Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary – Current Information, Resources and Lates updates from the diocesan office on COVID -19 Pandemic

All the information on this page was updated on December 13, 2020 (taken from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary website) by Beata Banka

Bishop’s Letter to the Faithful: Financial Status of the Diocese and the HR Decisions
I would like to bring to your attention the letter issued by the Bishop today, November 3, 2020, on the financial status of the Diocese and the HR decisions that will affect the parishes and the Pastoral Centre in 2021.

Bishop McGrattan has issued a letter on the financial challenges due to COVID-19 and the decisions that will affect the employment of some staff in the parishes and in the Pastoral Centre in 2021. We invite you to read the Bishop’s letter which can be accessed at here.
Letter from Bishop McGrattan to Faithful about the Financial Status and HR Decisions of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

Video message from Bishop McGrattan to Faithful about the Financial Status and HR Decisions of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

Pope Francis’ “Civil Union” Clarification
At the request of the Holy Father, the Secretariat of State has prepared the explanatory document (in Italian) in response to the release of the documentary entitled, Francesco. The document, received from the Apostolic Nunciature, clarifies the context of certain statements made by His Holiness and contained in the said documentary. It has been unofficially translated into English and in French.

Links are also provided for further context and clarification

• Explanatory document in Italian – Download
• Explanatory document – unofficial translation from CCCB/CECC – English | French
• Catholic News Agency | Vatican Secretariat of State provides the context of Pope Francis Civil Union Remark: https://pos.li/2h5fcz
• Aleteia | Vatican Secretariat of State clarifies pope’s civil unions’ comment: https://pos.li/2h5fdg
• Zenit | Letter of Vatican on Pope’s Words in Documentary “Francis” https://pos.li/2h5fdm

State of Public Health Emergency – New Stricker Restrictions – December 9, 2020
https://www.catholicyyc.ca/uploads/6/5/5/7/65570685/memorandum_new_stricter_restrictions_december_9_2020.pdf

Face Covering bylaw in Churches in the City of Calgary & Town of Banff  – https://www.catholicyyc.ca/blog/covid19#maskbylaw

Face Covering bylaw in Town of Canmore
– https://canmore.ca/covid-19/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-canmore/mandatory-mask-bylaw

Masks and Face Covering in Business – City of Calgary
– https://www.calgary.ca/csps/cema/covid19/support/business/face-covering-requirements.html
“The Business Owners & Operators Guidance document of the City of Calgary has had some revisions and clarifications added to it recently.
If your parish follows the diocesan guidelines and requires parishioners to pre-register for Mass and have walk-ins only before Mass begins as doors are shut and locked as soon as Mass is underway (not leaving opportunity for people to just walk in during the Mass), churches in Calgary can continue the practice of letting the parishioners decide whether to wear the mask while stationary in the pews. The only time we require them to wear a mask is while on the Communion line for the reception of Holy Communion.

Sunday & Weekday Mass
The total maximum attendance allowed for Mass is limited to 1/3 of regular pre-COVID capacity or less if required for proper physical distancing. While the current maximum occupancy in churches are most likely already in compliance, we ask that parishes check and verify

Funeral Masses
The total maximum attendance allowed for the congregation is no more than 10, or fewer if required for proper physical distancing. This has been mandated by the Diocese of Calgary and Province.

Weddings
The total maximum attendance allowed for the congregation is no more than 10, or fewer if required for proper physical distancing. This has been mandated by the Diocese of Calgary and Province.

Baptisms
The total maximum attendance allowed for the congregation is no more than 10, or fewer if required for proper physical distancing. This has been mandated by the Diocese of Calgary and Province. Each celebration of baptism will be limited to one child or the children of the household.

Access to Churches
Parishes are asked to keep the churches open during the day so that individuals may visit and pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. However, groups are not allowed to assemble in churches.

Parish Office Space – In sections of the parish office that are not readily accessible to parishioners, staff do not have to wear masks while at work. They have to wear masks when entering any common areas in the church when the church is open and where they may encounter parishioners, i.e. narthex and hallways, church nave, parish hall, public washrooms, public kitchens, rooms…

Rule of thumb: People will be expected to wear a face-covering in any part of an enclosed space to which the public can readily access.
The Bylaw requires business operators or owners to display messaging in public entryways of the business or vehicle. Download and print posters available in different languages from here: https://www.calgary.ca/csps/cema/covid19/support/business/face-covering-requirements.html“

Resources for the Reintroduction of the Public Celebration of Holy Mass: https://www.catholicyyc.ca/resources.html

