By Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News Two events will be held in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon this month following up on themes explored at Spring Congress 2024 – a free webinar on May 8 about how to launch a “Name Tag Sunday” in a parish, and an in-person workshop May 14 about establishing prayer ministry as part of parish outreach and engagement. Both ideas were among suggested ways to enhance parish hospitality, evangelization, formation and outreach that were highlighted by Fr. Simon Lobo, CC, and Fr. Isaac Longworth, CC, of St. Benedict Parish in Halifax, NS, during ..read more

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service [Vatican City – CNS] – The more pastors empower their parishioners to share responsibility for the mission of the church, the more they will learn to set their ministry free “from the things that wear us down,” Pope Francis wrote in a recent letter to parish priests. “We will never become a synodal and missionary Church unless parish communities are distinguished by the sharing of all the baptized in the one mission of proclaiming the Gospel,” the pope wrote in the letter to the more than 200 parish priests from around the world who met April 29-May 2 to ..read more

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service RELATED: Pope Francis – a letter to parish priests (LINK) The collaboration of laity and priests in the life of a parish and in outreach to the surrounding community “is not a strategy,” but the result of taking the sacraments of baptism and confirmation seriously, rather than allowing it to remain “a beautiful principle, a virtuous and pious intention,” a Canadian theologian recently told hundreds of pastors participating in the Synod on Synodality’s “World Meeting of Parish Priests.” “It must become effective,” Fr. Gilles Routhier, a theologian and s ..read more

By Courtney Mares, Catholic News Agency [Rome – CNA] – Pope Francis published a letter May 2 addressed to all parish priests in the world with his advice for building a missionary Church in which all the baptized share in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel. “Parish communities increasingly need to become places from which the baptized set out as missionary disciples and to which they return, full of joy, in order to share the wonders worked by the Lord through their witness,” Pope Francis wrote in the letter published on May 2, 204. The pope presented the letter to 300 priests participa ..read more

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News The 2024 Bishop’s Dinner in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon included a focus on the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund, updates on outreach to those in need, and an overview of the diocesan Pastoral Plan, as well as a gala dinner, entertainment and award presentations. Hosted by the Diocese of Saskatoon Catholic Foundation at the Cathedral of the Holy Family May 2, the dinner’s featured guest speaker was Dr. Gordon Martell, PhD, who serves as chair of the Indigenous Discernment Circle and Granting Committee for the Indigenous Reconciliation ..read more

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service [Vatican City – CNS] – Unity within Christian communities and the unity of all the churches will grow only as believers draw closer to Jesus and learn to be honest in examining if they are listening to the Holy Spirit or to their own preferences, Pope Francis told leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion. “We are called to pray and to listen to one another, seeking to understand each other’s concerns and asking ourselves, before enquiring of others, whether we have been docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit or prey to our own personal or group ..read more

Release from Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada Development and Peace – Caritas Canada concluded its 2023 mobilization campaign, Stand for the Land, on Wednesday, April 24, by handing over to Her Excellency Beatriz Valle, Ambassador of Honduras to Canada, a letter signed by 52,629 Canadians that draws the attention of the Government of Honduras to the struggles of people in Guapinol and the San Pedro sector. Since 2015, these communities have been protesting an open-pit iron mine that was irregularly set up in Carlos Escaleras National Park. Valle said she was “touched by the solidarity ex ..read more

Who Are Our Real Faith Companions? By Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI I work and move within church circles and find that most of the people there are honest, committed, and for the most part radiate their faith positively. Most churchgoers aren’t hypocrites. What I do find disturbing in church circles though is that many of us can be bitter, mean-spirited, and judgmental in terms of defending the very values that we hold most dear. It was Henri Nouwen who first highlighted this, commenting with sadness that many of the bitter and ideologically driven people he knew, he had met inside of church circles ..read more

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News An annual Rotary Badge and Shield Star Dinner paying tribute to the community’s first responders this year included an award presented to St. Mary Catholic Church in Saskatoon for opening their hall as an overnight warm-up location in partnership with the Salvation Army. The fund-raising event to highlight and honour the efforts of emergency service workers of the Saskatoon Police Service, Saskatoon Fire Department, and Medavie Services West (ambulance) was held April 24 at Prairieland Park. All proceeds from the evening go to RAP (Restorative ..read more

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski Bishop Mark Hagemoen ordained diocesan seminarian Luke Tran Van Tam to the transitional diaconate April 19, 2024 in a joyful celebration at St. Mary Parish in Saskatoon, where he has been serving his pastoral year. It is another step on his journey of discernment to priestly ordination. Luke Tran Van Tam was born April 30, 1987 in Việt Nam and came to Canada on July 19, 2017 in order to discern the vocation of priesthood for the diocese of Saskatoon. He was accepted as a diocesan seminarian of Saskatoon in July 2018, and has been studying at the Seminary of Christ the ..read more