For the OPs, an MD

For the 290th time, one of the church's most storied religious communities convened in General Chapter last week in Rome… and early this morning saw the highlight of the Dominicans' signal gathering: the election of a new Master of the Order, the ballot going to the French provincial, Fr Bruno Cadoré, who now becomes the 86th successor of St Dominic.

A medical doctor by (secular) profession, the 56 year-old friar (shown above left after his election) succeeds the Argentinian Carlos Azpiroz Costa, who maintained the order's longstanding tradition of handing over the reins after one nine-year term. Warmly hailed among his fans as a "stellar leader," Azpiroz's tenure was arguably overshadowed on the wider scene by the profile of his predecessor, the celebrated Englishman Timothy Radcliffe, who memorably declared on departing the post that "after nine years as a Jack of all trades and Master of the Dominican Order, I have no expertise on anything except airports and exotic foods."

The new Master inherits a community of some 7,000 men in 88 countries, who work in apostolates ranging from parishes to the Papal Palaces and, of course, the classroom -- its hallmark mission-field -- with the order either providing campus ministry at or operating hundreds of universities worldwide. Held every three years, the current Chapter has outlined its work in four questions on its mission, with an eye to the 800th anniversary of the order's confirmation by Pope Honorius III come 2016.

This year likewise marks the 500th anniversary of the Dominican presence in the Americas… and appropriately enough, the community's East Coast province recently made a splash by welcoming its largest novice class in almost a half-century.

Back at the Chapter, meanwhile, it's been nearly three decades since a Master of the Order hailed from French roots.

PHOTO: Lawrence Lew OP

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Quote of the Day

“[M]y hope is that the Vatican’s relationship with the local churches can be a sort of creative tension. I think life without tension would be very boring and useless. We can’t walk, we can’t talk, we can’t sing without tension. You need to have tension in your vocal chords and your back, let alone a guitar. However, tension can be destructive. The challenge is to recognise the diversity of gifts and the plurality of churches and the one spirit that unites us. And I think that is the adventure of a lifetime....

On the one hand, [the Roman Curia] is the oldest bureaucracy in the world. People love to say that. On the other hand, that bureaucracy, as one of our historians pointed out to me when I was ranting about the Curia: ‘Don’t forget, it guided the Church through a couple of world wars and great depressions and times when the Pope had died or was kidnapped by Napoleon.’ In that sense it has provided a service, but I think it has to be humble and make sure it is service and not simply bureaucracy.”

--Joseph Tobin C.SS.R
Titular Archbishop-elect of Obba
Secretary of the Congregation for
Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
Interview with the Catholic Herald
2 September 2010

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Back to "School," B16 Edition

The Pope won't be returning to his Vatican Apartment until September's end... already, though, signs of activity have started to show again, signaling that the gradual end to the Holy See's traditional summer hiatus is already underway.

In the Urb itself, the new prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, arrived last week to take up the all-powerful post. Some 20 miles away at Castel Gandolfo, meanwhile, last weekend saw the annual reunion of Professor Joseph Ratzinger's alumni with their Doktorvater -- the famous Schülerkreis ("student circle") colloquium, which the now-B16 began with his former students shortly after departing the academy in 1977, when he was appointed archbishop of Munich and Freising, and continued every summer since.

Focusing on a different topic each year chosen by the Professor, while the gathering of the roughly 40 theologians (clergy, religious and laity alike) mentored by the pontiff at the faculties of Tubingen and Regensburg has matters as contentious as Islam, "creation and evolution" and the historical Jesus -- and those just since his 2005 election -- this year's meeting tackled what could be considered its most provocative topic yet... and precisely that which constitutes the "golden thread" of Benedict's reign: namely, the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. What's more, the seminar marked the Curial "launch" of Archbishop Kurt Koch, as the new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity -- freshly arrived from Switzerland -- served as this Schülerkreis' sole presenter, then was received in the first private audience the pontiff's had since early July.

For the latter's part, the question of the Conciliar hermenutic has long loomed large in the Pope's thought. Above all others, though, Benedict's key intervention on the topic formed the bulk of his 2005 Christmas "Greeting" to the chiefs of the Roman Curia, a lengthy treatment which began as follows....

