On Wednesday April 12, the CCCB released a statement on Canada’s Opioid Crisis and Drug Addiction, which speaks of the causes of the crisis in Canada and references some ways in which Canadian Catholics can better respond to this issue.

On Monday, April 17^th, the memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the Protectress of Canada, the Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), issued a message marking the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

Please click here to read Bishop Crosby’s message in its entirety.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Easter!

Today, throughout the world, the Church echoes once more the astonishing message of the first disciples: “Jesus is risen!” – “He is truly risen, as he said!”

The ancient feast of Passover, the commemoration of the liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery, here finds fulfilment. By his resurrection, Jesus Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin and death, and has opened before us the way to eternal life.

All of us, when we let ourselves be mastered by sin, lose the right way and end up straying like lost sheep. But God himself, our shepherd, has come in search of us. To save us, he lowered himself even to accepting death on the cross. Today we can proclaim: “The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep, and willingly died for his flock, alleluia” (Roman Missal, IV Sunday of Easter, Communion antiphon).

In every age, the Risen Shepherd tirelessly seeks us, his brothers and sisters, wandering in the deserts of this world. With the marks of the passion – the wounds of his merciful love – he draws us to follow him on his way, the way of life. Today too, he places upon his shoulders so many of our brothers and sisters crushed by evil in all its varied forms.

The Easter Triduum - from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday - is the summit of the Liturgical Year of the Church. Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day, unfolding for us the unity of Christ's Paschal Mystery.

The single celebration of the Triduum marks the end of the Lenten season, and leads to the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil.

The liturgical services that take place during the Triduum are :

Mass of the Lord's Supper

Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

the Easter Vigil and the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord

Each year on Good Friday, dioceses and parishes in Canada and around the world hold a collection for the needs of the Church in the Holy Land. In the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Catholics pray for the needs of all the world and they remember in a special way the Holy Land and its people. Christians living in the Holy Land today are descendants to those who first believed and lived the Christian faith. The funds collected are used to support the work of the Catholic Church - providing Christian formation and education, conducting parish ministry, offering housing and food to the poor and maintaining the shrines of the Holy Land.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Confession and the Sacrament of Penance, is a Sacrament of Healing in which we encounter and celebrate in a very special way the merciful love of God.  While it is especially important that we bring to this sacrament mortal sins, it is a precept of our Church that we celebrate this sacrament at least once a year.  Speaking of the beauty and benefits of this sacrament, even when we have no serious sins to confess, St. Francis de Sales, a patron saint of Confessors, said:  “By confession, you not only receive absolution from the venial sins you confess, but likewise strength to avoid them, light to discern them well and grace to repair all the damage you may have sustained by them. You will also practice the virtues of humility, obedience, sincerity and charity: in a word, in this one act of confession, you shall exercise more virtues than in any other whatsoever.” Lent is a wonderful time to celebrate this sacrament.  Please check  your parish’s confession times and consider celebrating this sacrament soon.

Recently our diocese received a grant from the Ex Corde Foundation of the Diocese of Hamilton.  This grant will assist in the funding of the pastoral ministry of the Innu Aboriginal Parishes of Our Lady of the Snows in Sheshatshui and Tshukuminu St. Anne in Natuashish for 2017.

We are pleased to welcome to our Diocese Reverend Ricardo (Innocenti) Rossi, who arrived in the Diocese on March 31. Father Rossi will be in residence at the Cathedral rectory until April 17^th at which time he will begin his appointment as Administrator of Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Sheshatshui.

Please join in welcoming Father Ricardo to the diocese and praying for God’s blessing upon his ministry.

2017 Easter message

by the Most Rev. Douglas Crosby, O.M.I.,

Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

 

At the Easter Vigil, we celebrate the light of Christ which we carry, filled with hope, into a world of darkness and uncertainty. In the shadow of the Sainte-Foy massacre this past February, with tensions escalating between nuclear powers and refugees on the move, the invocation of hope seems premature to some and dangerously naïve to others. More personally, the spirits of some may be dampened this Easter by illness, bereavement, family breakdown, addiction, and unemployment. When hope begins to slip away, fear takes its place and we are robbed of peace.

Easter is meant to leave us with a very different sense of the present and the future. It offers a reality that is full of joy. Easter proclaims that fear and terror and death are not the end of the story. Indeed, the prayers of the Easter Vigil are unequivocal in the assurance they convey: “If we keep the memorial of the Lord’s paschal solemnity in this way, listening to his word and celebrating his mysteries, then we shall have the sure hope of sharing his triumph over death and living with him in God.” (Roman Missal: The Blessing of the Fire and Preparation of the Candle)

The Mass of Chrism  will take place at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Redeemer and of the Immaculate Conception , 15 Mount Bernard Avenue, Corner Brook, on Wednesday, April 5 at 7pm.