Daniel & Jacqueline Cere, recipients of the 2018 Bishop Crowley Memorial Award, Diane Lemay, Past President ESCC, Anna Farrow, Executive Director, ESCC
Has your parish or organization been affected by the newly required attestation for application to the Summer Jobs Program? If so, the Archdiocese of Montreal wants to know!
In an effort to gain information about the effect of this requirement upon the organizations and parishes within the Archdiocese of Montreal, our colleagues have produced a short survey. The information gathered from this survey will help the Archdiocese as it communicates about this issue with the CCCB, government representatives and the press and also as it decides on its next steps in response to this issue. If your parish or organization has received funding from the CSJ program or if your group has considered applying but has opted not to apply because of the attestation requirement, please take a few minutes to complete the following survey: http://bit.ly/2FcmI4N
The pews in the churches of Montreal are going to be increasingly populated by newcomers to Canada. That was one of the conclusions of Reginald Bibby’s fascinating lecture given last November at Loyola High School. In a lively and engaging style Bibby, the most well-known sociologist of religion in Canada, began by giving a short synopsis of the history of Catholics in Canada and then proceeded to paint a picture of the future. That future has everything to do with immigration. Why is this? One part of the answer has to do with how Canada is growing. In 2016, population growth in Canada was 30% natural increase and 70% immigration. By 2036, 100% of population growth will be down to immigration. The second part of the equation has to do with a difference in religious commitment between those born in Canada and those born outside of Canada. On average, immigrants tend to be more religiously committed than the population that was born in Canada.
Basing his lecture off his most recent books, Canada’s Catholics (2016) and Resilient Gods (2017), Bibby noted that historically Catholics have had an ability to create communities for immigrant populations. “The dominant policy seems to have been to allow Catholics to establish new parishes where they could initially live out life in the language and culture of their homeland. Churches thereby retained Catholics in the course of providing them with communities that offered immigrants social, emotional and spiritual support in their new country.” –p.122, Canada’s Catholics.
The Catholic Church in Canada has, on the whole, done a great job in creating healthy and nurturing environments for newcomers to adapt and integrate to their new homeland. Looking forward, churches will need to keep a number of questions in mind. Here are five questions which Bibby suggests leaders need to ask:
How can the Church help newcomers adjust to Canada?
How can parishes provide welcoming environments?
To what extent will new parishes be created?
What can be done to ensure that the high levels of commitment and involvement that are characteristic of many immigrants continue?
What can be done by way of superb family ministry to ensure that enthusiasm for the faith continues to characterize the second generation of newcomers?
On March 15, 2017, the Quebec Community Groups Network will be hosting a one-day conference on community engagement and the successful integration of newcomers. This pre-forum to the National Metropolis Conference aims to bring together representatives from various sectors and various regions to discuss how newcomers (immigrants, refugees and migrants) integrate into Quebec society through Quebec’s English-speaking communities and institutions, including faith-based organizations. The conference, sponsored by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), will wrap up with a roundtable of community organizations, service providers, and government representatives that aims to uncover innovative ways our communities can – with the support of municipal, provincial, and federal government institutions – foster the vitality of English-speaking communities in Quebec through the successful integration of newcomers – that is immigrants, refugees and migrants from the rest of Canada. Would you like more information? Go to the website for info and to register for this conference.
The subject of end-of-life-issues, specifically those of assisted-suicide and euthanasia, have dominated Canadian headlines over the past few years. On June 5, 2014, the Quebec legislature passed its law on medical-aid-in-dying, Bill-52.
Social isolation has been recognized as an emerging problem for senior citizens throughout the country. In 2013, the National Seniors Council targeted the reduction of social isolation among seniors as a top priority.
First awarded as the Bishop Crowley Award in 1983 and then, upon the death of Bishop Crowley, the Bishop Crowley Memorial Award, this honor, sponsored by the ESCC, is conferred upon a person, group, or organization which has gone above and beyond in serving the English Catholic community.
On November 14, 2014 the ESCC hosted, after a ten year hiatus, the Catholic Community Rally. In all there were 42 movements and organizations which work and minister to English-speaking Catholics in Montreal represented.
