Inspired and Guided by the Great St. Michael
Catholic Charities and ShareLife: Working & Serving Together
Since 1976, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto (CCAT) and ShareLife have been working together to help care for some of the most vulnerable people living in the Archdiocese of Toronto.
Although Catholics throughout the archdiocese will be familiar with both names, many may not know that ShareLife’s primary purpose is fundraising, while Catholic Charities’ duties involves oversight of the agencies receiving those funds, as well as the distribution of those funds, in consultation with ShareLife, based on needs-based assessments. With an ongoing relationship between CCAT and our 20 member agencies, Catholic Charities also attends to administrative details, such as facilitating the sharing of services between agencies and arranging regular meetings of agencies’ executive directors, and CCAT takes on an advocacy role, voicing concerns on our members’ behalf about challenging social issues, and support for solutions to improve lives.
When Catholic Charities was established in 1913, Archbishop Neil McNeil appointed Fr. Patrick Bench superintendent of the umbrella organization, designed to oversee the affairs of existing Catholic charities in the city. Fr. Bench was given a small office on Church St., but no budget, as the agencies under the new organization already were raising their own funds.
As time passed, Fr. Bench recognized that while existing agencies were doing a good job, there were still needs to be met, and so Catholic Charities’ work expanded. In 1919 Catholic Charities joined the Federation of Community Service, which was established to pool funding for a network of agencies, regardless of religious affiliation, and the results gave various Catholic charities a strong financial boost.
This relationship was short-lived, however, as in 1927 the federation determined that Catholic agencies would receive no funding in the following year. Some cited an anti-Catholic bias, while others suggested the decision reflected the fact that Catholic Charities, caring for a significantly larger community of new arrivals to the city, received a greater share of funding than other agencies.
Archbishop McNeil responded quickly, launching the Federation of Catholic Charities, reorganizing the existing agencies to include a fundraising wing, and in three short weeks, raised $178,000, a stunning foreshadowing of what was to come.
During the war years, Catholic Charities joined the United Community Fund, the precursor to the United Way. It was a smart move, because the fund’s size and stability allowed CCAT to expand services, improve facilities and offer better pay.
In 1976, Catholic Charities faced a crisis of funding as it withdrew from the United Way. How can the Church continue to sustain its good works? This time, the answer was to create a fundraising appeal: ShareLife. True to its mission, ShareLife has been alongside CCAT to ensure that the most vulnerable people living in the Archdiocese of Toronto have been provided the support they need, and we continue to respond with Gospel hope.
Today, ShareLife is a familiar name in Catholic parishes throughout the archdiocese, with speakers from various member agencies of Catholic Charities often addressing parishes during the annual spring campaign. What people may not realize is that most of Catholic Charities’ funding comes from ShareLife, which also raises funds for St. Augustine’s Seminary, as well as other Catholic operations.
CCAT staff and board members are in constant communication with the staff at ShareLife, informing them of member agency needs, and drawing up budgets to ensure funds raised and available to Catholic Charities are used in the most productive manner, assisting as many people as possible. We appreciate ShareLife’s strong stewardship and financial acumen and, given the challenges of tough times such as the pandemic, its commitment to its mission.
We remain deeply grateful for ShareLife’s annual campaign, which reaches out to parishioners and parishes, Catholic schools and businesses for support, offering a straightforward way for the people of this archdiocese to help their neighbour, ensuring funds are handled – and delivered – in a manner than ensures trust and a confidence that our neighbours are truly cared for.
Catholic Charities has been creative and resilient in the face of the challenges – and opportunities we have faced over the past 110 years. Now, with ShareLife standing alongside us, we know we can continue to serve the people of this archdiocese in faith, hope, and charity.
The Model of St. Vincent de Paul
September 27 is a day of celebration at Catholic Charities for two key reasons: the day marks the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, an ongoing inspiration for all of us, and it is also the anniversary of our founding in 1913.