The last event of this year on which I wish to reflect here is the celebration of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council 40 years ago. This memory prompts the question: What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done? No one can deny that in vast areas of the Church the implementation of the Council has been somewhat difficult, even without wishing to apply to what occurred in these years the description that St Basil, the great Doctor of the Church, made of the Church's situation after the Council of Nicea: he compares her situation to a naval battle in the darkness of the storm, saying among other things: "The raucous shouting of those who through disagreement rise up against one another, the incomprehensible chatter, the confused din of uninterrupted clamouring, has now filled almost the whole of the Church, falsifying through excess or failure the right doctrine of the faith..."

We do not want to apply precisely this dramatic description to the situation of the post-conciliar period, yet something from all that occurred is nevertheless reflected in it. The question arises: Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult?

Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or - as we would say today - on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarrelled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit.

On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call "a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture"; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the "hermeneutic of reform", of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God.

The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. However, the true spirit of the Council is not to be found in these compromises but instead in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.

These innovations alone were supposed to represent the true spirit of the Council, and starting from and in conformity with them, it would be possible to move ahead. Precisely because the texts would only imperfectly reflect the true spirit of the Council and its newness, it would be necessary to go courageously beyond the texts and make room for the newness in which the Council's deepest intention would be expressed, even if it were still vague.

In a word: it would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit. In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim.

The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. However, the Constituent Assembly needs a mandator and then confirmation by the mandator, in other words, the people the constitution must serve. The Fathers had no such mandate and no one had ever given them one; nor could anyone have given them one because the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself.

The 2005 speech set the stage for two of this pontificate's signal moves: Summorum Pontificum, Benedict's 2007 motu proprio which significantly expanded the indult for the celebration of the pre-Conciliar liturgy, and the 2009 "remit" of the excommunications incurred by the four bishops of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, whose unauthorized 1988 ordinations created the most prominent schism of the post-Vatican II church. (Both acts demanded by the SSPX to ensure its agreement to reconciliation talks with Rome, the "doctrinal dialogue" began last fall, and in the best-case scenario, is expected to take years.)

In the Schülerkreis, Koch delivered two talks: one on the Council's stance "Between Tradition and Innovation," and another on its most familiar fruit -- the liturgical reform as envisioned in Sacrosanctum concilium.

As some previous editions of the weekend-long conference have been published, perhaps the stakes of the topic make this one even more book-worthy than usual.

* * *

On a Vatican tea-leaves note, the annual symposium saw the return of the lone non-Ratzinger alum to be "grandfathered" into the study-group: Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (left; Koch at right), whose last appearance in Benedict's orbit saw him receive an unprecedented trip to the Papal Woodshed for springtime comments which were viewed in some quarters as an excessive call for mandatory priestly celibacy to be "examined" as a possible cause of clergy sexual abuse, and his assertion that the dean of the College of Cardinals, the retired Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, "deeply wronged the victims" with his widely-criticized Easter morning praise of Benedict for holding firm amid "the petty gossip of the moment."

However, all seems to be especially forgiven now -- in what can only be construed as a particular sign of the pontiff's continuing trust in and esteem for the editor of the church's first universal catechism since Trent, Schönborn was called upon to preach Sunday's closing Mass of the Schülerkreis, which Benedict celebrated.

Since B16's election, the only other cleric able to boast of delivering a homily in the reigning Pope's presence is the preacher of the Papal Household, Capuchin Fr Raniero Cantalamessa. And in a liturgical context, by tradition, that only happens once a year -- at the Commemoration of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday afternoon (which, rubrically speaking, isn't a Mass).

While the Viennese prelate handled the day's main pulpit duties, Benedict did offer a brief reflection at the beginning of the liturgy, given below in a house English translation:

"Dear friends, at the close of today's Gospel, the Lord calls us to see how, in reality, we continue to live as Pagans: how, through reciprocity, we invite only those who will exchange the invitation; how we give only to those who will give back to us. Yet God's way is different: we experience it in the Holy Eucharist. He invites us to his table, that before him we are lame, blind and deaf; he calls us even though we have nothing to give him. During this event of the Eucharist, let us allow ourselves to experience above all gratitude for the fact that God exists, that He is like He is, that He is as Jesus Christ is, that He -- regardless of that we have nothing to give him and we are full of faults -- invites us to his table and wants to be at table with us. But let us likewise be touched by feeling the fault of distancing ourselves so little from the practice of the Pagans, of so little living this newness, this way of God. And for this let us begin this Holy Mass asking pardon: a pardon that changes us, that makes us become truly like unto God, truly into his image and likeness."

