We believe the family is the first school of love — and that the world needs this witness now more than ever.
Where the Gospel
meets the hearth.
The Program for Family & Evangelization takes as its primary task the promotion of the Christian vocation to family life and its evangelical appeal as a profound site of encounter with God — a privileged image of the way God loves and relates to us. With an emphasis on the surprise, joy, and beauty of the Christian vocation to love, the Program supports the Archdiocese of Vancouver in strengthening the families and marriages of the people of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
“The family is the permanent school of the civilization of love.” — Saint John Paul II
From adult education to arts & culture events, our initiatives walk the path of ordinary life — with extraordinary depth.
Explore Initiatives →Help establish a program that will form families, renew parishes, and offer Vancouver a witness to the joy of the Gospel.
Give to the Program →
Faith.
Witness.
Promoting the Christian vocation to family life and its evangelical appeal as a profound site of encounter with God.
Cultivating “communities of companionship” led not by demands or duties but by the invitation of the Gospel to a total commitment of one’s life to Christ.
Setting forth a path of integral human formation in faith that, while extraordinary, still “walks the path of ordinary life.”
“It is not a question of inventing a ‘new program.’ The program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition — it is the same as always. Ultimately, it has its centre in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated.”
What We Are Called to Do
The Program for Family & Evangelization takes as its primary task the promotion of the Christian vocation to family life and its evangelical appeal as a profound site of encounter with God — a privileged image of the way God loves and relates to us.
By this, the Program conceives itself as cultivating “communities of companionship” led not by demands or duties but by the invitation of the Christian gospel to making a total and vital commitment of one’s life to Christ (Giussani).
Through events, initiatives, and lay-led “schools” of community guided by Christian hope, the Program aims to set forth a path of integral human formation in faith that, while extraordinary, still “walks the path of ordinary life” (Francis, 2014).
A Vancouver where every Catholic family experiences its vocation not as a burden, but as a joyful and total encounter with the living God — and where that encounter radiates outward as a witness to the world.
Our Initiatives
Concrete works of formation, beauty, and evangelization across the Fraser Valley
The Program will support the ongoing academic and personal formation of students at CPC through the incentivization of non-program-essential electives on subjects pertaining to formation, evangelization, and vocation. These include, but are not limited to, RELS 365, RELS 366, RELS 372, RELS 375, RELS 382, RELS 387, RELS 465, and RELS 473. This initiative indirectly supports the development of a Minor in Catholic Studies at TWU.
Academic FormationThe Program will sponsor the ongoing development of an authentic Catholic faith formation for adults through public classes hosted at parishes throughout the Fraser Valley. Courses will reflect the Program’s main interests in topics pertaining to marriage and family, evangelization, and faith formation.
Parish FormationThe Program will co-host public arts and cultural events in concert with the monthly CPC3 public lectures at CPC — an invitation, in Giussani’s spirit, to encounter beauty through music, poetry, and nature that reach the depths of the human heart.
Culture & BeautyThe Program will sponsor and promote events pertaining to outreach, evangelization, and vocation discernment in coordination with the CPCSA. These are to include vocation retreats, nature walks, public seminars and discussions, and community gatherings hosted by local Catholic families throughout the year.
EvangelizationRoadmap
Initiatives
Our Intellectual Foundation
The Program takes the following texts as initial points of reflection for use in the discernment and formation of a lay leadership team who will direct the Program in its task and mission.
“While extraordinary, the path of integral human formation in faith still walks the path of ordinary life.”
How the Program Is Led
Dr. David Henderson
Academic Dean, Catholic Pacific College
Dr. David Henderson holds the St. John Paul II Chair for Family & Evangelization and serves as Academic Director of the Program. As Academic Dean of Catholic Pacific College, he brings deep formation in theology and a sustained commitment to the intellectual and spiritual renewal of Catholic family life.
His work at the intersection of theology, marriage, and human formation makes him uniquely equipped to guide the academic vision of the Program, shaping its courses, publications, and intellectual programming in fidelity to the Magisterium.
Family & Evangelization
Catholic Pacific College
The civilization of love
begins at home.
Whether you’re a family seeking deeper formation, a parish looking for partnership, or a benefactor who believes the Gospel can renew Vancouver — there is a place for you here.