Diocese of Calgary Stage 2 Relaunch: – Memorandum – Stage 2 Relaunch
Alberta Relaunch Strategy: https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-relaunch-strategy.aspx

Liturgical Guidelines Update:
Liturgical Guidelines from Diocese of Calgary – September 25, 2020

Workplace Guidance for Business Owners: https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/covid-19-workplace-guidance-for-business-owners.pdf

Spiritual Resources: https://www.catholicyyc.ca/prayers.html

News and Events: https://www.catholicyyc.ca/news.html

Mass and Confession Times in the Parishes in the Diocese of Calgary: Schedule for Masses and Confessions in the Parishes

Parish Mass Livestream: https://www.catholicyyc.ca/livestreammass.html

Decree Dispensation from the Sunday Obligation: https://www.catholicyyc.ca/uploads/6/5/5/7/65570685/decree_dispensing_sunday_obligation_april_11_2020_copy.pdf

https://www.cccrs.com/covid-19-pandemic-in-the-diocese-latest-updates-and-resources/

At midday today the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.

The following is the Pope’s introduction to the Marian prayer:

Before the Angelus

Dear brothers and sisters, good day!

This Sunday’s Gospel reading (see Mt 13:44-52) consists of the final verses of the chapter Matthew devotes to the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven. The passage includes three parables that are very briefly outlined: that of the hidden treasure, that of the precious pearl, and that of the net cast into the sea.

I will look at the first two in which the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to two different “precious” items, namely, the hidden treasure in the field and the pearl of great value. The reaction of he who finds the pearl or the treasure is practically the same: the man and the merchant sell everything to buy what is now most dear to them. With these two similes, Jesus proposes to involve us in the building of the Kingdom of Heaven, presenting an essential characteristic of Christian life, of the life of the Kingdom of heaven: those who fully pledge themselves to the Kingdom are those who are willing to  stake everything, who are courageous. Indeed, both the man and the merchant in these two parables sell everything they have, thus renouncing their material security. From this it can be understood that the building of the Kingdom requires not only the grace of God, but also the active willingness of humanity. Everything is done by grace, everything! We need only have the willingness to receive it, not to resist grace: grace does everything but it takes “my” responsibility, “my” willingness … and who is responsible for this?

The gestures of the man and the merchant who seek to buy more precious treasures, depriving themselves of their goods, are decisive gestures, and radical gestures; but I would say that they are “one way” gestures, not a “round trip”: they are “one way” gestures. Moreover, they are gestures made with joy because both of them have found treasure. We are called upon to assume the attitude of these two Gospel figures, so that we too may become healthily restless seekers of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a matter of abandoning the heavy burden of our worldly sureties that prevent us from searching and building up the Kingdom: the covetousness for possession, the thirst for profit and power, and thinking only of ourselves. 

In our times, as we are all aware, some people’s lives can end up mediocre and dull because they probably do not go in search of real treasure: they are content with attractive but fleeting things, whose bright lights prove illusory as they give way to darkness. Instead the light of the Kingdom is not like fireworks, it is light: fireworks last only an instant, whereas the light of the Kingdom accompanies all our life.

The Kingdom of Heaven is the opposite of the superfluous things that the world offers, the opposite of a dull life: it is a treasure that renews life every day and leads it to extend towards wider horizons. Indeed, those who have found this treasure have a creative and inquisitive heart, which does not repeat but rather invents, tracing and setting out on new paths which lead us to love God, to love others, and to truly love ourselves. The sign of those who walk this path of the Kingdom is creativity, always trying to do more. And creativity is what takes life and gives life, and gives, and gives, and gives… It always looks for many other ways to give life.

Jesus, Who is the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value, cannot but inspire joy, all the joy of the world: the joy of discovering a meaning in life, the joy of committing oneself to the adventure of holiness.

May the Blessed Virgin help us to search every day for the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven, so that the love God has given us through Jesus may be manifested in our words and gestures.

Taken from the Vatican News – Daily Bulletin

At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis looked out the study window in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In today’s Gospel (cf Mt 13,24-43) we still meet Jesus intent on speaking to the crowd in parables of the Kingdom of heaven. I focus only on the first, that of the tares, through which Jesus makes us know the patience of God , opening our hearts to hope .

Jesus tells us that in the field where the good wheat was sown, weeds also emerge, a term that summarizes all the harmful herbs that infest the soil. Among us, we can also say that even today the soil is devastated by many herbicides and pesticides, which in the end also hurt both the grass, the earth and health. But this, by the way. The servants then go to the master to find out where the tares come from, and he replies: “An enemy has done this!” (v. 28). Because we have sown good wheat! An enemy, one who competes, has come to do this. They would like to go immediately and tear away the growing weeds; instead the owner says no, because one would risk tearing the weeds together – the tares – and the wheat. You have to wait for the harvest time: only then will they separate and the tares will be burned. It is also a story of common sense.

