As the Jubilee Year of Hope comes to a close, a Catholic Canadian anti-euthanasia activist has published a beautiful video depicting the day elementary students participated in a Eucharistic procession through a senior home in Regina, in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, offering residents joy and an encounter with the Lord. 

Fourth-grade girls with the local St. Pius School dropped flower petals and boys rang bells announcing that Jesus was coming along the route through Trinity Manor at Westerra. Deacon Eric Gurash, founder of Emmaus Support Mental Health Ministries — a ministry of the Archdiocese of Regina — led the procession, stopping at various residents’ doors along the way.

The residents in the Nov. 23 video could be seen making the sign of the cross and offering a prayer before the monstrance. 

Amanda Achtman, founder of the Dying to Meet You Project, told Zeale that she organized the “Christ in the Care Home” procession in cooperation with the archdiocese. 

Eucharistic procession at Trinity Manor at Westerra. Credit: Amanda Achtman.

The prayer was a part of an intergenerational day of activities held March 26 for the fourth-grade class, who first joined the retirement home residents for Mass and then had lunch with them. There were two students and two seniors at each table, Achtman explained, and they shared stories of their respective daily activities. 

The procession was scheduled for after lunch, and the students had become quite energetic after enjoying juice, dessert, and good food. Achtman said that to help them prepare, she provided them with “firm but empowering instruction.”

“I explained that, despite the fun they'd been having, it is important for them to know that many of the elderly residents are suffering. Some have cancer. Some are lonely,” Achtman said. “The children became very serious. And I told them, ‘Now, Jesus is counting on you to cooperate with Him in making this an unforgettable experience of His love for them.’ Then, they were ready.”

Eucharistic procession at Trinity Manor at Westerra. Credit: Amanda Achtman.

Eucharistic procession at Trinity Manor at Westerra. Credit: Amanda Achtman.

In her advocacy, Achtman has worked to underscore the dignity of every person and the inherent value of life. She also spotlighted the testimonies of individuals who have lost loved ones to Canada’s euthanasia program, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). A recently published report from the Canadian government revealed that in 2024, more than 16,000 people — whose average age was about 75 — were killed via MAID. As many elderly people are at risk of this program, Achtman’s work — “Preventing euthanasia & encouraging hope across Canada and around the world,” as her X bio describes — remains ever-timely. 

Also countering the pro-euthanasia culture is Deacon Gurash’s Emmaus Support Mental Health Ministries, which offers spiritual peer-led support groups for those suffering from mental health difficulties and for their loved ones. The website spotlights a quote from the late Pope Francis, who spoke out encouraging support for those struggling with mental health challenges. 

“I would like to remember our brothers and sisters who suffer from mental illness, and also victims – often young people – of suicide,” he said. “Let us pray for them and their families, so that they are never left alone, or discriminated against, but instead are welcomed and supported.”

Pope Leo XIV, who was elected to the pontificate during the Jubilee Year, has spoken on several occasions about the importance of accompanying the elderly. 

“Where elderly people are alone and discarded, this will mean bringing them the good news of the Lord’s tenderness, to overcome, together with them, the darkness of loneliness, the great enemy of the lives of the elderly,” he said in October. “May no one be abandoned!”

He also encouraged evangelizing to them, saying it is a “missionary task [that] challenges all of us, our parishes and, in a particular way, young people, who can become witnesses of closeness and mutual listening to those who are further along in their lives.” 

“The elderly are a gift,” he emphasized, “a blessing to be welcomed.” 

On another occasion, the Pontiff spoke about the Jubilee Year of Hope as it related to the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, which this year fell on July 27. 

“The Jubilee we are now celebrating helps us to realize that hope is a constant source of joy, whatever our age,” the Pope said. “When that hope has also been tempered by fire over the course of a long life, it proves a source of deep happiness.”

He also highlighted that visiting the elderly during the Jubilee Year is an opportunity for profound grace: “Those who are unable to come to Rome on pilgrimage during this Holy Year may ‘obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, the elderly who are alone… making, in a sense, a pilgrimage to Christ present in them’.”