Along with a good number of other churches, we've noticed a number of email scams that allegedly come from one of our priests.

Please do not send money or gift cards to our priests if requested to do so over email.

The email addresses used typically look like they could be real. One recent one was sent by "frephraim" from an account "@yahoo.com". They may ask for a favor, simply ask if you're busy, or directly ask for iTunes gift cards.

If you receive a message asking for help like this from one of our priests, either contact them directly (e.g. by phone, or by the email address listed on our website) to verify that it is really coming from them, or just ignore the message. Do not reply to it. Do not send money or gift cards.

Our official email addresses all end in @holyfamilycathedral.ca or @rcdos.ca (the official site for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon). Our priests will not use email accounts from Gmail, Yahoo, or any other providers for official communications, nor will they randomly ask you for money or gift cards.

Here are some other examples and news articles about these scams:

• Scam Alert: That's not your priest asking for gift cards!
• Fake priests target Alberta Catholics in email phishing scam
• Peterborough police warn of fake priest scam targeting parishioners

The recent worldwide sexual abuse reports are horrific. They have shocked and profoundly saddened the Catholic faith community.

Most especially, our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims. We, the Body of Christ, the Church, are deeply shamed by the sins and omissions that have taken place over the years. For this we are sorry and pray for forgiveness.