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Bernard Michael Daly (1925 – 2009) was a Canadian journalist considered by many to have been a “champion” of the Second Vatican Council. He was born April 16, 1925 in Mayfair, Saskatchewan. He attended rural elementary school there, then completed high school as a boarder at St. Thomas College in Battleford SK. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (English and Philosophy) at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon SK in 1948, and a Master of Arts (Sociology) from Carleton University in Ottawa ON in 1971. He married Mae Strasser in 1948 and together they raised six children. He died in Toronto ON January 2, 2009, after a battle with cancer.

Bernard began his career as a journalist with the Saskatoon Star Phoenix in 1948 - first as a reporter and then as an editorial writer. During his decade there, he also wrote articles for several Catholic periodicals, and these especially caught the attention of the Catholic bishops. In 1957, they invited Bernard to join them at their new headquarters in Ottawa as Director / Editor of their Information Services. During the next few years, Bernard reported from Rome for all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965).

From 1958 into the 1970s, he and his wife Mae were members of the International Christian Family Movement’s program committee and acted as a resource couple for the organization until 1983. From 1963 into the 1970s they were also a teaching couple for SERENA’s sympto-thermal method of natural family planning. From 1967 – 1974 Bernard was named the first Director for the Family Life Bureau of the Canadian Catholic Conference.

An inter-church delegation to the 1972 UN Trade and Development Conference in Chile saw the Canadian delegation vote consistently against poor countries. This led Canada’s major churches to form thirteen coalitions to monitor Canadian government and corporation policies and behaviour towards various poor peoples. Bernard’s focus was the Inter-church Project on Population (ICPOP), concerned with immigrants, refugees and Canadian population policy. He opposed entry of the Zero Population Growth ideology into Health Canada and Immigration Canada policy-making.

An ICPOP delegation to the 1974 UN Population Conference in Bucharest supported the third-world view that poverty was caused by aid, development and trade programs imposed by rich countries and corporations still acting with colonial attitudes. As the 1978 Immigration Act was drafted, this church coalition lobbied on behalf of refugees and poor immigrants.

From 1974 – 1983, Bernard was a member of the Pastoral Team (for research and policy development) for the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops (CCCB). He was named Assistant Coordinator for the CCCB Papal Visit Secretariat during 1983 – 84 and became the first lay person named Assistant General Secretary (English sector) for the CCCB from 1984 – 1991.

Bernard was in Rome as drafter/translator with the Canadian delegation to the 1980 Synod on the family. He was named in 1982 to the bishops’ team preparing the 1984 papal visit to Canada; and in 1985, named English assistant CCCB general secretary, the first layman in that post. During the abortion debate in Canada’s Parliament during 1988, Bernard played a vital role in guiding the Canadian Catholic Bishops to support the decriminalization of abortion in Canada. His work in this area cited the greater structural issues that put women in the position of opting for abortion as the greater evil. As a result of the Bishops' position, abortion was decriminalized. Since then, Canada has had no law on abortion. For some, this was perceived as a failure to guarantee women's rights while for others, it was seen as anti-Catholic and anti-life. Bernard's role and position on this issue resulted in him receiving death threats from pro lifers. In 1990, Bernard was presented with the Benemerenti Medal from Pope John Paul II for his work with the Catholic Church in Canada.

After retirement in 1991 he and Mae divided their time between Canada and Grenada, where he completed three books: Remembering for Tomorrow/ Se Souvenir pour Demain (CCCB 1995), a history of the CCCB’ first 50 years, 1943 to 1993; Even Greater Things (Novalis 1999), co-authored with Mae Daly and Bishop Remi De Roo about hopes and challenges after Vatican II; and Beyond Secrecy (Novalis 2003), an overview of Canadian participation at Vatican II. He returned to Toronto from 1993 – 1997 as editor / publisher of The Catholic Register.

Bernard’s interests and activities extended to various facets of Social Justice and active collaboration among Christian churches. In 1967, he was a member of the Canadian Interfaith Conference for Centennial Year. The same year, he sat on the drafting committee for the Joint Church Statement on Divorce, as well as being the Official CCC Observer at the International Conference on the Family at Laval University, Quebec. In 1968, he was a Founding member for the Joint Working Group of Canadian Catholic Conference and Canadian Council of Churches and a Fraternal Delegate to the United Church General Council, Kingston ON.

In 1969, Bernard was a participant in the “National Consultation on Family Life Education” at the Vanier Institute of the Family held in Banff AB, and the next year at the Couchiching Conference on “Love and the Establishment”. In 1971, Bernard was an observer at an ad hoc meeting on Family Planning for the Department of National Health and Welfare in Ottawa and a member of the Advisory Group for National Family Planning Conference at the Department of National Health and Welfare in Ottawa. In 1973 with the Canadian Bishops’ delegation, he attended the Inter-American Bishops Meeting on Family Issues in Rio de Janeiro.