It is no surprise that St. Vincent de Paul is the patron of Catholic Charities, as his tireless efforts to respond to poverty are remarkable. He also worked with prisoners and created seminary education to ensure that priests had proper education to help them minister effectively. The saint co-founded the Vincentian order, as well as the Daughters of Charity. It is said that when he died, all of Paris mourned. His name remains in the public eye in part because of the work of the chapters of St. Vincent de Paul Society volunteers in parishes.
Today, learning from the model of St. Vincent de Paul, the 20 member agencies of Catholic Charities serve five key constituencies in our community: children and youth; young parents; people with disabilities; seniors; and community and family services. A cynic might say that not everyone on the above list is experiencing poverty but such a literal interpretation would indeed be short-sighted, for poverty is not just about one’s bank balance but about the absences in lives that create barriers to living the most productive, rewarding life possible.
That poverty could take the shape of loneliness, for example, and our member agencies are a place to find a friendly face and, often, activities that provide social interaction. Society of Sharing, for example, sends volunteers out to visit isolated, housebound seniors, brightening their day and reducing social isolation.
That poverty could also be a lack of knowledge to help confront new situations. Agencies such as Rose of Durham working with young parents, offering workshops and information to support marginalized young moms and dads, allowing them to flourish in their new roles.
Catholic Crosscultural Services responds to the needs of newcomers, who arrive in the Greater Toronto Area often facing a lack of any – or all of – housing, employment, language skills or connections. CCS offers settlement services, allowing newcomers the ability to imagine that one day their new home really will feel like home.
If we are being honest, some form of poverty touches all of us at some point in our lives, whether it is spiritual, emotional or practical. Agency staff and volunteers are keenly aware that each person they interact with may be carrying a burden at that moment, whether seen or unseen. That knowledge creates compassion and community, because it is a powerful reminder that we live not in isolation but in community, and that we are called to serve one another.
While he was born more than five centuries ago, there are many quotations attributed to St. Vincent de Paul that are remarkably timely and timeless.
“If God is the centre of our life, no words are necessary,” he is believed to have said. “Your mere presence will touch hearts.”
This truth should serve to comfort those who feel they have not done enough to answer the endless needs of modern life. Being present to other people is an invaluable gift, one our staff and volunteers know intuitively.
He is also believed to have said “Charity is the cement which binds communities to God and persons to one another.” Simple but powerful. And absolutely true, whatever form that charity takes. Sometimes it is a donation, and other times the willingness to be present and listen.
St. Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
Let’s do our best beginning right now…to give ourselves to God in everything always, and everywhere, in order to be hungry and thirsty for this justice.
~ St. Vincent de Paul (CCD XII:137)
The Transformative Work of Volunteers
There are many phrases that acknowledge the value of people working together for the common good. “It takes a village to raise a child,” the old saying says, for example, or “Many hands make light work.”
The staff at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto (CCAT)–as well as the CCAT member agencies– know well how important the advice, wise counsel, and, sometimes, the extra set of hands, of volunteers can be. For us, volunteers are part of the Catholic Charities family, always willing to help and serve as needed, and for that, we are truly grateful.
When thinking of volunteers, the first who come to mind are our board of directors. The people who serve as directors are an invaluable sounding board and add an additional level of scrutiny to all that we do, helping us to ensure we are doing the best to serve vulnerable communities while reflecting sound stewardship. Members, who are recommended by a Nominating or Governance Committee and then approved by the Board, play a key role in the life of Catholic Charities and member agencies. This group of volunteers offers highly expensive, otherwise not-so-affordable services for nonprofits, pro-bono work that runs into so many hours which allows Catholic Charities and the member agencies to enhance the work and stretch our limited resources. The advice, the expertise, the insights, and the practical suggestions offered by board members help CCAT and agencies ensure the best outcomes in decisions relating to the quality of service delivery to program users. They lend a rich and diverse set of backgrounds to the work that we do — lawyers, accountants, human resources professionals, social workers, teachers, and any number of other careers that can inform the vital decisions made around the boardroom table.