A vision of history can be read in this parable. Next to God – the master of the field – who always and only spreads good seeds, there is an adversary, who spreads the tares to hinder the growth of the wheat. The master acts openly, in the light of the sun, and his purpose is a good harvest; the other, the opponent, on the other hand, takes advantage of the darkness of the night and works out of envy, out of hostility, to ruin everything. The adversary to whom Jesus refers has a name: he is the devil, the opponent par excellence of God. His intent is to hinder the work of salvation, to ensure that the Kingdom of God is hindered by unfair operators, scandal sowers. In fact, the good seed and the tares represent not the good and the bad in the abstract, but we human beings, who can follow God or the devil. A lot of times, we heard that a family that was at peace, then wars, envies began … a neighborhood that was at peace, then bad things started … And we are used to saying: “Someone came there to sow weeds”, or “This person of the family, with small talk, sows weeds”. It is always sowing evil that destroys. And this always does the devil or our temptation: when we fall into the temptation to chat to destroy others.

The intention of the servants is to immediately eliminate evil, that is, wicked people, but the master is wiser, he sees further: they must know how to wait, because the enduring of persecutions and hostilities is part of the Christian vocation. Evil, of course, must be rejected, but the wicked are people with whom one must use patience. It is not a question of that hypocritical tolerance which hides ambiguity, but of justice mitigated by mercy. If Jesus came to seek sinners rather than the righteous, to cure the sick even before the healthy (cf Mt 9,12-13), the action of us his disciples must also be addressed not to suppress the wicked, but to save them. And there, patience.

Today’s Gospel presents two ways of acting and living history: on the one hand, the gaze of the master, who sees far; on the other, the gaze of the servants, who see the problem. Servants care about a field without weeds, the owner has good wheat at heart. The Lord invites us to take on his own gaze, that which is fixed on good wheat, which knows how to keep it even in the weeds. Those who seek out the limits and defects of others do not cooperate well with God, but rather those who know how to recognize the good that grows silently in the field of the Church and of history, cultivating it until maturity. And then it will be God, and only He, to reward the good and punish the wicked. May the Virgin Mary help us understand and imitate the patience of God, who wants no one to lose himself of his children, whom he loves with the love of the Father.

[00894-IT.02] [Original text: Italian]
Taken from the Vatican News – The Pope’s words to the Angelus recitation, 19.07.2020

At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the study window in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In this Sunday’s Gospel (cf Mt 13 : 1-23) Jesus tells a large crowd of the parable – which we all know well – of the sower, who throws the seed on four different types of soil. The Word of God, symbolized by the seeds, is not an abstract Word, but it is Christ himself, the Word of the Father who incarnated in Mary’s womb. Therefore, welcoming the Word of God means welcoming the person of Christ, the same Christ.

There are different ways of receiving the Word of God. We can do it as a road, where birds immediately come and eat seeds. This would be distraction, a great danger of our time. Harassed by so much chatter, by so many ideologies, by the continuous possibilities of being distracted inside and outside the home, you can lose the taste of silence, of recollection, of dialogue with the Lord, so much so as to risk losing the faith, of not accepting the Word of God. We are seeing everything, distracted by everything, by worldly things.

Another possibility: we can welcome the Word of God as a stony ground, with little land. There the seed sprouts early, but soon it also dries up, because it cannot take root deeply. It is the image of those who welcome the Word of God with the momentary enthusiasm which, however, remains superficial, does not assimilate the Word of God. And so, in the face of the first difficulty, we think of a suffering, a disturbance of life, that faith still weak it dissolves, as the seed that falls in the middle of the stones dries up.

We can, again – a third possibility of which Jesus speaks in the parable -, accept the Word of God as a ground where thorn bushes grow. And the thorns are the deception of wealth, success, worldly concerns … There the Word grows a little, but it remains suffocated, it is not strong, it dies or it does not bear fruit.

Finally – the fourth possibility – we can welcome it as the good ground. Here, and only here, the seed takes root and bears fruit. The seed fallen on this fertile ground represents those who listen to the Word, welcome it, keep it in their hearts and put it into practice in everyday life.