He was staff coordinator for the Inter-Church Project on Population (ICPOP) from 1973 - 1978 and participant observer, non-governmental (NGO) status at the UN World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974, at the UN World Food Conference, Rome, 1974, and the UN World Conference on Human Habitation, Vancouver in 1976. In 1979, he was a participant observer in the Consultation on Southeast Asian Refugees in Bangkok, sponsored by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences; and later in Geneva, sponsored by the World Conference of Churches. Bernard was a founding member in 1979 and an executive committee member, between 1979 - 1983, for the Inter-Church Committee for Refugees, Toronto. Bernard was Vice-president in 1981 - 1982 for the Standing Conference of Canadian Organizations Concerned for Refugees, and a participant in the 1983 Round Table on the Movement of People at the International Institute for Humanitarian Law in Florence. He was President of the Board at Tannenhof Co-operative Homes Inc. in Ottawa from 1989 - 1991, and Chaired the Permanent Refugee Committee, Notre-Dame Cathedral-Basilica in Ottawa, in 1999.

In March 2002, a new website forum, FaithDoingJustice, aimed at promoting discussion of Catholic social teaching, was launched by the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice. It was directed by William F. Ryan SJ and edited by Bernard. The website was active until the deaths of both men.

Bernard wrote extensively beyond his commitments at the CCCB. He was a monthly contributor to The Canadian Churchman, an Anglican Church publication in Toronto, from 1966 - 1972, and to the Columbia, a Knights of Columbus periodical based in New Haven, CN, between1986 - 1991. Other major writing included: Family Life Education in Canada, Canadian Catholic Conference, Ottawa, 1968 “Christian Marriage: Is it Possible?” by Bernard Daly and Patrick Kerans, America, New York, 24 February 1973 “Who Actually Perceives the Problem?” Cooperation Canada, Canadian International Development Agency, Ottawa, January-February 1974 Public Policy on Population Questions: A Report to the Government of Canada, Canadian Institute of International Affairs in co-operation with the Family Planning Federation of Canada and the Inter-Church Project on Population (ICPOP, represented by Bernard Daly), May 1974 “How Many People Should There Be?” Ottawa Journal, 8 June 1974 “Population Planning,” Our Family, Battleford, Sk., June 1974 “BUCHAREST: Dossier Population,” by Bernard Daly and Clifton Monk, Relations, Montreal, October 1974 “Dans le bombardement des idées: La famille et la société,” Relations, Montreal, numéro spécial, January 1975 “Immigration and the Involvement of the Canadian Churches,” CCCB Office of Public Information, Ottawa, September 1975 “Immigration Policy-making: A Critique of Process,” in Immigration Policy-Making Process and Results, The Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Toronto, 1976 “A Place for People: Is Canada a Place for People?” Catholic New Times, Toronto, 13 March 1977 “Futurology and the Science Council of Canada,” The Chelsea Journal, Saskatoon, Sk., July-August 1977 “Immigration Laws and the Free Movement of People,” Ottawa Journal, 3 December 1977 “Public Perceptions and Policies: Who will be Free to Move?” Conference on the Pastoral Care of Peoples on the Move, Committee on Migration and Tourism, US National Conference of Catholic Bishops, New York, 2-4 February, 1978 “Immigration Policy: Its Impact on Canadian Society,” paper for National Conference on Multicultural and Bilingual Realities in Canadian Society, Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, Winnipeg, 17-21 April 1977, published by the Ontario Institute for Educational Studies, Spring 1979 Collaborator, in Marriage and the Family: Working Paper, Ottawa Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1980 With Aubert April, Family and Society, A CCCB Working Paper, Ottawa: Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1983 “Technology and Unemployment,” in Christian Faith & Economic Justice: Toward a Canadian Perspective,” edited by Cranford Pratt and Roger Hutchinson, Burlington: Trinity Press, 1988 “Lay Formation: For What Purpose?” Kerygma, Ottawa: Saint Paul University, 26, 1992 Remembering for Tomorrow: A History of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops 1943-1993, Ottawa: CCCB Publications Service, 1995 (also in French: Se Souvenir pour demain) “Four Canadian Interventions Helped to Shape Vatican II Decree on the Lay Apostolate,” in L’Église canadienne et Vatican II, Quebec: Fides, 1997 “The Mission of Catholic Newspapers in Canada,” in The Mission and Future of the Catholic Press: Catholic Journalists look at the Present and the Future, Ronkonkoma, NY: The Catholic Press Association, 1998 “A Priest’s Tale: The Evolution of the Thinking of Eugene Cullinane CSB,” The Canadian Catholic Historical Association, Historical Studies 1999, Vol. 65, Toronto: Canadian Catholic Historical Association Even Greater Things: Hope and Challenge after Vatican II, Bernard Daly, Mae Daly, Bishop Remi J. De Roo, Ottawa: Novalis, 1999 “Maxim Hermaniuk: Canadian Father of Collegiality at Vatican II… and After,” for colloque, “Vatican II: Enracinement et Réception,” Laval University, 23-14 August 1999 “Lay role in “new” evangelization”, Doctrine and Life, Vol. 50, April 2000, No. 4, Dublin “The Coming Synod of Bishops”, America, April 2, 2001 Beyond Secrecy: The Untold Story of Canada and the Second Vatican Council, Ottawa: Novalis, 2003