But our vast community of volunteers are also selected because of other items on their resumes, including such gifts as a theological education or volunteer experience, as the decisions and steps Catholic Charities and member agencies take in any given year are informed not only by dollars and cents but also by Catholic Social Teaching, and a hands-on knowledge of how the Church lives out its faith in practical ways.
For agencies that are tight for resources, these volunteers who are people with outstanding goodwill for the greater good of our community, make the work possible and provide opportunities to scale up an agency’s reach, scope, and impact. These volunteers allow agencies to increase their capacity to offer services to more people and increase the quality of services they provide.
When volunteers get closer to the work that takes place in agencies and learn of the challenges their communities face, whether we are talking about teen moms, or people new to Canada, or lonely seniors, we share the experience – and the privilege – of seeing the vulnerability in others. That vulnerability resides in all of us in various ways, and it links us directly to Christ. The staff and volunteers who learn to recognize that vulnerability in others take that knowledge with us, their lives changed.
There is a true bond that forms when you’re a volunteer embraced by the Catholic Charities family. Recently, Marion Barszczyk, a beloved former Catholic Charities employee, passed away. After her former colleagues were informed, those volunteers who had worked closely with Marion were told of her death. As the message we received said, “I know how close you were with Marion.”
Absolutely true —and a sign that volunteers are respected, valued, and appreciated—just as they appreciate the opportunity to serve.
As we celebrate Catholic Charities Week, we also celebrate our volunteers. We are profoundly grateful for the help they lend to our work, and we are delighted to be able to offer the opportunity to serve because often, our volunteers say they’ve received more than they’ve given.
For us, volunteering is a win-win scenario. Thank you!
A Story of Humble Beginnings
A full decade has passed since Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto (CCAT) marked our 100th anniversary in 2013. On the occasion of our 100th anniversary, we updated the CCAT history that had been drafted for our 75th anniversary in 1988 and were not surprised to find that much had changed or expanded, because Catholic Charities has always been able not only to respond to needs, but also to anticipate where and when our most vulnerable community members will need help. It’s why we not only work with our 20 member agencies but also advocate for them as well.
In the 10 years that have passed since our centenary, much has changed again in the life of our community, from the presentation of significant challenges such as the upheaval created by the COVID pandemic and the increasing awareness of a mental health crisis to more welcome developments such as the arrival of a new Executive Director with the experience and vision to continue to guide CCAT with confidence, always mindful of our mandate to serve society’s most vulnerable.
Challenges and change have been constants in the life of Catholic Charities since we first opened our doors. Yet as we mark our 110th anniversary on September 27, the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, our goal remains the same: to facilitate the provision of social services, leadership and advocacy for its member agencies and the people they serve, all rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, which focuses on the poor and marginalized, and urges all of us to build a just society and safeguard human dignity. We are proud to say that Catholic Charities and our member agencies don’t just respond to immediate issues but take stock of where we are as a society and constantly work to better the lives of all, but especially those on the margins.
To mark Catholic Charities Week, which runs from September 25 through September 29, we are taking you back to our history, a story that has humble beginnings but is marked not only with a dogged resilience but also with great success. Did you know, for example, that Catholic Charities played a role in the legislation that led to the creation of OHIP?
Many of the lessons learned over the first hundred years have helped immeasurably in the past decade. A careful eye to efficiencies, collaboration, and sharing resources, for example, allowed our member agencies to weather the worst of the COVID pandemic.
And while the world slowed down during COVID, needs did not. One of the projects we helped to fund was Journey Home Hospice, a new palliative care facility for homeless people in downtown Toronto, the first of its kind.
In the fall of 2022, long-standing Executive Director Michael Fullan announced his retirement from Catholic Charities after a career spanning 29 years, with his first day on the job having fallen, appropriately enough, on the feast of St. Vincent de Paul. An exhaustive search took place for his replacement, and Catholic Charities was delighted to offer Dr. Agnes Thomas the role of Executive Director. Dr. Thomas assumed the role earlier this year.
“My strong suit is to be a servant, helping others to succeed,” she says of herself. “ I think of leadership as creating impact and influence, bringing people together in a spirit of synergy and collaboration and helping them to reach their potential. If your people are good, your community will be great. I am appreciative that we are not working for people but with people.”