This of the sower is a bit the “mother” of all parables, because she speaks of listening to the Word. It reminds us that it is a fruitful and effective seed; and God scatters it everywhere with generosity, regardless of waste. So is the heart of God! Each of us is a ground on which the seed of the Word falls, nobody is excluded. The Word is given to each of us. We can ask ourselves: what kind of terrain are they? Do I look like the road, the stony ground, the bush? If we want, with the grace of God we can become good soil, tilled and cultivated with care, to mature the seed of the Word. It is already present in our heart, but making it bear fruit depends on us, it depends on the welcome we reserve for this seed. We are often distracted by too many interests, by too many references, and it is difficult to distinguish, among many voices and many words, that of the Lord, the only one who sets us free. This is why it is important to get used to listening to the Word of God, to reading it. And I come back, once more, on that advice: always carry with you a small Gospel, a pocket edition of the Gospel, in your pocket, in your bag … And so, read a piece every day, so that you are used to reading the Word of God, and understand what the seed God offers you, and think with which land I receive it.

May the Virgin Mary, the perfect model of a good and fertile land, help us, with her prayer, to become available land without thorns or stones, so that we can bear good fruit for us and for our brothers.

[00883-IT.02] [Original text: Italian]
Taken from the Vatican News – Vatican New

At midday today the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.

The following is the Pope’s introduction to the Marian prayer:

Before the Angelus

Dear brothers and sisters, good day!

This Sunday’s Gospel reading (see Mt 11:25-30) is divided into three parts: first of all, Jesus raises a prayer of blessing and thanksgiving to the Father, because He revealed to the poor and to the simple the mystery of the Kingdom of heaven; then He reveals the intimate and unique relationship between Himself and the Father; and finally He invites us to go to Him and to follow Him to find solace.

In the first place, Jesus praises the Father, because He has kept the secrets of His Kingdom, of His truth, hidden from “from the wise and the learned” (v. 25). He calls them so with a veil of irony, because they presume to be wise, learned, and therefore have a closed heart, very often. True wisdom comes also from the heart, it is not only a matter of understanding ideas: true wisdom also enters into the heart. And if you know many things but have a closed heart, you are not wise. Jesus says that the mysteries of His Father are revealed to the “little ones”, to those who confidently open themselves to His Word of salvation, who open their heart to the Word of salvation, who feel the need for Him and expect everything from Him. The heart that is open and trustful towards the Lord.

Then, Jesus explains that He has received everything from the Father, and He calls Him “my Father”, to affirm the unique nature of His relationship with Him. Indeed, there is total reciprocity only between the Son and the Father: each one knows the other, each one lives in the other. But this unique communion is like a flower that unfurls, to reveal freely its beauty and its goodness. And here, then, is Jesus’s invitation: “Come to me…” (v. 28). He wishes to give what He receives from the Father. He wants to give us the Truth, and Jesus’ Truth is always free: it is a gift, it is the Holy Spirit, the Truth.

Just as the Father has a preference for the “little ones”, Jesus also addresses those “who labour and are burdened”. Indeed, He places Himself among them, because He is “meek and humble of heart” (v. 29): this is how He describes Himself. It is the same in the first and third Beatitudes, that of the humble and poor in spirit, and that of the meek (see Mt 5:35): the meekness of Jesus. In this way Jesus, “meek and humble”, is not a model for the resigned, nor is He simply a victim, but rather He is the Man Who lives this condition “from the heart” in full transparency to the love of the Father, that is, to the Holy Spirit. He is the model of the “poor in spirit” and of all the other “blesseds” of the Gospel, who do the will of God and bear witness to His Kingdom.

And then, Jesus says that if we go to Him, we will find refreshment. The “refreshment” that Christ offers to the weary and oppressed is not merely psychological solace or a lavish handout, but the joy of the poor who are evangelised and are builders of the new humanity: this is solace. Joy. The joy that Jesus gives us. It is unique. It is the joy that He Himself has. It is a message for all of us, for all people of good will, which Jesus still conveys today in the world that exalts those who become rich and powerful … But how many times do we say, “Ah, I would like to be like him, like her, who are rich, have a lot of power, lack nothing…”. The world exalts those who are rich and powerful, no matter by what means, and at times tramples upon the human being and his or her dignity. And we see this every day, the poor who are trampled underfoot… And it is a message for the Church, called to live works of mercy and to evangelise the poor, to be meek and humble. This is how the Lord wants His Church, that is, us, to be.

May Mary, the humblest and highest of creatures, implore from God wisdom of the heart for us – the wisdom of the heart – that we may discern its signs in our lives and be sharers in those mysteries which, hidden from the proud, are revealed to the humble.

Taken from the website of Vatican News, Bullettiono – The Pope’s words at the Angelus prayer, 05.07.2020