major Archbishops of the Syro-Malankara Church on 5 August 2017 of the Most Reverend Philipose Mar Stephanos Thattathil as Eparch of the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of Saint Mary, Queen of Peace for Syro-Malankara faithful in USA and Canada. At the time of his appointment, he was Auxiliary Bishop of Tiruvalla, India. Bishop Stephanos succeeds the Most Reverend Thomas Mar Eusebius Naickamparambil who was elected, also with pontifical assent by the Synod as the first Bishop of the newly erected Eparchy of Parassala in India. Since January 2016, Bishop Eusebius was the first Eparch of the Eparchy of Saint Mary, Queen of Peace.

Bishop Stephanos was born on 9 May 1952 and ordained to the priesthood on 27 April 1979. He was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Tiruvalla on 13 March 2010. Before his episcopal ordination, Bishop Stephanos served the Archdiocese as Vicar General, Administrator, Executive Director of the Pushpagiri Hospital and Youth Director. He holds a doctorate in moral theology from the Alphonsian Academy, Rome. He also has served as the Rector of the Syro- Malankara Catholic Major Seminary, Trivandrum.

According to the CCCB 2017 Directory, the Eparchy of Saint Mary Queen of Peace has 16 parishes and missions, including three parishes in Canada (Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary), with a Catholic Syro-Malankara population of 10,000 served by 18 diocesan priests, one priest who is a member of an institute of consecrated life, as well as 34 Sisters and three Brothers who are members of religious institutes. The see of the Eparchy is located in Elmont, New York.

(CCCB – Ottawa)… The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has been given leave by the Supreme Court of Canada to intervene in its hearing on whether lawyers educated by the Trinity Western University (TWU) Law School can be automatically barred by the two provincial law societies from practising law in British Columbia and Ontario. The two law societies claim TWU’s admission policies are discriminatory because its faculty, staff and students are required to sign a Community Covenant which includes their agreement to refrain “from sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

The CCCB was given leave by the Supreme Court to intervene in an order issued 31 July 2017, which modified an earlier order limiting the number of intervenors and keeping the hearing to one day. The now two-day hearing is tentatively scheduled for 30 November and 1 December 2017, when the Court will hear the appeal cases of Trinity Western University and Brayden Volkenant v. Law Society of Upper Canada, and Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University and Brayden Volkenant.

In its application for leave to intervene, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops notes that the two related cases raise “questions so fundamental to religious freedom, one of Canada’s original freedoms, that this Court’s decision will have a profound impact on all faith based education, health care and social service facilities.” The CCCB is also concerned that efforts to rank human rights and “trump the right to religious freedom” will lead to a “hierarchy of rights” and “so undermine all Charter protections”.

The position and teachings of the Catholic Church on sexual conduct and same-sex marriage are similar to those expressed in the TWU Community Covenant which also includes commitment “to treat all persons with respect and dignity, and uphold their God-given worth from conception to death”. Likewise, the Catholic Church believes all men and women, regardless of sexual orientation, have inherent value, worth and dignity as human persons created and loved by God. For example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2358, teaches that persons with homosexual tendencies and inclinations “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and “Every sign of unjust discrimination … should be avoided.”

Representing the CCCB in the Supreme Court hearing will be its legal counsel Mr. William Sammon, of Barnes, Sammon, a law firm based in Ottawa. Since 1989, the CCCB has intervened in 11 other cases before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Other faith-related groups which have been given leave to intervene in the TWU hearing are the Canadian Council of Christian Charities; the Christian Legal Fellowship; the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Christian Higher Education Canada (jointly); the National Coalition of Catholic School Trustees and Lawyers’ Right Watch Canada; the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, the Catholic Civil Rights League and the Faith and Freedom Alliance (also jointly); the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada; the United Church of Canada; and the World Sikh Organization of Canada.

In preparation for World Youth Day (WYD) 2019, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) wishes to remind WYD organizers that the recommended minimum age for Canadian youth participants in the Panama event is 18 years old, as was established for previous WYD celebrations in recent years. This decision follows a resolution that had been adopted by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario (ACBO) in Spring 2014, supported by the CCCB Executive Committee, and recommended by the CCCB Permanent Council to Canadian dioceses and eparchies. The minimum age of 18 is to assist diocesan and eparchial delegations and other groups in ensuring the supervision and safety of youth participants. The 2019 WYD will be celebrated in Panama, 22 to 27 January 2019, on the theme “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:30). As announced in February 2017, the CCCB has appointed Ms. Isabel Correa, Director of Youth Ministry at the Archdiocese of Montreal, as the National Coordinator for the Canadian delegation participating in WYD 2019.