When we marked our 100th anniversary 10 years ago, we created a tagline line reading, “100 years of caring.” While much has changed in the intervening decade, our commitment to serving – an advocating for – society’s most vulnerable, remains unchanged.
Here is a link to the story of our first hundred years. 100th-Anniversary-of-Catholic-Charities.pdf It is a story of history and hope, of faith and fruitfulness. It is also a story that stretches far beyond our modest offices in downtown Toronto to the far reaches of our populous archdiocese. It’s not our story but the story of our church and our community.
This week, we are celebrating the foundations of goodness and hope that have led us for over 100 years and moving forward with planting the seeds of Hope in the face of adversity and hopelessness.
Enjoy!
Celebrating World Youth Day 2023
I can still recall waving to the skies as the helicopter carrying Pope John Paul II flew over my neighbourhood, with the Pope heading to Lake Simcoe for a brief rest amid the World Youth Day activities taking place in Toronto in 2002.
I hadn’t known much about World Youth until it came to Toronto, but I was quickly caught up in the excitement, becoming a big fan. Rarely had I seen my hometown feel quite so nice. There was a very gentle vibe in the city, with both citizens and guests extra patient and polite as we let our collective guard down and chatted with strangers in a friendly, upbeat way. The days-long event was prime-time TV. I heard many non-Catholics, including my husband, express surprise at what a beautiful event was taking place around us, and I suspect it changed more than a few hearts and minds about the Catholic Church.
Toronto has changed greatly in the 21 years since World Youth Day took place here. So has the world. We are a much more cynical, sometimes sour bunch, fueled both by legitimate challenges such as COVID and worries about the economy and the health of the planet but also by the nasty comments and conspiracy theories you can read posted on social media, often written by people hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet.
And this is why World Youth Day matters more than ever. Having had a child participate in Toronto’s event, I know the benefits for the whole family because WYD is based on encounters. In this cynical world, it is great for teens and young adults to meet others who share their faith. What results is a joyful experience that can carry them forward in their daily lives.
When I look at pictures from Portugal of the most recent gathering earlier this month, the participants seemed to be enthusiastic and engaged, including in receiving both Communion and Reconciliation. Yet when I look at social media, I find an ongoing torrent of negative comments, including calls for this tradition of almost 40 years to be cancelled.
And that prompts one question: Why? I have seen everything from criticisms about how participants were dressed, even though August is the warmest month in Portugal, to a priest who served as a DJ being criticized as inappropriate, even though he was providing entertainment for young people engaged in a days-long event. This mother thinks the kids deserved some fun time, too. Perhaps one of the most controversial issues this WYD was time dedicated to interreligious dialogue. Those of us in the greater Toronto area know we live in one of the most diverse locations in the world. If we truly are to love our neighbour, learning a little bit about other religions and religious rituals can only help that goal. And one of the most powerful ways to reflect on one’s faith is to see it in light of other traditions. It helps us understand why we do what we do, why we believe what we believe.
I wonder whether some of the armchair critics actually spoke with participants to learn more about what they did while in Portugal and what they have learned. Participation in World Youth Day is sometimes mistakenly seen as a frivolous vacation, but it is anything but. It can mean sleeping on floors, joining long lines to use the washroom, and sometimes – as happened to thousands of pilgrims in Toronto – waiting in the pouring rain. I can still see my son’s sodden sleeping bag left out on our back deck to dry after a rainy wait for Mass. It took ages!
There is fundraising involved to travel to WYD, and participants are giving up key summer job hours to take part. World Youth Day isn’t a frivolous vacation but a chance for those fortunate enough to attend to test-drive their faith in an adult way, leaving home and family behind for a few days and travelling to another place, often very far away, to engage in their faith, to celebrate as a community and, heaven forbid, to have a little bit of fun.
To me, World Youth Day 2023 was a success. Our temptation these days to politicize everything is unfortunate because, to this viewer, WYD was a joyful and fruitful celebration, reminding us that the Church has a strong future in those who participated. How do we take issue with that?
