The Canadian cardinal, who serves as the Vatican's prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, told Canadian bishops the document does not signal "changes to doctrine or to sacramental discipline," but represents a pastoral approach that takes into consideration "the good of the person," according to his or her circumstances.

To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday and to mark the 70th anniversary of its consecration to Mary, Canada's three cardinals led the nation's bishops in a ceremony Sept. 26 to re-consecrate the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

For Canada’s 150th anniversary, which has been met with frustration by indigenous people, the Jesuits had another dialogue in mind.

Canada's Development and Peace has launched impressive public education projects and worked on advocacy campaigns and thousands of economic and community development projects on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people.

An estimated 7,000 men, women and children, primarily Haitians, have entered Canada over the summer since U.S. President Donald Trump ended a program offering temporary asylum to Haitians displaced by that nation's 2010 earthquake.

The bishops are condemning the exploitation of land and indigenous peoples by Canadian mining companies operating in Latin America and other regions.