PHOTO: L'Osservatore Romano/POOL(1,2); Getty(3)

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Coming Soon: The Benedict Report

A quarter-century since Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's watershed Report on the state of the church twenty years after the close of Vatican II, this morning the Holy See announced that B16's first book-length interview since becoming Pope will appear before year's end.

In a Roman Noon statement, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, relayed that the pontiff sat for a full week of on-record conversations last month with Peter Seewald -- the German journalist whose prior no-holds-barred sessions with the then-CDF prefect were released in 1996 under the title Salt of the Earth, with a 2002 sequel, God and the World.

An atheist on his first encounters with Ratzinger, Seewald has credited Benedict with his conversion. Prior to the latest Seewald chats, the lone interview B16 has conducted since his 2005 election was an hourlong 2006 sitdown at Castel Gandolfo with four German reporters in advance of his homecoming trip to Bavaria... that said, one can't leave out the numerous question-and-answer sessions with groups of clerics, children and students which have become one of the German Pope's most preferred outlets for floating ideas and reaching beyond the bubble of the Papal Apartment.

Of course, the latest interview comes at a crucial moment in Benedict's five-year reign, following this year's European deluge of revelations of clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups perpetrated by church officials, with attempts being made to lay the scandals' trail at the Pope's doorstep. While no indicators of the sessions' content have yet emerged, amid the fallout of a crisis where, it could be said, the only voice missing was his, the backdrop's emergence in the conversations, even tangentially, would appear to be conspicuous by its absence.

On a related note, the third Seewald chat won't be the only new Ratzinger release hitting the shelves over the coming months: the Pope's second volume of his Jesus of Nazareth series is tipped for a Lenten release, most likely in March.

While 2007's first edition of the historical chronicle (Benedict's response to the Da Vinci Code craze) was released in English by Doubleday, the coming book is seeing a papal return to friendly confines -- Jesus II will be published by Ignatius Press, the San Francisco-based house that shepherded the pontiff's pre-papal works into the Anglophone world.

SVILUPPO: According to a German report picked up by the National Catholic Register's Edward Pentin, the book has the working title Das Licht Der Welt -- "The Light of the World."

PHOTO: AP

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Quote of the Day

“Today there is so much suffering - and I feel that the passion of Christ is being relived all over again - are we there to share that passion, to share that suffering of people?

Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult....

You must come to know the poor, maybe our people here have material things, everything, but I think that if we all look into our own homes, how difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each, other, and that the smile is the beginning of love. And so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love, and once we begin to love each other naturally we want to do something....

This is something that you and I - it is a gift of God to us to be able to share our love with others. And let it be as it was for Jesus. Let us love one another as he loved us. Let us love Him with undivided love. And the joy of loving Him and each other - let us give now... Let us keep that joy of loving Jesus in our hearts. And share that joy with all that we come in touch with. And that radiating joy is real, for we have no reason not to be happy because we have Christ with us. Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor that we meet, Christ in the smile that we give and the smile that we receive. Let us make that one point: That no child will be unwanted, and also that we meet each other always with a smile, especially when it is difficult to smile.”

--Mother Teresa, MC
Lecture for the Nobel Peace Prize
Oslo, Norway
11 December 1979

Beginning with a Mass at this hour in Calcutta, and from there across the globe, tonight sees the start of a yearlong centenary celebration marking the life of Blessed Teresa -- Mother Teresa -- born a hundred years ago tomorrow.

While just this first day's worldwide roster of liturgies includes high-profile rites everywhere from Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu's native Albania to New York and beyond, the principal Stateside celebration of the milestone comes instead on Bl Teresa's 5th September feast at Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with an afternoon Mass, followed by the formal presentation and first-issue of a US Postal Service first-class stamp (which is already available for pre-order).

The feast-day novena to the "Saint of the Gutters" coincidentally begins today... and lest anyone else's up to join in, here are the prayers; and here, her liturgical "collect" (opening prayer) -- which, given the restriction of the beatified to a "local" cult -- technically isn't supposed to be used outside India and the Missionaries of Charity... but still:

O God,
who called blessed Teresa, virgin
to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the cross
with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor,
grant us, we beseech you, by her intercession,
to minister to Christ in his suffering brothers.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

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"Into Your Hands, Father of Mercies..."