We are Easter People
What does it mean to be Easter people? Christians are encouraged to be –are, in fact, called to be – Easter people. There are many profound theological explanations for what the term implies, all tied to the miracle of the empty tomb on Easter morning. But, at its most essential, to be an Easter person is to be a person of hope.
Often, the simplest things can bring us hope –– the sight of a crocus poking through the snow after a long and trying winter, for example. But we also place our hopes in far more serious matters, like trusting in the ability of our various levels of government and the will of society to care for all people, including our most vulnerable neighbours. We want – we need – to know that things can be better.
Canadians have been through long and trying times in recent years, with the stress of the pandemic, financial turmoil, random violence, and great rifts exposed in our political and cultural fabric. Many people appear stressed, short-tempered and overwhelmed, and often those feelings flow over into interactions with other people.
But as Easter people, we don’t stand on the sidelines as the world goes by. Instead, hope calls us to help and to engage. Easter people participate, raising our voices to express our hope that we can do better, whether it’s by engaging in the electoral process, or volunteering to help our neighbours, sharing our blessings, or remembering people in our prayers. That hope rests not in individuals and isolation but in community and engagement.
Hope is the great inspiration for Catholic Charities and our 21 member agencies. Every day we hear moving stories of change and positive growth, whether it’s that of a family learning sign language to communicate with a deaf child or a migrant family being offered a place to stay; a teen mother approaching her delivery date being given essentials to care for her baby, or a person fighting addiction finding the supports needed to begin the journey to sobriety.
Our faith rests in the great hope of the Resurrection, which holds out the promise of forgiveness of our sins. That good news is a powerful motivator to reach out to others to help.
It is that knowledge that moves our agencies to contribute to the common good for all people. We know that even in the darkest hours we can help our neighbours improve their situation, finding comfort, peace – and hope.
As we celebrate Easter, we are mindful that Muslims are marking Ramadan and Jews, Passover. We offer our sincere good wishes to all our neighbours and remain committed to our call to serve all people, in great hope, regardless of background or faith tradition– because we are Easter people.
Being Easter People in the Season of Lent
If you feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders these days, you are probably not alone!
For Catholics, the 40 days of Lent form a somber period, a time of fasting, penance and almsgiving as we journey with Christ toward the cross. Our tradition holds that celebrations like weddings normally be put off until after Easter, and the alleluias usually heard in Mass disappear during the Lenten season. You won’t see the altar decked with flowers for weeks to come yet.
This year, though, Lent seems particularly weighty. While we have largely emerged from the strictures imposed by COVID regulations, the world around us can seem particularly grim. Each day brings worries about sky-high rents and grocery prices, with concerns increasing over seemingly random neighbourhood violence or the systematic violence of the ongoing war in Ukraine. We worry about finding help for our struggles in what can feel like an increasingly confusing and lonely world. Even social media, originally designed to build community and keep us informed and entertained, often feels like a nasty, nasty place.
But we have just celebrated Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent, in which we pause to remember that the somber and the sorrowful are not the end. In a church imbued with sensory symbolism, the priests donned not in the penitential purple vestments of the season but in the rose of hope. Many churches opt to decorate the altar with flowers on this Sunday and asked the organist and other church musicians to turn to a lighter approach. It all served to remind us that hope is more powerful than sorrow.
Laetare Sunday doesn’t mean the end to the penitential tone of the season, but it serves as a signpost, reminding us of the road ahead. Ahead lies Holy Week, with the Passion calling us into the suffering and death of Christ, yet we remain mindful that the resurrection overcomes that suffering, offering new hope to all people.
It is in that spirit that the member agencies of Catholic Charities operate. Daily, staff and volunteers are mindful of the struggles and challenges people throughout the Greater Toronto Area experience, whether working with teen mothers, or isolated seniors, people with mental and physical disabilities or migrants seeking a new home.
