Ten years ago, on Jan. 25, 2009, Bishop Luc Bouchard, then bishop of St. Paul, Alta., issued one of the most courageous and most ignored pastoral letters in Canadian Church history. “The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands” did create a brief firestorm before dropping out of the public eye. On the 10th anniversary, nary a mention was made of the letter.

Even before Pope Francis called on bishops from around the globe to meet for a Vatican sex abuse summit, a Toronto priest was travelling to parishes to talk about the origins of and solutions to clergy abuse of minors.

Long ago, a childhood friend and I were walking across an old wooden bridge in the small town where we lived when a car stopped to offer us a ride. The local priest was at the wheel.

It is déjà vu all over again for Canadian bishops who travelled to Rome for the Vatican’s meeting on the protection of minors in the Church.

As the saying goes, no news is good news.

It was a dramatic scene at Queen’s Park on Jan. 31: NDP Leader Andrea Horwath waving a copy of The Health System Efficiency Act 2019, a leaked bill that would see the Ontario government create a “super agency” to manage the province’s health care system.

Fluffy snow covered the sidewalk when I opened the garage door to leave for work. 

The much-anticipated Vatican summit on clerical sexual abuse of minors is still days away but perhaps the strongest declaration to be expected from this unprecedented gathering of bishops has already been made.

Winter was settling in and it was a blustery, cold evening as I walked around the streets with Tracey, a survivor of the street who for 14 drug-addled years had called the alleys and drug dens of the downtown area “home.” 

I am writing this for all who suffer and for those of your family members and friends who suffer with you. In particular, I am writing this for those who, like myself, realize that their suffering may not end soon, or ever end.