The Christian Interfaith Reference Group of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) has released a statement on religious freedom. At its November 2016 meeting, the CCC Governing Board provided general approval making the resource available to the Churches. The Reference Group includes representatives from a number of Christian Churches which are members of the CCC, including a representative from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Its mandate is to facilitate sharing and reflection on the experiences of CCC members engaged in interreligious dialogue. Referring to Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, the statement reminds Canadian society: "A healthy pluralism, one which genuinely respects differences and values them as such, does not entail privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the quiet obscurity of the individual's conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of places of worship."