About the St.Francis Xavier Chaplaincy Centre at St.Bernard’s
After many months of preparation, exploration, and planning, the Diocese is ready to launch the brand new St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy Centre for Catholic outreach to young adults! For the last 2 weekends, we have made you aware that St. Bernard’s church has been chosen as the spiritual home and host facility for this chaplaincy centre. It will be led by Fr. Cristino Bouvette, our diocesan vocations director. Last Sunday (Jan.13th), we had an orientation open house at St. Bernard’s following Mass, and it was well attended where many good questions, comments, and positive feedback were shared.
A few basic points about the Chaplaincy Centre: It will operate independently from our regular parish operations, including finances, while using St. Bernard’s Church as its hub. It will be independent from other organizations like CCO or the U of C Catholic Community on campus, but will work closely with them in partnership, along with our parish community. It will be open to all young adults 18 years and up, with a special focus on post-secondary students from any Calgary campus, during and just following their studies. Over the next year, as momentum builds, our parish will benefit from an influx of Catholic young people who will be discovering, expressing, and living out their faith in preparation for the rest of their lives as members of the Church! I foresee this as being uplifting to our parish in the long run.
Fr. Matthew Emmelkamp.