The presence of the chaplaincy at St. Bernard’s church is taking a step forward!

Starting Tuesday, May 7, Fr. Cristino Bouvette, as Vocations Director and current Director of the Chaplaincy, has started keeping office hours at St. Bernard’s. He will be using the office room next to the gathering area. We are happy that he can call this office his working ‘home’ among us. Welcome Fr. Cristino!

In the coming weeks, there will be changes made to this office – combining 2 rooms into one – to make it more suitable and comfortable for extended use.

 

St. Bernard’s parish welcomes the St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy Centre

The first Mass of the Chaplaincy took place on March 17 at STB with a great success. Many parishioner attended at this Mass to accompany Fr. Cristino and Fr. Wilbert, together with the post- secondary students, and young adults. The Chaplaincy will continue having their service on Sundays as originally planned. St. Bernard’s is home of the St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy, and all the parish community welcomes them.

The Diocese has a full description and  article on the Inaugural Mass  HERE:

 

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.