Catholic Bishops of Canada Elect a New President and Discuss Promotion of Religious Vocations and More on Last Day of the Plenary Assembly - VIDEO



Bishop Pierre Goudreault reported: On the last day of the Canadian Conference Catholic Bishop's plenary assembly, we began as usual with a moment of prayer, thanking God for his assistance during our plenary and praying for our local churches. During the week the Canadian Bishops had to go through a process of Elections because the two-year Mandate of Bishops who are members of the Permanent Council and the executive committee expired; here are the results of the elections of the main position we do have a new president in the person of Bishop William McGratten (pictured far left) from the diocese of Calgary and also as a vice president myself ( Bishop Pierre Goudreault) and we do have two Co treasurers with Bishop Gerard Bergie from the diocese of St Catherine and Bishop Christian Rodembourg from the diocese of Saint Hyancithe. (Fr. Jean Vézina, general secretary) So on this last day of the plenary we had a moment of reflection animated by Bishop Marc Pelchat and Bishop John Boissonneau they were inviting us to reflect on how we can promote more religious vocations, especially for the priesthood and also how we can journey accompany more seminarians and newly ordained so we had a moment of discussion on that topic. 

We also received and approved some reports of commissions and standing committee for example we did receive the report of the Episcopal commission for Doctrine. It's interesting to know that that Commission published, during the last months, a template for pastors on the evangelization of young people in Canada. Another example is the report from the commission for Justice and Peace during the month of June that commission published living as Catholics in the Public Square freedom of religion and conscience in Canada. So that's very helpful for the proclamation of the Gospel in the world today. 
Finally we also did receive the annual report of the standing committee for family and life. It's nice to know that that group is working very hard; they published a toolkit for the national week for the family, they also publish some resources for the the International Day for grandparents and older people celebrated on July the 23rd and finally they also uh published a pastoral letter from the cccb for young people as a followup to the synod on youth. 
There are so many good things happening in the Church of Canada and you know the Bishops we have the time you know to to share with each other to talk with each other. For example in the diocese of St Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, which is my diocese, I'm very proud you know, thinking of the  initiatives with the youth we have the joy to have a young leader who is working a lot with youth; teenagers and also young adults. So we're moving forward to prepare a group you know for the next World youth day and that's great.
Hello, I'm Bishop G Franken from St Paul in Alberta I love that it's rural I come from Vancouver great place but traffic is just crazy now I can drive anywhere no trouble at all. But actually what I love most is the people the history um there's just a lot of good living of the faith there.
Bishop Hector Vila:  I'm the bishop of White Horse  we have a composition of people that come from all over  different parts of Canada and different parts of the world and certainly we have our brothers and sisters the First Nations that are 25% of the whole Yukon the whole Yukon is more or less 45,000 people but the diocese in itself is about 80,000. Because I also have the northern part of BC. People are welcoming open to welcome other people for example we have been engaged in refugees, coming from different parts of the world  bringing them to the Yukon and helping them and to establish and to live a safe uh life in the Yukon. We have also been engaged with the Ukrainian crisis and so the people are very welcoming very lovable and in terms of being open to share with others I would say that the Yukon at the end of the day we can say that it has an open heart.
Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick: I'm the bishop of Antigonish that's in northeastern Nova Scotia and we have about 99 churches and missions and we're very rich in Celtic history. We the home of St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish well known throughout the country we have a rich tradition where beautiful picturesque scenery abounds.
 I'm my name is Bishop Mark Hagemoen I'm the bishop of the diocese of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan uh it is actually a rural diocese but it has a very has a very large city Saskatoon and a few other what I would call Rural cities and what I love about my diocese there are so many things to love about it but it has a lot of faith-filled and laity and clergy. I am very well supported by a dynamic and dedicated group of clergy uh from our diocese and who come from other countries mainly in Africa and also India. Saskatoon has such a history of really faithful Catholic laity there's a lot of lay movements for young adults Youth and adults and they continue to grow and they continue to respond to the holy spirit's call to evangelize and be people of service in the life of Saskatchewan. So they really bring light and hope and uh I'm a blessed Bishop.
Bishop Byran Bayda: I'm the bishop of the eparchy of Toronto in Eastern Canada for Ukrainian Catholics. Some may or may not understand that we are an eparchy, which is basically the same word as a diocese in Roman Catholic terms. There are five in Canada one for BC, Alberta,  Saskatchewan our Metropolitan Archbishop covers all of Manitoba and then I cover everything east of Manitoba all the way out through New Foundland. So my jurisdiction is certainly a little bit larger than the others. I feel for the other Eastern Bishops some cover all of Canada, some cover all of Canada and the United States and so Eastern churches we are smaller in population, but sometimes our jurisdictions are larger or smaller accordingly. It's a challenge for us to deal with many things and be current probably more profoundly right now is we've got many migrants coming from Ukraine. So I've had to establish a new Parish bring in a new priest get a new place for him and his family, have him you know strategic located so that he can drive out to different places we placed it in Moncton and so he Services Prince Edward Island Frederickton, St John New Brunswick.  I fly a priest out every month to New Finland to cover St John's and Cornerbrook so that's sort of the recent developments that we've had but we're we're grateful for everybody's peripheral support and certainly  Salt and Light for helping us get that message out.
Bishop Pierre Goudreault: The Bishops of Canada concluded their plenary assembly today and they felt really enriched I would say by their fraternity moment of sharing prayer and also discernment it is nice to know that next year for the 2024 plenary assembly we will meet in Quebec City to participate in the special celebration event of the 350th anniversary of foundation of the archdiocese of Quebec.
Source: CCCB Video - Image CCCB Twitter

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