Pastoral template for youth ministry

 From the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Release of "Praedica Verbum: Template for Pastors on the Evangelization of Young People in Canada Today"

This template, titled Praedica Verbum (“Preach the Word”) and developed by the Episcopal Commission for Doctrine, is intended as a resource for pastors, officially mandated pastoral agents, and others in the Church who work with young people. Focusing on what the Church calls “the initial proclamation of the Gospel,” it is intended to provide helpful information on the how and what of evangelization. The template was developed following consultations with numerous Catholic organizations in Canada engaged in the evangelization of young people.

Praedica Verbum contains a synthesis of the central themes in the evangelization of young people in the light of the Canadian context today, along with a development of the scriptural and magisterial underpinnings of each of these themes.  Four of these themes concern the content of the message proclaimed (or the what of evangelization), whereas 3 themes relate to method (or the how of evangelization).

The themes are as follows:

The what:

the recognition of God’s love;

the proclamation of Christ as having died and risen for our salvation;

an invitation to a relationship; and

repentance and conversion.

The how:

• the action of the Holy Spirit;
• person-to-person relationships; and
• joy

This new template can be downloaded from the CCCB in English, as well as in French.

I've read it, and it isn't half-bad. A bit high level, of course, but I think it nails certain topics. Worth a read.

Eating the Sunrise

This is neat! I got home from Montreal and found this book waiting for me. Turns out Christoper West has a new book out and he included a story I told him in the introductory chapter. I'll have to read the whole thing and get back to you with a review!

Funeral for Keith Donogue

 Today I had the honour to preside the funeral of a dear friend of mine. Keith Donoghue and I went to high school together. We knew each other since we were 12. He had been fighting cancer since 2020, and although I moved shortly thereafter to Sudbury we kept in touch. I would look in on him when I visited Montreal, offering him the Anointing of the Sick as well as a friendly ear. 

Keith once asked me if I would do his funeral, and I told him that if he ever asked any other priest, that guy would have to fight me for the job. It made Keith smile. His funeral was attended by close to 300 people, and friends gathered from near and far. In fact, it turned into a bit of a class reunion.

His obituary is here, and you can watch the funeral liturgy below. I'll admit I choked up a bit at the end of the homily, but otherwise everything went smoothly.

Visit to Garden River First Nation

 While it was not part of the parish visit per se, I had a chance to celebrate Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary church in Garden River this afternoon before heading back to Sudbury. It is a lovely church with lovely people. 

This is me with Father Mugisha, the parish priest there. I was invited to wear the beautiful buckskin chasuble they have on hand. A lovely garment, drawn from the local culture, and people were delighted to see it.

I also got a tour of the rectory of the parish, which is currently unoccupied. We discussed the possibility of my doing a visit there some time next summer. I'm looking forward to it!

Trip to Searchmont and Ranger Lake

 I'm doing a parish pastoral visit in Sault Ste. Marie this week, but I decided to take a trip to the neighbouring community of Searchmont. I had seen the turnoff on the highway, but had never been, and it was one of the few remaining places in the diocese I had not yet seen.

A few more kilometers in, and I had arrived! 

The drive in showed the location of the ski resort, and the community centre, but what I was really interested in finding was the former Catholic church of Saint Hubert, which had been sold off years ago to a private buyer. I had to take a side road marked with a "No Trespassing" sign, but I found it.

I couldn't believe the state of disrepair of the building. Someone paid good money to buy this structure. What on earth happened?

I got out of my car and walked around. There were no windows, and no front door, so I was able to peek my head inside. What I saw just broke my heart.

This is just some of the graffiti. Some of it was quite vile. Although the church was now in private hands and was no longer officially a sacred building, something still felt just so wrong.

I wanted to peek in further, but the structure was clearly unsafe and I just couldn't take the chance. So I decided to walk around and look for the old cemetery. 

Found it! It clearly wasn't really maintained, but it wasn't in bad shape either. Some wooden crosses had fallen over and were rotting, but several (including the main one) were still standing. There was only one stone monument:

Whoever this person was, according to the monument he had died 100 years ago this year. So this cemetery was actually pretty old. I wonder if anyone alive remembered him, or if there were any stories about him in the history of the community.

After this, I headed out. Having seen the turn-off for Ranger Lake, I decided to take a detour and visit that place as well. After all, who knew when I'd be back this way?

The road was pretty rough. Pavement gave way to a dirt road, now muddy with the melting snow of last week. I had to drive pretty slowly and dodge plenty of potholes. Finally I got to Ranger Lake:

To my surprise, there was nothing there. Well, there was a private resort with the same name, but no settlement to speak of. I wonder why it merited a road sign mention at all.

So I turned around and headed back. I'm glad I was able to make the trip before the snows really hit, and it got my one step closer to finishing the territorial exploration of my diocese. But I'll admit, my heart was heavy, thinking of that former church. If I could have walked away with that cross on the steeple, I would have taken it with me. I wonder who owns the place now, and what his intentions are for it.