Apologies for the radio silence, gang... hiatus might be winding down, but spending today on the road to see a cherished friend and boyhood mentor -- indeed, one of the finest priests this scribe's ever been blessed to know -- to his final rest.

For the little family of us that’s grown out of these pages over the years, it’s been brutally common of late -- just since June, five of our number have been called home, three of ‘em suddenly... and despite being sagely warned as a kid that “you’ll see many funerals,” having this many within such a short space has been a tough blow to take. (I’ve been writing a memorial post for some time now in fits and starts... and over and over again, just when the words finally shake out right, word comes that another one’s gone.)

For these, any other loved ones and friends lost among this gang of us lately, and all those who mourn, church, your prayers, please. Above all, though, just wanted to say to this readership -- especially the many of you who’ve kept in touch through the years and, ergo, have made your narrator so blessed and lucky to call you my friends and fellow-travelers -- how much, how big, your place is in this heart, and how no words can sufficiently capture my thanks for the gift and blessing you are on this ride. Being terrible at multitasking, let alone omnipresence (something many of you know, perhaps too well), sometimes that sense might seem lost in the shuffle... where it counts, though, just know it's anything but.

God love you lot forever... and thanks a million, Doc -- rest well with the angels.

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In the Capital, Olympus "Monz"

And now, a U-turn back up the Turnpike....

Of course, Wednesday saw the installation (fullvid) of Bishop Joe McFadden -- beloved ballcoach and teacher, friend to the masses and all-around "people's prelate" -- in Harrisburg... and lest anyone doubted the impact of the loss on the hometown crowd, several members of the over 200-strong River City cortege were spotted weeping at one or another point during the two-day festivities.

In the run-up to the capital rites, one plank of the 63 year-old prelate's intro message that resounded loud and clear was McFadden's observation that, though he might've formally traded the court for the collar 35 years ago (after an undefeated season at West Catholic), in a way, he "never stopped coaching." And sure enough, as the various parts of the Last Krolite's considerable orbit converged, asking each other how they got to know "Joey Bishop," one reply easily trumped the rest: "Big East Tournament."

That said, in his first turn as an ecclesial head coach, the Midstate church's new chief won plaudits for a solid opening "pep talk" (fulltext), so much so that another well-accomplished church-scout observed afterward that, in his hearing, "it may have been the greatest vocation talk, all time. Heroic is an understatement. Any young man considering a vocation to priesthood needs to see and hear that homily."

Given such fulsome praise, here's the preach in fullvid...


As ever, all thanks to our friends at CatholicTV for making the grab possible.

As it all made for an eventful time, more recap later. In the meantime, to one and all, here's to a blessed, restful and all-around Happy Weekend.

PHOTO: Paul Kuehnel/York Daily Record

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Here Comes the Book: US Missal Implementation Set for Advent 2011

To the surprise of no one, the following announcement is fresh from the Mothership:

Cardinal Francis George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has announced that the full text of the English-language translation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, has been issued for the dioceses of the United States of America.

The text was approved by the Vatican, and the approval was accompanied by a June 23 letter from Cardinal Llovera Antonio Cañizares, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The Congregation also provided guidelines for publication.

In addition, on July 24, the Vatican gave approval for several adaptations, including additional prayers for the Penitential Act at Mass and the Renewal of Baptismal Promises on Easter Sunday. Also approved are texts of prayers for feasts specific to the United States such as Thanksgiving, Independence Day and the observances of feasts for saints such as Damien of Molokai, Katharine Drexel, and Elizabeth Ann Seton. The Vatican also approved the Mass for Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life, which can be celebrated on January 22.

Cardinal George announced receipt of the documents in an August 20 letter to the U.S. Bishops and issued a decree of proclamation that states that “The use of the third edition of the Roman Missal enters into use in the dioceses of the United States of America as of the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011. From that date forward, no other edition of the Roman Missal may be used in the dioceses of the United States of America.”

The date of implementation was chosen to allow publishers time to prepare texts and parishes and dioceses to educate parishioners.

