Feast of the Canadian Martyrs September 26, 2016
His Holiness Pope Francis Vatican City
Most Holy Father,
It has been our custom since the beginning of our Episcopal Conference in 1943 for the Catholic Bishops of Canada to send greetings to the Successor of Peter at the commencement of our Plenary Assembly. The opening day of this year’s weeklong meeting is the Feast of the Canadian Martyrs – Saint Jean de Brébeuf, Saint Isaac Jogues and their six Jesuit companions, including two laymen associated with the Society, who died between the years 1642 and 1649 in the pastoral service of the Indigenous People in North America. Our meeting again is in Cornwall, Ontario, on the Saint Lawrence River along which many of our early missionaries and Bishops travelled in the past.
We wish to begin by thanking you for your pertinent and enthusiastic teaching which supports and stimulates us in our own role as teachers of the faith: Your Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, On Love in the Family; Your frequent reminders of the centrality of mercy, articulated so eloquently in your Bull of Indiction for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, but also in your frequent example of visiting hospices, hospitals, prisons and refugee centres; Your encouraging and challenging words to political and social leaders, which the whole world witnessed last fall with your Apostolic Visit to the General Assembly of the United Nations; Likewise, your ongoing reminders to leaders and members of all religions that God’s name is peace.
We hear and try our best to heed your urgent promptings that Christ’s call to be holy is a summons “to translate into concrete acts that which we invoke in prayer and profess in faith”, to be a “witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor” and a “tireless worker of mercy”, which we see exemplified in Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom you declared a Saint of the Universal Church and as you described in your homily at the Mass for her Canonization which also marked the Jubilee for workers of mercy and volunteers.
We are grateful for your pastoral solicitude for the Church in our country: Your appointments of the new Bishops among us; Your transfer of the six remaining mission dioceses in our North to the common jurisdiction of the Church;
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Your establishing the Apostolic Exarchate for Syriac Catholics in Canada, the Eparchy for Syro-Malankaran Catholics in United States and Canada, and the Apostolic Exarchate for Syro-Malabaran Catholics in Canada, in addition to your having met with the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, five of whose Bishops are members of our Conference.
The questions on which we are deliberating this week echo your own many pastoral preoccupations: The negative impact that euthanasia and assisted suicide have on cultures and societies, in addition to the challenges these present to faith and pastoral care (we will be assisted in our reflections by Cardinal Willem Eijk); The strengthening of the Church’s presence among, and relations with, Indigenous Peoples; The enduring scandal of Christian disunity; The gifts entrusted to humanity in Creation and nature (Father Michael Czerny, S.J., from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will lead us in reflections on your Encyclical Laudato Sí); The troubling question of transgenderism; The commitments and safeguards to be implemented by dioceses, eparchies and institutes of consecrated life in order to protect minors; The mission and challenges of marriage and the family today (led by reflections on Amoris Laetitia by Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix and Cardinal Thomas Collins); The structures we want to put in place when there is the painful question about the validity of a marriage; The preparations for next year’s ad limina visit when each of us will have the joy and pleasure to meet with you and your advisors.
United with you in these pastoral concerns, inspired by our common faith, hope and love in Christ, and finding strength together in the communion and family of the Church, we assure you of our affection and devotion for you, Pastor of the Universal Church and Head of the College of Bishops. As we begin our Plenary Assembly, we ask you in turn to extend your Apostolic Blessing on our people and on us called to serve them as shepherds.
Fraternally in Our Lord,
(Most Rev.) Douglas Crosby, OMI Bishop of Hamilton and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops