By Peter Oliver, Executive Director of the Catholic Health Association of Saskatchewan (CHAS)

We titled the 2024 CHAS convention “Awaking Dignity: Relationship at the Heart of Care.” All the presenters at the convention Oct. 22 and 23, and everyone who helped put it together, genuinely embraced this theme.

In our pre-convention meeting with the bishops of our province and Catholic health care leadership, in the presentations on palliative care, redemptive suffering, dementia, mental health, and euthanasia, and in conversations with participants at the convention, I heard again and again the gospel invitation to walk in the sandals of Jesus. It is a courageous call to accompany people in their suffering and a challenge to witness to the truth of the Church’s teaching concerning suffering.

I’m cognizant that putting relationships at the centre of care is fraught with difficulties because it involves us entering darkness and chaos—conditions which we understandably and frequently avoid, not without good reason! Depression, anxiety, doubts, misunderstandings, complaints, insomnia, confusion, paralysis, high blood pressure, and innumerable other maladies are the sure diet of individuals who walk this path.

But in spite of this, our presenters urged us to recognize the grace springing up within communities that shoulder the burden of caring together. Pointing to the foundational truths that make this reality possible, Josephine Lombardi reminded us of St. Paul’s encounter on the Road to Damascus and the question put to him by the risen Jesus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

At this moment, Paul’s ecclesiology is born. We are one body. The suffering of the other is the suffering of Jesus among us.

The hope that is born in a community of faith which is willing to embrace this truth awakens dignity by putting relationships at the heart of care and this is extremely attractive. This was obvious to me on many occasions during our time together, and it might have been the most important fruit of our gathering.

Four beautiful moments were particularly striking.

Following Josephine Lombardi’s presentation, Fr. Gerald Michaud approached me. Here was a man with decades of ministry and who knows how many talks and workshops he has taken in, and yet he was simply saturated with enthusiasm and gratitude for the presentation.

A second encounter that found a place in my heart was a story shared by Sr. Cindy Lewens, PM. Illustrating the importance of presence when accompanying someone with dementia, she recounted a moment on a park bench with her father. He remarked that the geese flying overhead were going home. Sr. Cindy emphasized the importance of acknowledging the meaning of “home” for someone whose memory no longer works as we expect it to and the importance of re-framing our expectations to recognize the person who remains despite the changes in cognition they experience.

And third, an image that is, for me, reminiscent of Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Trinity, was the panel conversation framed by the sanctuary at Holy Family Cathedral and focused on the subject of euthanasia.

It was an unfolding dialogue between Amanda Achtman, Dr. Leonie Herx, and Dr. Mary Heilman, who wrestled with the challenge to attend to vulnerability, the need to grow in our readiness to talk with, and listen to, people who are dying, the readiness to speak the truth about euthanasia, and the necessity of respectfully engaging those who practice and support euthanasia.

Finally, the gospel at the Eucharist that concluded the convention reminded us of the disciples’ encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Bishop Stephen Hero’s preaching visibly embodied the message of the awaking dignity of the disciples when they realized that Christ had been journeying with them – “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

CHAS Award Recipients 2024:

During the Catholic Health Association of Saskatchewan convention in Saskatoon, Dr. Bruce Berscheid was presented with the CHAS Mission Award for outstanding service and his decades of commitment to Catholic health care, and Barb Berscheid was presented with the Moola-Freer Award which honours those who serve with compassion in palliative care for her years supporting and volunteering at the St. Paul’s Hospital palliative care unit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Gallery – LINK

CONVENTION OVERVIEW:

The 2024 CHAS convention “Awaking Dignity: Relationship at the Heart of Care” was held Oct. 22 and 23 at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon, including an evening of reflection and prayer open to the public.

Panelists Amanda Achtman, Dr. Leonie Herx, MD, PhD, FCPC (PC), and Dr. Mary Heilman, PhD, spoke during the evening event, entitled “From Death into Life: Finding Reasons for Our Hope.”

Convention keynote speakers included palliative care physician Herx who presented “You Matter – Enhancing Dignity & Human Flourishing through Palliative Care“, theologian and author Dr. Josephine Lombardi, PhD, who spoke on “Redemptive Suffering,” as well as on “Spiritual First Aid” and Sr. Cindy Lewans of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, MTS, MRE, BEd, who presented “Our True Identity and Dementia.” 

Breakout sessions included: “It Starts with Me: Grassroots Participation in Palliative Care” with C. Philomena Ojukwu, Anna Maria Buhr, Jacqueline Saretsky, and Dr. Mary Heilman and Mental Health Ministry: Fostering Communities of Hope
with Myron Rogal, Dr. Christine Taylor, Deacon Eric Gurash, and Fr. Andre Lalach.

Saskatchewan Bishops attending various sessions throughout the convention included Saskatoon Bishop Mark Hagemoen, Prince Albert Bishop Stephen Hero, Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen, and Bishop Michael Smolenski of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon.

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Communications and Catholic Saskatoon News are supported by gifts to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal: dscf.ca.