In Canada there are 62 dioceses of the Latin rite and ten of the Eastern rite. On January 25, Pope Francis transferred six dioceses in the Canadian North to ordinary canonical legislation. That is, they will no longer receive financial support from Rome as missions. But since they obviously need it (only two of the 32 communities in the Northwest Territories are self-sufficient), the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is studying solutions. On January 25, the president of the CCCB, Bishop Douglas Crosby, OMI, of Hamilton (Ontario), reminded us that the Pilgrim Church is missionary by nature. "As Catholics, we have entered a new phase in our history. Now, all together, we must continue our common effort to find new ways to sustain and extend our presence and service in Northern Canada.".
Yukon Territory
Bishop Hector Vila was born in Lima in 1962. On February 7 of this year he took possession of the 725,000 square kilometers of the Diocese of Whitehorse, where 42,000 people live, of which 8,000 are Catholics. "Distances are a challenge. The farthest mission is a thousand kilometers away. In winter, with 40 or 50 degrees below zero, there are areas that are absolutely incommunicado.". On one occasion, the previous bishop had traveled to a very distant location on a Holy Thursday. The problem was that it coincided with a field hockey final, so that only one person went to the Mass in Cena Domini. "Going to church on Sundays is relative here: the priest may arrive after a long trip, but maybe there is a bingo game that is a priority for people, rather than Mass."
"Another challenge is that there are five priests and me for 23 parishes and missions. It's difficult to cover them, except in Whitehorse, where I reside. Depending on the proximity to Whitehorse, you go to those places once or twice a month. This fact opens a distance between the Church and the people. Sometimes we send priests who come from outside and stay for a year or two but then go back to their dioceses. It is not possible to form community".he laments. The need for shepherds is great. "In the summer season, in some places like Dawson City, there is more attendance. Tourists go to look at nature and the number of worshippers increases. But when the people leave the city, go fishing or hunting deep in the woods..., Mass attendance decreases a lot.". Therefore, "There is a lack of pastoral presence and each community has its own difficulties. In some places there are suicides, cases of drugs, alcohol...".
However, "In the Teslin community it's different. They have the elders [elders, leaders] who always come to Mass. This community relies on the work of Sister Trudy, from the Canadian public association of the faithful. Madonna Housewho has been in the diocese for 62 years. years. For 20 or 30 years Trudy has been visiting the community, the elderly, in any need. This pastoral presence has meant that when I visited them, I found a well-formed community.".
Northwest Territories
Mark Hagemoen, whose Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith covers 1,500,000 square kilometers, tells how on Sunday, May 1, he arrived in a village where he baptized ten faithful and confirmed 65 others. He had been in another village shortly before, whose chapel the villagers had repaired after it had been destroyed in a flood. Bishop Hagemoen was able to give 17 first communions. There had not been any there for 20 years. "It was a great way to reopen that chapel, which was overflowing. Our people love to celebrate the sacraments and funerals. I have 8 priests, 5 religious sisters, and a young man, of Vietnamese origin, who will be starting his first year at Christ the King Seminary near Vancouver in September.". This pastoral work benefits a population of 50,000 people, half of whom are Catholics. Half a dozen indigenous languages and dialects are spoken (some of them endangered), in addition to English and French.
Bishop Hagemoen was born in Vancouver in 1961 and was ordained a priest on May 12, 1990. He was rector of a small Catholic university and a passionate mountaineer when he was appointed bishop in October 2013. "Laudato si' speaks in a special way to this town".he says, "as many of his faithful are hunters and fishermen; but the caribou are disappearing due to climate change, and mining must yield to the Creator's demands, according to several elders".
A few days ago I connected by cell phone with Bishop Hagemoen while he was on tour in the Western Arctic. "I frequently visit our 32 communities, only 5 of which are parishes. When I arrived, less than three years ago, 7 had no cell phone towers; today they all have..."This is a blessing, since it means better communication, and at the same time it is a misfortune, because it favors cultural homogenization, materialism and hedonism. "We have, in the city of Yellowknife two Catholic elementary schools and a Catholic high school, subsidized by the state.". They are the only ones in the diocese. Yellowknife is the capital of the territory, and was visited by St. John Paul II. That Pope tried to meet with indigenous people in Fort Simpson, (population 1,300) on his tour of Canada in September 1984, but fog prevented him from landing. He diverted to Yellowknife, from where he promised by radio to those waiting for him that he would return. He did so on September 19 and 20, 1987.
Nunavut Territory
The Diocese of Churchill-Hudson Bay, with an area of almost 2,000,000 square kilometers, encompasses the northern part of the province of Manitoba and a large part of the Nunavut Territory, whose ice cap reaches the North Pole. There are 35,000 people living in Nunavut; 85 % are inuits (Eskimo). There are about 10,000 Catholics in the diocese. They speak Inuktikut, a language in which many religious magazines are published.
Bishop Anthony (Tony) Krotki, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate, was born in 1964 and ordained in 1990 in Poland. He then went to Nunavut, where he was ordained bishop three years ago. It was not easy to reach him by telephone because a snowstorm prevented him from traveling to his destination after administering confirmations in Whale Cove. He is in charge of 17 parishes, 8 priests (4 are Polish Oblates) plus Bishop Emeritus Reynald Rouleau OMI, two religious sisters (in Whale Cove) and a seminarian of Polish origin who will be ordained a diocesan priest in 2017. He will then have two priests incardinated in the diocese. He speaks passionately of going to the periphery. "If they accept you, they themselves take you to the peripheries. It may be a situation at home, such as the loss of a loved one, when the family is so bad that they need your presence to be and walk with them.".
This town has great difficulties. "Our people were nomadic, they traveled. Today, in the villages we have, they can no longer travel because they have a house that is built. It's hard for the youth to cope with their situation; what do you do; you don't have a job, you don't have much of a job possibility. You will have to go somewhere else to study, but when you finish and you have a diploma, where do you work if your community has 300 or 600 people? There are no jobs for anybody. And then there is frustration. So life is very difficult. They're always looking.".
Bishop Krotki asks the missionaries to "We want them to be present in every moment of the families' lives. Families are the most important thing for us. We see that everything starts in the family. The families here are very large, and they are connected to distant communities, a thousand or two thousand kilometers away. They have to be strong to stay connected to relatives they can't visit.".
That is why the Church must adapt to this particularity. "We missionaries have to embrace their way of life, their customs, their history, and that's not easy when we have another culture. We have to create a space for the new that we see in the Arctic. And our people who live here realize who can embrace their culture, customs, traditions, way of living and surviving. Can all missionaries do that? I have met some who could not. We encounter the periphery on a daily basis. And especially when young people have a hard time, to survive, to live, when their life hangs by a thin thread." (referring to the fact that there are many suicides, especially among young people).
"In my experience, it is the people who tell me where I have to go, where the peripheries are, what I have to do. Sólo necI need to listen. I think that today's missionaries must be attentive. Otherwise, we will not be able to do all the good that is asked of us"..
Montreal
