Western Bishops Hold Annual Assembly in Victoria, Canada
The Catholic bishops from across western Canada met in Victoria for their annual Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops. This assembly is one of four subdivisions of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops that gathers the bishops and eparchies/dioceses of Western Canada into specific groups to share similar interests and concerns. The other three “regions” are those for the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario.
The bishops covered a great number topics that concern the pastoral life of the region and which would be of great importance to each of the eparchies/dioceses individually. These topics were many, but included: Vocations; Artificial Intelligence; Higher Education (Catholic Universities and Colleges); Legal Matters (canonical and civil); Finances; Insurance; Marriage Encounter; Implementation of Synodality; Etc. Etc.
One of the items was to discuss and make preliminary plans for the 2027 Ad Limina visit of the bishops to Rome. The visit includes a meeting with the Holy Father, Pope Leo and visits to all the of Vatican dicasteries (departments) and a pilgrimage to the Tombs of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and to the four major basilicas. All the bishops of the world strive to make an Ad Limina to Rome every five years to report on the life of their eparchy/diocese and seek council and spiritual refreshment. Due to circumstances in the world over the last number of years, the last time the AWCB made their ad limina to Rome was almost a decade ago in 2017. Although the Ad Limina is more than a year away, there are major reports to prepare and logistics to arrange.
The bishops also engaged in prayer and liturgy — which was usually open to those parishioners who wanted to attend. One of the “Morning Prayers” was a Lenten “First Hour” that was led by the Ukrainian Catholic Bishops. Auxiliary Bishop of Winnipeg, Bishop Andriy Rabiy, had prepared the booklets and led the service in the local church. Four of the participants were Ukrainian Catholic Bishops from Saskatoon (Bishop Michael Smolinski, CSsR), Edmonton (Bishop David Motiuk), New Westminster (Bishop Michael Kwiatkowski), and the above-mentioned representative of the Archeparchy of Winnipeg. Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak of Winnipeg, did not attend the AWCB this year. At one of Eucharistic Liturgies, the students from a local Catholic School came to sing. One of the singers was the daughter of Fr. Yuriy Vyshnevskyy, the pastor of St. Nicholas Parish in Victoria.
The local host was the Bishop of Victoria, Bishop Gary Gordon, who helped the AWCB staff — especially the President Archbishop Stephen Hero and Secretary Josée Marr — to provide a very well-organized conference.
Pray for your bishops and all the bishops of Western Canada (and throughout the Church, for that matter!) as they do have so many responsibilities and they do strive to provide apostolic pastoral leadership to all the faithful of the eparchy/diocese entrusted to their pastoral care.
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