Peace, goodwill the message of Christmas says Pettipass

Dec 24, 2017 | 6:00 AM

The leader of the Catholic Church in the Peace Country says the message he wants to send at Christmas is always one of goodwill and peace.

Archbishop Gerard Pettipass says the hope is this message can be carried through the entire year.

“Quite apart from all the commercialism of it, there’s a lot of beauty around this time of year and I think that (when it comes to) beauty itself, we become wide-eyed about it. We think of children being wide-eyed, but I think even as adults, our eyes are open wide at a time like this because of the beauty of the season.”

Pettipass hopes all our days can be like Christmas, where we promote peace, goodwill, harmony, and mercy.

He is also asking us to think about others who may be going through a difficult time.

“I always think of people who, in a particular way, are suffering maybe during this time of the year. I think we have to be attentive to (the fact that) there are some families that maybe have lost somebody here over the last number of months, since last year, and sometimes our first Christmas without somebody can be a hard time because we’re thinking of them and Christmases we had with them.”

Pettipass says we should support people who are suffering anyway we can, like going to visit, inviting them over or just giving them a phone call.

by Curtis Galbraith