In solidarity with the world beyond Toronto

Life has no borders. Love has no borders. The Church Universal knows only life and love. ShareLife has these truths embedded in its DNA.

Through the 50 years since that first collection in 1976, ShareLife has never been just a local charity. Archbishop Phillip Pocock designated one-third of the initial ShareLife target of $1.2 million for what was then known as the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. As it turned out, that first collection hit 215 per cent of its goal and raised $2.82 million, turning over nearly $847,000 to Development and Peace. That would be $4.6 million in 2026 dollars.

Fifty years on, Development and Peace-Caritas Canada director of public engagement Luke Stocking has no trouble understanding the depth of Pocock’s commitment to Canada’s official Catholic agency for international aid and development.

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“He understood the importance of the wider Church in Canada’s commitment through Development and Peace to international solidarity,” Stocking said. “He believed in the importance of continuing that solidarity and the Archdiocese of Toronto being part of it.”

Development and Peace was less than 10 years old when ShareLife sent volunteers out knocking on their neighbours’ doors. The idea that Toronto Catholics could and should do something beyond Canada’s borders while the world around us was deeply divided by the Cold War captivated the original ShareLife donors.

It still does, said Yvonne Hoogeveen, a parishioner at St. Patrick’s in Markham, Ont. 

“We can make a difference in other people’s lives, and I think that’s fundamental to being Catholic,” she said. “It’s not a solo journey that we’re on, you know? We’re here to be a community and to share in community. ShareLife is a means to do that.”

Hoogeveen is the diocesan chair of the Development and Peace council of the Archdiocese of Toronto. She’s a regular donor to both ShareLife and Development and Peace.

At the annual ShareLife Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral on Aug. 22, Cardinal Frank Leo, Archbishop of Toronto, had his own take on the universal mission of ShareLife.

“ShareLife is more than just a collection taken up,” he said. “It’s how we strengthen and spread the kingdom of God. It is a manner of being. It is a way of reaching out. We’re called to build, strengthen and spread the kingdom. ShareLife has been doing that. It has called us forward to be those wonderful agents of transformation in the lives of many people over many, many years. Share life, that’s what we do.”

Hoogeveen doesn’t see the logic of prioritizing the local over the international reflected in the Gospel.

“Jesus didn’t say, ‘I’m only going to help this one person because he’s my neighbour.’ He went out and spread the good news. It’s not just to stay within our community, our city. It is to be spread… The poor person on the street in Toronto is not the only person that needs help.”

Development and Peace often hears the argument that local needs should come first, said Stocking. But he calls this a false choice.

“It’s not possible to do both? Like, where does that come from — the idea we can’t do both things?” he asks. “Even a drop of solidarity with those who live thousands of miles away costs so little.”

Stocking argues that people can only begin to think of a choice between the poor in Toronto and the poor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, once they’ve reduced the poor to an abstract concept.

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“When the poor are nothing more than an abstract idea to you, whether local or global, it’s easy to say, ‘Well, between these two ideas…’ But once you encounter human beings in far parts of the world who are suffering — if you have an encounter with someone on the street in your own neighbourhood or you have an encounter with somebody in a country 1,000 miles away — it’s a human encounter, an equally human encounter. And you cannot help but be moved by those encounters and want to do something.”

This isn’t something new, said Stocking.

“The bishops themselves, when they founded Development and Peace, they had an encounter with their brother bishops at Vatican II, where the scandal of glaring inequalities became incredibly apparent to them. They had to do something.”

In 2025 5.7 per cent of ShareLife allocations went to internationally-focused agencies — Development and Peace, the Pastoral Mission Fund, Mary’s Meals and Canadian Food For Children. The number of local agencies and organizations served by ShareLife has similarly grown.

The Pastoral Mission Fund, established in 1982, supports the kind of missionary projects that directly buttress the Church in poor countries — seminaries, catechist training and Church-based development projects. 

Mary’s Meals used to be known as Scottish International Relief. But since it was established during the Bosnian War of 1992, Mary’s Meals has grown to encompass more and more countries. With just $31.70 Mary’s Meals can feed a child at school for a year.

Dr. Andrew Simone and his wife Joan founded Canadian Food For Children in 1981 with the express blessing and encouragement of the since sainted Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It ships food and other material aid to about 12 countries, all based on word-of-mouth referrals and personal relationships.

Simone, an 88-year-old dermatologist still in active practice in Toronto’s west end, rejects the establishment development and aid model of seeking justice by addressing the root causes of poverty. United Nations agencies and the Caritas Internationalis network do not interest him.

“Jesus said, He said, ‘I don’t necessarily want them to be rich.’ He said, ‘The poor will always be with you,’ ” Simone said. 

He prefers direct service and traditional charity. His family-run, private charity answers to no government program or international agenda. It ships containers of food, shoes, clothing and hygiene essentials from a warehouse in Mississauga to people Simone has met in person.

Simone is also a donor to ShareLife. He is a great admirer of Archbishop Pocock’s vision for a separate, Catholic charity.

Development and Peace believes the poor deserve justice as much as they deserve food in their bellies. That means figuring out why people are poor and addressing the problem.

In recent years, Development and Peace has renamed itself to highlight its place as Canada’s contribution to the global Caritas network — the second largest humanitarian aid and development organization in the world, after the Red Cross. The new name has helped Development and Peace be more easily recognized by the new Canadians who make up a growing, essential part of the Church in Toronto, Stocking said.

Going back to its roots, the Development and Peace movement and its more than 10,000 Canadian members has restated its core vision.

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“The vision is of one, human family, living on a healthy planet in dignity, solidarity, justice and peace,” said Stocking. “Development and Peace is for me a sign of unity of the Church in Canada — this amazing sign of the unity of the Church in its commitment to the Gospel, to reach out to the poorest of our brothers and sisters and to live Matthew 25 in a global context. Without Development and Peace, we would not have that unity as the Church in Canada.”

In 50 years, things change. But what St. Augustine called the “ordo amoris” 1,600 years ago has not changed. It’s still found most clearly and concretely in the parable of the Good Samaritan. “Who is my neighbour?” the legal scholar asks Jesus. The answer has nothing to do with geography.

A version of this article appeared in the September 27, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "In solidarity with the world beyond Toronto".