“We can now move forward and continue with our important catechetical efforts as we prepare the text for publication,” Cardinal George said.

In the coming weeks, staff of the bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship will prepare the text for publication and collaborate with the staff of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), which will assist Bishops’ Conferences in bringing the text to publication. In particular, ICEL has been preparing the chant settings of the texts of the Missal for use in the celebration of the Mass. Once all necessary elements have been incorporated into the text and the preliminary layout is complete, the final text will go to the publishers to produce the ritual text, catechetical resources and participation aids for use in the Liturgy.

Receipt of the text marks the start of proximate preparation for Roman Missal implementation. Before first use of the new text in Advent 2011, pastors are urged to use resources available to prepare parishioners. Some already have been in use; others are being released now. They include the Parish Guide for the Implementation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, and Become One Body, One Spirit in Christ, a multi-media DVD resource produced by ICEL in collaboration with English-language Conferences of Bishops. Both will be available from the USCCB. Information on resources can be found at www.usccb.org/romanmissal

Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey, Chair of the Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, voiced gratitude for the approval.

“I am happy that after years of preparation, we now have a text that, when introduced late next year, will enable the ongoing renewal of the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy in our parishes,” he said. Msgr. Anthony Sherman, Director of the Secretariat for Divine Worship of the USCCB noted, “A great effort to produce the new Roman Missal for the United States, along with the other necessary resources, has begun. Even as that work is underway a full–scale catechesis about the Liturgy and the new Roman Missal should be taking place in parishes, so that when the time comes, everyone will be ready.”

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Hatman Begins

Having been farewelled at a large Assumption Day Mass in Quebec, next week sees Cardinal Marc Ouellet depart Canada's Premier See for Rome and his place in the Vatican's "Big Three" as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

The first Canadian ever tapped to head a Roman Congregation, and the first North American to be given the keys to the all-powerful "Bishops' Shop," the incoming Kingmaker and chief overseer of the global church's 5,000-odd prelates marked the transition with one of his favored pasttimes -- a round of interviews -- along the way shedding some light on the qualities he'll be seeking in recommending candidates for the high-hat to B16 at their weekly Saturday sit-downs.

First, to Canadian Catholic News' Deborah Gyapong:

In his new duties helping the Pope choose bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet will be looking for bold “men of faith” who have “the guts to help people live it out.”

A bishop has to lead the community, so he needs a deep supernatural vision as well as the capacity to assess the political, cultural, and sociological context, said the new Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops in an interview. Above all, a bishop must be “audacious in proposing the Word and in believing in the Power of the Word and the power of the Spirit.”

“We have to dare to speak to the deep heart, where the Spirit of the Lord is touching people beyond what we can calculate,” said Ouellet. “We need spiritual discernment and not just political calculation of the risk of the possibility of the message being received.”...

Ouellet also stressed the importance of solidarity among bishops....

The need for unity and solidarity goes far beyond any political statements, he said, but involves a personal commitment that rises beyond a dogmatic faith to an “existential faith that means spiritual discernment of the presence of God and of God’s will.”

We are in a world where the Christian heritage being strongly contested, so we have to recognize that and propose it better, though not through an attempt to restore the past, he said.

“We have to tell people about the Crucified and Risen Lord, who is shaping the Church today, with people faithful to His Word, to His Divine Presence and to the community he wants to see living of His Spirit.”

A bishop must always take a personal approach, he said. Bishops not only must state dogmatic positions, they must believe in them deeply, “then you have the power of conviction.”

“If you state it only formally and in the end you do not really want to see it applied because you don’t believe that it is possible that people accept it, you are in trouble for the transmission of the message,” he said.

Bishops must also be close to people, he said. Being spiritual does not mean keeping a distance.

“The Lord has given us his own heart to be a presence of His heart in the midst of the people,” the cardinal said. “So we have to be aware of that and cultivate what we call holiness, unity with Him, daily unity, in a way that is very human and very spiritual.”

He advocated an ascetical attitude in prayer to maintain purity of heart. “The love of the people is fulfilling the life of the priest.”...

Ouellet called for openness to new movements in the Church, and expressed hopes those already in Quebec, such as Famille Marie-Jeunesse, Catholic Christian Outreach, and the Eucharistic movement around the Youth Summit/Montee Jeunesse will “multiply.”

