Catholic Mission In Canada

Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., newly-installed Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton, spoke about the welcoming generosity and humility of the Innu people he served in Newfoundland and Labrador at a gathering of donors to Catholic Missions In Canada November 24.

The past Bishop of Corner Brook and Labrador recounted how he felt welcomed and nurtured by the Innu  served by missionaries in communities 300 kilometres north of the Oblate Centre in Goose Bay. “I don't know if big city parishes would have been as warm and as open.”

The building of the church at St. Anne's parish in Natuashish was funded by the Innu Band Council with help from Catholic Missions In Canada.

The Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador extends over a 50,258-sq km area in western Newfoundland and Labrador. Over 126,000 people live in the diocese—35,140 of whom are Catholic.

Donors' support, said Bishop Crosby, has allowed priests to travel to the diocese's outlying mission posts as well as helped defray the operating costs of its mission ministries, repairs to aging mission churches, sacramental preparation and programs for the religious education of children and lay formation for adults.

This year, Catholic Missions In Canada is providing financial aid to the diocese in the form of grants totalling close to $600,000.

(Patria Rivera is editor of Catholic Missions In Canada magazine.)

(To  view videos of Oblate Bishop Douglas Crosby of Hamilton, visit Catholic Missions In Canada's TV Channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/missioncanada)