In the coming weeks there will be a special website available for the coordination of the Canadian delegation. The preparations can already be followed using social platforms such as Twitter (@wydcanada) and Facebook. The official website of the central Organizing Committee in Panama is available in Spanish with English translations at www.panama2019.pa. Groups are expected to be able to register shortly. Isabel Correa can be contacted by email at wyd@cccb.ca.

General Secretariat
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

(CCCB – Ottawa)… His Holiness Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Most Reverend François Lapierre, P.M.É., as Bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe, and has appointed today as his successor Father Christian Rodembourg, M.S.A. At the time of his appointment, the Bishop-elect was Pastor of the Co-Cathedral Saint Anthony of Padua in the Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil. Bishop Lapierre has been Bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe for the past 19 years. He had submitted his resignation to the Holy Father upon reaching the age of 75, as required by the Code of Canon Law.

Bishop-elect Rodembourg was born in Brussels in 1959. Following catechetical and pastoral studies at Lumen Vitae (Belgium), he was named literary director for Saint Paul Publications based in Paris and Fribourg. Ordained priest in 1995 following theological studies in Montreal, he is also currently Assistant General Animator and Formation Officer for the Society of the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles and spiritual advisor for the Teams of Our Lady in Canada. In addition to preaching retreats, he is author of the book 15 days of Prayer with Eusèbe-Henri Ménard which has been translated from the French into English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Erected on 15 August 1995 in the Archdiocese of Montreal, the Society of the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles came about following the union of the Society of the Holy Apostles, which began in 1950, with the Society of the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles, which began in 1962; both were founded by the Canadian Franciscan priest, Father Ménard (1916-1987).

Bishop Lapierre was born on 16 July 1941 in West Shefford (today Bromont), Quebec. He was ordained a priest in 1965 for the Société des Missions-Étrangères (Foreign Mission Society). On 7 April 1998, he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe; at the time he was General Superior of the Foreign Mission Society. As a member of the CCCB, Bishop Lapierre has served as member and Chairman of the Commission for Christian Unity, Religious Relations with the Jews, and Interfaith Dialogue (2002-2005, and again as member since 2014), member and Chairman of the Commission for Justice and Peace (2008-2014), member of the former Programs and Priorities Committee (2003-2005), member of the Anglican / Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue (2008-2011 and 2012-2015), and member of the National Committee for the 2002 World Youth Day which was held in Toronto. Bishop Lapierre has also been member of the Fondation canadienne de la vidéo religieuse (2003-2008) and its President since 2008. In 2012, he was one of the CCCB delegates to the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”.

According to the CCCB 2017 Directory, the Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe has 83 parishes and missions, with a Catholic population of 336,445 served by 93 diocesan priests, 92 priests who are members of institutes of consecrated life, 30 permanent deacons, 483 religious Sisters and 122 Brothers who are members of religious institutes, as well as 43 lay pastoral workers.

On 13 June 2017, the Holy Father appointed 50 members to the Pontifical Academy for Life, including the Most Reverend Noël Simard, Bishop of Valleyfield, and Dr. William F. Sullivan, family physician and an ethicist on the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto. Those appointed to the Academy are experts in different fields of biomedical sciences and related disciplines. Forty-five of the appointees, including the two Canadians, were named to the Academy as “Ordinary Members”, the remaining five as Honorary Members. The 50 appointees are from 27 countries and include a number of non-Catholics, some not belonging to any religion and some of whom hold no religious belief. This range of members is intended, the Academy has announced on its website, as “a sign that the protection and promotion of human life knows no divisions and can be assured only through common endeavor.”

Bishop Simard holds a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and has taught ethics at the University of Sudbury and Saint Paul University, Ottawa. He regularly serves as a spokesperson for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on ethical questions, and was Chair of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, 2011 to 2014. He has been a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy since 2004. Dr. Sullivan is a founding member of the International Association of Catholic Bioethics and was the founding executive director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, Toronto. His first appointment to the Academy was in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pontifical Academy for Life was founded in 1994 by Saint John Paul II. Its aim is “the defence and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person”, as stipulated in its new statute which was revised in November 2016 by Pope Francis and came into effect on 1 January 2017. The Ordinary Assembly of the Academy, scheduled to meet 5-7 October 2017 in the Vatican, will be opened by Pope Francis and will constitute the official launch of the renewed Academy.

Link to website of the Pontifical Academy for Life