In November 2025, I was asked to represent Catholic Missions In Canada at the Renew 2025 Conference. As the newest staff member of CMIC, I was excited to experience what it would be like to attend a conference as a sponsor, and to share our mission with the young adults of the Archdiocese of Toronto.
I attended on the Saturday and was pleasantly surprised by the number of people and vendors who were there. Each one of them was full of zeal, passion and hearts that were open to the message that God had for them that weekend. CMIC has only had the pleasure of attending this conference once before, so it was great to meet people who were familiar with our mission, but it was even more exciting to speak to participants discovering us for the first time and to see their interest in learning more.
As a born and raised Torontonian, working for CMIC has opened my eyes to how blessed I am to live in city where we can participate in Mass any day of the week, at multiple times of the day. If we need to celebrate a baptism, have a funeral or wedding, it’s easy to schedule these services within a metropolitan city. However, our brothers and sisters in remote areas and dioceses have so many more obstacles to accessing these services. In my conversations, I tried to share this with participants and fellow vendors.
Hopefully, as we continue to grow and attend events like Renew, CMIC will be able to build greater relationships with younger generations, open their hearts to supporting these remote dioceses and help them to see that those in need are closer than they realize.