We recognize those challenges, even if we cannot know ourselves exactly what families and individuals are feeling and experiencing. The call of Catholic Charities’ agencies is to point to the hope that is at the heart of the cross, serving people in practical ways in the spirit of Catholic Social Teaching, which encourages us to model what Christ taught us about loving our neighbour. If we can help with the hardships that the people in our community face, recognizing the dignity in each and every person – and that includes all people, regardless of faith tradition and backgrounds – we can bring not only help but also hope to people, improving their lives. Out of suffering and challenges can come change and good news.
Catholics (and by extension, Catholic agencies serving others) are called to be Easter people, with attitudes and motivations shaped by the empty tomb of Easter Sunday. Lent helps remind us of that call, helping us not to take our good fortune for granted but to embrace it, reaching out in turn to share that good fortune – and the good news.
This coming Sunday, March 26, marks the first of three Sunday collections for ShareLife’s 2023 parish fundraising campaign. The vast majority of Catholic Charities’ funding, which supports all 27 member agencies, comings from these collections. By supporting ShareLife you are helping to offer life-giving, life-affirming assistance to your neighbours. We encourage you to participate.
The Pairing of Single-sport Betting with Sports Heroes Creates Problems
The intentions were good. In legalizing single-sport betting in 2021, the federal government was responding to Canadians gambling billions illegally on individual events each year. Moving the process of betting on things like the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup out of the shadows – and often the hands of organized crime – was designed to offer a safe and regulated environment, cutting off a rich resource for criminals while keeping gamblers safer.
Today, however, many are observing that the roll-out of safe betting comes, ironically, with its own risks. Some days it seems that advertising for sports betting is everywhere, whether it’s billboards on main thoroughfares, or pop-up ads while online or the frequent ads during professional sports broadcasts. A simple Internet search indicates a wealth of choices should one want to place a bet, making it incredibly easy to take a risk. As we are seeing in Ontario, the first province to legalize sports betting, this is rapidly becoming big, big business, clearly placed in public view, complete with apps to make the betting process easier.
One of the most troubling aspects of the arrival of legalized sports betting is the endorsements of some of the biggest name in professional sports in Canada, with a multi-generational approach. Wayne Gretzky, hockey superstar of the 1980s and 1990s, beams down from billboards, while Auston Matthews, currently a star with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has added his endorsement to the same company.
These are men who are revered by countless fans, and no doubt their endorsements carry weight. It’s important to ask, therefore, about the impact such ads have on people vulnerable to a gambling addiction, or to impressionable teenagers watching sports programming at home with their families.
Anyone who becomes a big name in sports cannot help but know the influence he or she will have on a fan base. To think that an activity that carries inherent risk is now being endorsed by people placed on pedestals by millions is alarming.
Many people can buy the odd lottery ticket occasionally and that’s it in terms of taking a chance with money, but for far too many people, gambling can become an addiction that affects finances, relationships, careers and mental health. For those who are vulnerable, gambling can become a vicious circle that simply builds upon itself, increasing debt and worry while chasing after a sure thing. Betting is a very different game than hockey or basketball.
Attempting to wrest the betting industry out of the hands of criminals is a wise move, especially as it’s a move that will help protect participants. But if various levels of government are serious about legalizing the industry, they must also consider the impact of the advertising and endorsements.
We have come to understand not only the health risks of smoking, but also the temptations posed by having products out in the open, which normalizes them. Cigarette advertising is long a thing of the past, cigarettes are no longer sold in drug stores and are kept behind screens in convenience stores, and you cannot smoke a cigarette without first being confronted by the cautionary warnings on packaging.
In contrast, the beaming face of a sports star helps to glamourize betting, and the happy demeanor of big-name figures offering endorsements ignore the very real problem sports can create. It remains puzzling that an activity that is a risk to so many people is being brought into their homes via television and the internet.
An important step as governments wrestle with the reality of sports betting would be to place restrictions on advertising and seek the advice of addiction experts on how to help minimize the impact gambling has on families and individuals. Here’s hoping these are the next step taken in what should be ongoing scrutiny to protect individuals and families for an activity that can become a demon.
Homeless Crisis Demands Our Immediate Attention
