Editorial

By Paul Schratz

On a wall at Cathedral Park across the street from Holy Rosary Cathedral is an example of the loss of faith that this archdiocese is attempting to confront through its diocesan synod.

The wall contains a fascinating series of mosaics, completed two years ago, that serve as a rogue’s gallery of images, mundane and sublime, representing concepts, ideologies, even popular activities … just about anything you could think of that reflects Vancouver and environs.

Some of them are trendy, such as a skateboard and portable stereo. Many are environmental; for example, mountains and animals. A few are architectural – Harbour Centre is dominant. More than a few are dark, including a spider in a web, a vampire, an alien abduction, and a winged devil. Several seem to reflect some sort of mortality, with broken, disjointed images and what appears to be blood.

It’s apparent as one walks along the wall from start to finish that a syncretic progression, an evolution of sorts, is taking place. The simplistic, natural components at the start evolve into more developed, urban, modern and in some cases diabolical representations.

I’ve looked at the mosaic numerous times, always trying to find one element that appears glaring in its absence … a reference to the church across the street, or to the faith it represents.

From an architectural perspective alone, the cathedral, one of the city’s oldest and grandest buildings, is significant. The fact that it serves as the seat of Catholic Christianity in the city, and even as a cultural centre and a Christian backdrop for anyone who needs one, would seem to be at least as noteworthy as a skateboard.

That church also stands in opposition to, or in response to, many of the more sinister elements in the mosaics.

Yet somehow, a piece of art that reflects the city’s major cultural characteristics, past and present, and is mounted on a wall at Cathedral Park, contains not a single reference to the cathedral, Catholicism, Christianity, or as far as I can tell, any monotheistic faith.

It’s in this environment that the synod takes root, with so apparent a need for evangelization.

That’s what is behind the announcements made last week and detailed on Page 1 this week. The announcement of a vicar for pastoral services, for instance, and another for evangelization and education, establishes that the synod’s call for evangelization of Vancouver is being emphasized through parishes producing their own local evangelization plans.

These local parish pastoral plans are highlighted regularly in the B.C. Catholic, and the appointment of vicars to oversee that is significant.

Once every parish from St. Mary’s in Vancouver to St. Mary’s in Chilliwack has its own plan for spreading the Good News to its own area, it will speak volumes about our views on evangelization.

Many people probably thought the synod was supposed to come up with a plan for the archdiocese’s curia – its administrative offices known affectionately down here as “150 Robson St.” – to do more, bigger and better things.

Sorry to disappoint, but the reality is the exact opposite. While there will certainly be some changes at “the top,” such as the creation of an office of evangelization and another of service and justice, true evangelization must take place where the Church comes in organic contact with the people, and that’s usually the parish.

The message being promoted by the archbishop is that evangelization cannot merely be an action. It has to permeate the core of who we are and infuse our efforts in all we do. As Msgr. Mark Hagemoen noted recently to us, we can’t just do evangelization, we have to be evangelizers who evangelize others.

Again, this is something we usually do in community, and one of our immediate communities is the parish, which must help us to radiate the love that is crucial to teaching others about Christ’s love for them.

Evangelization must become an identity for us, rather than an activity, and when we see how the synod is actually being implemented at the local level, it’s apparent that besides all the new activity, there’s also renewed identity. Consider St. Stephen’s in North Vancouver, where the parish council is being augmented with a new synod-inspired pastoral committee that acts as a “think tank” to address spiritual needs in the parish.

Vancouver and its suburbs are ripe for evangelization, and it’s important to keep a spirit of hope about it. After all, if a walk along a mosaic becomes more discouraging the further you go, it’s equally true that by walking in the other direction, the situation becomes more uplifting.

That’s what that church across the street, and the synod, are all about.