Seasons of the Vine
Growth is never sudden. It is a season of grace — tended patiently, year after year, until it bears fruit.
Christ tells us He is the true vine, and we are the branches — unable to bear fruit apart from Him. That conviction is the root of everything CPC does.
Formation is unglamorous, patient work — the Catholic Formation Track, mentorship, sacramental life, ordinary days spent tending mind and soul.
Graduates who reason with clarity and hold their faith with confidence — the fruit of years of quiet, deliberate cultivation.
Fr. Joseph Fessio studied theology in Regensburg, Germany, under one of the most formative theological minds of the last century — a young professor who would later be elected Pope Benedict XVI. That formation shaped the rest of his vocation.
In 1978, Fr. Fessio founded Ignatius Press, which has grown into the largest Catholic publishing house in the English-speaking world. Across five decades of priesthood, his habit of mind has stayed the same: he looks at what is difficult, asks “why don’t we do that?” — and then does it.
It’s a habit of mind we recognize. In the late 1990s, a Catholic couple in the Fraser Valley looked at the landscape of Catholic higher education and asked the same question Fr. Fessio once asked of Catholic publishing — why isn’t this being done? — and built Catholic Pacific College to answer it. Seasons of the Vine, our first annual gala, is one more step in that same work of building something that didn’t yet exist.
It is that same habit of mind — patient scholarship married to decisive faith — that Catholic Pacific College hopes to form in every student who walks through our doors.
An Evening to Savour
Seasons of the Vine is CPC’s first annual gala, and we hope you’ll feel the significance of that occasion as much as the fun of it: an evening built to thank the community that has carried CPC this far, and to gather support for the students still to come. It’s a celebration first — cider, live jazz and swing, a seated dinner, a silent auction, and dancing to close the night. Fr. Fessio’s reflection is one part of a full evening, not the whole of it.
Tickets & Sponsorship
Eighteen tables will be set for Seasons of the Vine. Sixteen are open for reservation — ten for general seating, six reserved for our Silver and Gold sponsors — with two set aside for CPC staff and faculty.
One seat at the table — cider, dinner, live music, Fr. Fessio’s keynote, and dancing to close the night.
A table of eight, reserved together for your group, friends, or parish.
Includes a reserved table, event recognition, and sponsor listing.
Includes a reserved table, premier recognition, and top sponsor billing.
All ticket and sponsorship purchases are completed securely through our Raisely registration form.
RSVP by Thursday, September 10, 2026.
Questions? Contact Scott Roy, President, at scott.roy@catholicpacific.ca.
Your presence — and your support — helps CPC tend the next season of Catholic formation.