News

Western Regional Conference
of the Canadian Catholic Students’ Assn.

The gathering at St. Mark’s on Friday evening, October 28, 2011, must have been something like what Newman members experienced in the 1950s. Instead of the Canadian Federation of Newman Clubs (CFNC) which met in Vancouver in 1952, it was the Western Regional Conference of the Canadian Catholic Students’ Association (CCSA) that gathered in the chapel to begin a weekend of activities.

Maureen Wicken, Coordinator of Campus Ministry at the UBC colleges, extended a welcome to the approximately sixty participants attending the conference. St. Thomas More, the University of Saskatchewan, Universite de St-Boniface, the University of Manitoba, Campion College, the University of Regina, the University of Victoria, and Corpus Christi College, St. Mark’s, and the University of British Columbia all sent representatives.

Katrina Laquian from the University of Victoria told the audience how the CCSA, established in 1946, united Catholic university students across the country and connected them with the International Movement of Catholic Students. She had had positions in the CCSA that gave her both national and international experience. She had participated in a UN study session in March and a conference in Mexico in May.

UBCs Jessica Wu introduced Archbishop Miller who spoke to the assembly about Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical, Caritas in veritate. There could be no mistaking the archbishop’s degree of appreciation for the preamble in that document. Translated into English, Caritas in veritate means Charity in Truth.

After the message and the music in the chapel, people proceeded to Plato’s Cave for refreshments and conversation around a number of displays promoting different Catholic organizations in the archdiocese. Both the Newman Club and the Newman Association were among these displays.

On Saturday, October 29th, students participated in one of three service projects: United we can (street cleanup), the Door is Open (feeding the poor), or putting on a children’s Halloween party. The conference adjourned October 31.