Dear Pilgrims of Hope,

As we enter this Lenten season, I invite you to Turn Debt into Hope by taking part in the 2025 Share Lent Campaign of Development and Peace – Caritas Canada. This annual campaign begins on Ash Wednesday (March 5) and concludes with a special collection on the Fifth Sunday of Lent (April 5–6). I stand with the faithful serving on the diocesan council of Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, as well as my brother bishop, Most Rev. William T. McGrattan, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, in encouraging your engagement.

I am particularly grateful for the synodal spirit that characterizes our collaboration with Development and Peace. Over the years, both in our diocese and across Canada, we have built a relationship of trust and a way of walking together that bears great fruit. You can help raise awareness by ordering campaign materials and sharing them in your parish and community: Order Form – Share Lent 2025 | Development and Peace.

This year’s theme is deeply connected to the Jubilee, a year of grace. In Scripture, the forgiveness of debts is one of the key practices of the Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10). Jesus himself began his public ministry by proclaiming “a year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:19). In the Our Father, Jesus intertwines the forgiveness of debts with the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 6:12).

Both during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and now, Pope Francis has called upon global leaders to cancel unjust debts that trap countless brothers and sisters in poverty. And we, too, must ask ourselves: What have we received that was not a gift to us? Could it be that part of our nation’s prosperity comes at the cost of an ecological debt owed to countries of the Global South? This Lent is an opportunity to reflect on these realities and to take meaningful action—personally and collectively—to restore justice and bring hope to those who suffer.

I am grateful to Development and Peace – Caritas Canada for providing us with such a concrete way to practise mercy. I encourage each of you to give generously, according to the goodness of your heart.

May Jesus Christ be for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. May Mary, standing at the foot of the Cross, inspire us in solidarity. May God bless you abundantly.

† Christian Lépine
Archbishop of Montreal

P.S. For more information and ways to get involved, visit:
https://devp.org/en/campaign/turn-debt-into-hope/resources-lent-2025/