In memory of those who remembered Catholic Missions

Catholic Missions In Canada (CMIC) held its annual Memorial Mass today at the Archdiocese of Toronto’s Pastoral Centre, taking a moment on Remembrance Day to reflect on the lives of the country’s armed forces members as well as the many donors and supporters who have passed over the past year.

Celebrated by CMIC president Msgr. David Reilander, he began the intimate service by linking the sacrifices of those who served in the military, including those of his own father, a WWII Air Force mechanic, with the freedom of religion that allows Catholics to gather and worship as they did today.

He also spoke of the gratitude owed to donors who have sustained the Church in remote Canadian mission territories where dioceses often lack sufficient resources. 

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“ We come today to remember not only our war dead, peacekeepers and victims of aggression, but on this day to pray for peace. We consider what we are doing as individuals, as a community and as a nation to bring God's peace into the world,” he said as Mass began. 

“This is a day when a believing community should rededicate itself by prayer and action to the ideals Jesus gives us in the Beatitudes, and the Eucharist is a perfect way to do that. Let us pause to remember not only our war dead, but all who are buried in the archdiocesan cemeteries, the past donors of CMIC and our own loved ones who have died.”

Upon reading the Gospel of Luke 17:11-19, which recounts the 10 lepers healed by Jesus, Reilander’s homily began with a personal testimony, just over an hour after many across the country solemnly paused to observe two minutes of silence.

“ My father, along with a number of his brothers, was a mechanic working with the bombers in the Second World War. One time they had two squadrons on the same base, and when he was going over to visit his cousin, men from that squadron approached him carefully and told him that his cousin had not come back from his mission,” he said. 

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“Perhaps some of us here might have someone like that in our families, or know of someone similar. We remember our peacekeepers, but we also remember our donors who have remembered the missions and the needs of the Church in Canada.” 

Asking the Lord to speed those men and women through the gates of death and bring them into His kingdom, Reilander attested that this special Mass of remembrance stands as something that marks us as Christians.

“This belief that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we shall be raised in our bodies to join the saints and the angels in the Kingdom of God — we hold out this hope for ourselves and for our loved ones,” he said. 

CMIC staff members then came forward, reading aloud a lengthy list of CMIC donors and supporters who died in the past year, 123 all told.

Adam Helmers, the digital communications officer for Catholic Missions In Canada, said the annual Memorial Mass has been offered by the charity for at least 30 years, with CMIC still being supported by an average of 5,000 regular donors each year. Their funds go toward sustaining Catholic ministries, missionaries, seminarian education, parish infrastructure and lay leadership in financially under-resourced communities across Canada, with 100 per cent of donated funds staying within the country.  

The Mass concluded with a powerful prayer for all who were remembered and for all those who continue to hold them in prayer.

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“Lord our God, by the power of this sacrament,” Reilander prayed, “give eternal rest to your faithful departed, and peace to those who remember them, through Christ our Lord.”

A livestream of the Mass can be viewed on YouTube.