Day: December 8, 2025

The 2023 Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), held Sept 25-28 outside of Toronto. / Credit: CCCB/CECC

Ottawa, Canada, Dec 8, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and Toronto’s Cardinal Francis Leo are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to withdraw the Liberal Party’s reported agreement with the Bloc Québécois to remove religious-belief exemptions from Canada’s hate-speech laws.

In a letter published Dec. 4, CCCB President Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière warned that repealing Section 319(3)(b) of the criminal code — which protects good-faith expressions or opinions based on religious texts from hate-speech prosecution — would have a “chilling effect on religious expression.”

“The removal of this provision risks creating uncertainty for faith communities, clergy, educators, and others who may fear that the expression of traditional moral or doctrinal teachings could be misinterpreted as hate speech and could subject the speaker to proceedings that threaten imprisonment of up to two years,” Goudreault wrote.

The CCCB urged the government to retain the religious-text defense.

Alternatively, the bishops proposed two steps: a public assurance that “good-faith religious expression, teaching, and preaching will not be subject to criminal prosecution under the hate-propaganda provisions,” and mandatory consultation with religious leaders, legal experts, and civil-liberties groups before any changes affecting religious freedom.

Leo echoed the concern the next day in a letter to Toronto Catholics that he shared with members of Parliament (MPs) in the archdiocese. “As Catholics, we must always firmly reject all forms of hatred and discrimination,” he wrote. But “the ability to express and teach our faith freely — without fear that sincere, good-faith proclamation of the Gospel might be misunderstood as unlawful — is a cornerstone of a healthy, democratic Canada.”

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton welcomed the bishops’ intervention. He said he was “very happy to see” the letter and similar concerns raised “from members of the Jewish community, Muslim community, and Indian religious traditions such as Sikhs or Hindus. All people of faith need to understand that this will target everyone.”

Lawton had been scheduled to attend a justice and human rights committee meeting Dec. 4 on a proposed amendment to the Liberals’ Combatting Hate Act (Bill C-9). The bill would criminalize intimidation or obstruction outside institutions used by faith-based groups and ban the public display of certain terrorism or hate symbols.

The meeting was canceled by Liberal chair James Maloney, who told media he wanted members “to regroup to find a path forward.” Maloney became chair after former chair Marc Miller was appointed minister of Canadian Identity and Culture on Dec. 1.

After the cancellation, Lawton told The Catholic Register the Liberals were “refusing to say on record where they stand on this amendment to strip away religious protection and freedom,” adding that the lack of clarity “leav[es] tremendous uncertainty surrounding people of faith and what the future looks like.”

Liberal MP Leslie Church, however, accused the Conservatives of “bad faith sabotage and delay dressed up as consultation,” claiming in the House on Dec. 4 that Lawton had been filibustering the committee.

“The Liberals are the ones controlling when the committee meets and for how long, so there is no argument that we are the ones obstructing here,” Lawton responded. “We have grave concerns with this bill, but the only way to deal with those is on committee.”

Lawton also pointed to comments Miller made Oct. 30 while chairing the committee: “Clearly, there are situations in these texts where these statements are hateful. They should not be used to invoke, or be a defense, and there should perhaps be discretion for prosecutors to press charges.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet suggested the Liberals canceled the meeting because “the Liberals fear a backlash against them.” He repeated that Bloc support for Bill C-9 depends on removing the religious exemption.

The Bloc’s stance reflects a wider push for secularism in Quebec. Bill 9, introduced Nov. 27 by the provincial government, would ban prayer in public institutions and on public property, restrict religion-based meals, and forbid religious symbols in public communications.

Parliament is set to rise for the Christmas recess on Dec. 12 and sit again Jan. 26.

This story was first published in The B.C. Catholic from Canadian Catholic News, has been reprinted here with permission, and has been adapted by CNA.

Sister Lucia of Fátima, left, and Dr. Branca Pereira Acevedo, her doctor for 15 years. / Credit: Sanctuary of Fatima/ HM Television/Home of the Mother

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 8, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

“I was her doctor for her body, but she was my spiritual doctor,” said Dr. Branca Pereira Acevedo while describing her relationship with Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the visionaries of Our Lady of Fátima, whom she cared for during the last 15 years of Sister Lucia’s life.

