Hope and healing: At last year’s Christmas program, Kateri participants sing carols after the Christmas dinner.
The call came unexpectedly as Kateri House mission team members Pat Grisé and Waltera Van Genie drove to visit a family in the
The family—grandmother, mother and children—had driven an hour to reach Kateri House. The grandmother, as Pat and Waltera discovered, had cared for the children while her daughter lived on city streets, until, like the prodigal son, she wanted to go home. “All these years,” Waltera says, “she had carried her mother’s house key.”
Once re-united, the family journeyed to Kateri House, where Waltera says, they “renewed their faith as a family.”
Since 1983, Kateri House has provided pastoral care, poverty relief and justice related ministry in the Prince Albert area—primarily among First Nations people who make up40 per cent of the city’s 41,000residents. At least 1,000 families look to Kateri House for social support and spiritual services, such as sacramental preparation, catechetical formation, celebration of lay-led First Nations worship services when no priest is available, and counselling support for men and women in conflict with the law.
Poverty alleviation is also key to Kateri House. The ministry provides emergency food to needy families and this Christmas, as in the past, Kateri House staff are active in
“In both Church and social terms,” Pat adds, “we are often the ones people turn to as a last resort.” Many who come to
“We see our mission as one of hope and healing,” says Waltera. Catholic Missions In Canada donors provide funding to make that hope and healing possible—at Christmas and throughout the year.
Anne Hanley is publications and communications officer at Catholic Missions In