Lucia — the only one of the three shepherd children still alive at the time — moved in 1925 to the Spanish city of Tui in Pontevedra province, where she lived for more than a decade before returning to Portugal and professing her vows as a Carmelite nun in 1949. In this city in northwestern Spain, the visionary received “a new visit from heaven” with apparitions of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus.

Dec. 10 marks the centenary of these apparitions, an occasion for which the Holy See has granted a jubilee year in the place where they occurred, the “House of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” in reference to the devotion that the little shepherdess of Fátima promoted until the end of her days.

A witness to that fervent testimony was her physician, Pereira, who shared her experiences Nov. 29 at the presentation of the short film titled “The Heart of Sister Lucia” at the archbishop’s palace in Alcalá de Henares. This film is a project of HM Television.

Pereira accompanied Sister Lucia at the Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal, until her death on Feb. 13, 2005, at the age of 97, a time during which she experienced a profound conversion thanks to the example and witness of her patient. “It was a period of my life that is difficult to explain, due to the intensity of the experiences I had with her,” the Portuguese doctor said.

Sister Lucia’s humility and good humor

Pereira described the visionary’s personality in detail, like someone describing a dear childhood friend: “She was a person just like all of us; those who didn’t know her wouldn’t have distinguished her from anyone else. There was nothing proud or vain about her; she used to say that she was simply an instrument of God.”

The doctor particularly emphasized her humility and obedience, especially to God and to the Carmelite order, “which she loved so much.”

At that time, Pereira said her faith had grown cold: “I didn’t go to Mass, I didn’t receive the sacraments… my career, my work, and my family took up all my time, and I used that as an excuse not to go to church,” she explained.

Serenity and steadfastness in difficulties

“She taught me that through God and through the Church, we can do everything well. I experienced very close moments with her, I think even closer than with the sisters she lived with,” the doctor said.

One of the most significant moments she experienced alongside Sister Lucia was the publication in 2000 by the Vatican’s Secretary of State at the time, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, of the third part of the secret of Fátima, revealed on July 13, 1917, to the three shepherd children in Cova da Iria and transcribed by Sister Lucia in 1944.

The doctor witnessed what she called the seer’s serenity and steadfastness in the face of the insistence of those who claimed that part of the secret still remained to be revealed. “She told us that what mattered most was written in the word of God, in the Bible. She encouraged us to obey God, which was what was truly important, and that everything else was secondary.”

Even at these times, the doctor revealed, Sister Lucia maintained a cheerful disposition. “Her good humor was very constant. She lived in faithfulness and truth. And she remained that way, lucid and faithful until the hour of her death, at which I was present.”

“She received many insulting letters at the Carmelite convent, from various parts of the world. But she said that there was no problem, that we had to pray for those people, that they were children of God, so that they would convert,” she commented.

A beacon of light that illuminates all of humanity

Pereira shared that Sister Lucia prepared for the beatification of her cousins, the shepherd children Jacinta and Francisco Marto, “with an intensity and an indescribable joy.” Since that ceremony in 2000, presided over by Pope John Paul II in Fátima, Sister Lucia seemed “more joyful and more transcendent” than ever. “She was always aware of her physical limitations and fulfilled her duties, but she seemed totally detached from this world,” her doctor related.

In the final stages of Sister Lucia’s life, Pereira recounted, the visionary always remained cheerful, never ceasing to be attentive to those around her, despite her suffering. Up to her last days, she noted, Sister Lucia lived a life of prayer and penance “to spread the message that Our Lady had asked of her: the consecration to her Immaculate Heart on the first five Saturdays of the month.”

“The Virgin asked her to make reparation for offenses and outrages and that her Immaculate Heart be venerated,” the doctor recalled. She also had the mission of praying for the Holy Father: “She shared a very intense friendship and a real intimacy with St. John Paul II,” Pereira noted.

“The Heart of Sister Lucia” will premiere in Spanish on YouTube on Dec.10, the centenary of the apparitions in Pontevedra, at 9:30 p.m. local time in Spain. The film shows how the simple woman led an intense battle in which there was no shortage of adversities, “becoming for the popes and for the entire Church a beacon of light that will illuminate all of humanity.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.