“I believe deeply there will be a new evangelization,” he said.

The Cardinal also called for a new intellectual dynamism, especially a reform of education to “recapture the spirit of Christianity and “create a new Christian culture.”

“We need intellectuals for that, theologians, philosophers, Christians who really believe in the Gospel and share the doctrine of the Church on moral questions,” he said.

“We have suffered from this mentality of dissent” that is “still dominating the intelligentsia.”

“There is no real discipleship there, real discipleship,” he said. “The discipleship that is emerging is from those who believe and who really love the Church.”

As Ouellet succeeds the quintessential Vatican operative who's kept the trains running on time, perhaps the best nutshell assessment of his desired skill-set is that he'll be seeking out "movers, not managers."

That said, it's intriguing to note that the Quebecois' ascent to the Congregation was decided at the same point in mid-June when the pontiff himself delivered a particularly pointed passage to a group of Brazilian bishops... and, by extension, the global episcopate:

"The task of sanctifying that you have received obliges you in addition to be promoters and animators of prayer in the human city, often chaotic, noisy and forgetful of God: you must create places and opportunities for prayer where in silence, in listening to God, in personal and community prayer, the person can encounter and have a living experience of Jesus Christ who reveals the authentic Face of the Father. Parishes and shrines, areas of education and suffering and families must become places of communion with the Lord.

Lastly, as guides of the Christian people, you must encourage the participation of all the faithful in building the Church, in governing with the heart of a humble servant and an affectionate Pastor, aspiring to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. By virtue of the task of governance the Bishop is also called to judge and discipline the life of the People of God entrusted to his pastoral care through laws, directives and suggestions, as the universal discipline of the Church prescribes. This right and duty is very important if the diocesan community is to remain inwardly united and to walk in sincere communion of faith, love and discipline with the Bishop of Rome and with the whole Church. Therefore do not tire of nourishing the faithful with the sense of belonging to the Church and the joy of fraternal communion.

However, the Bishop's governance will be pastorally effective only if "it rests on a moral authority bestowed by his life of holiness. This is what will dispose hearts to accept the Gospel that the Bishop proclaims in his Church, as well as the rules which he lays down for the good of the People of God" (ibid., n. 43). Consequently, moulded from within by the Holy Spirit, may each one of you become "all things to all men" (cf. 1 Cor 9: 22), proposing the truth of the faith, celebrating the sacraments of our sanctification and witnessing to the Lord's charity. Accept with an open heart all who knock at your door: advise them, comfort them and support them on God's path, seeking to guide them all toward that unity of faith and love of which, by the Lord's will, you must be the principal and visible foundation in your dioceses."

Meanwhile, Ouellet talked The Scandals and his new responsibilities with the National Post's Charlie Lewis...

“I think there was a certain culture of secrecy along with an ignorance of the psychological consequences of sexual abuse in parts of the Church in which people were displaced instead of really taking the problem very seriously,” he said in an interview from Quebec City yesterday. “[For those who committed abuse] there was no coherence between their lives and pastoral service.”...

“My role is to help the Holy Father to provide the best pastoral leadership for the Church. And that’s the big challenge ahead of me, especially in the context of what has gone on. We need people who can teach with eloquence and compassion the moral implications of the Gospel.”...

Like Pope Benedict, Cardinal Ouellet believes that many Catholics interpreted the teachings of Vatican II as far too liberal and by doing so disconnected from the core of their faith.

Unfortunately, he said, it led to priests abandoning celibacy, a drop in proper religious education and a general infusion of leftist politics — all of which was not the intention of the council.

“After the council, the sense of mission was replaced by the idea of dialogue. That we should dialogue with other faiths and not attempt to bring them the Gospels, to convert. Since then, relativism has been developing more broadly.”

...and Commonweal contributes a notable assessment:

One of the defining features of Ouellet’s style is his habit for generating controversies. In May of this year, for instance, while supporting the federal government’s international maternal health-care initiative—a project that will not fund abortions in developing countries—the cardinal lamented that abortion was a “moral crime.” The media understood his words to be rallying call for the recriminalization of abortion, even though he neither said nor implied as much. The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the abortion law in 1988 and nothing has replaced it. No Prime Minister—from the Catholics Jean Chretien and Paul Martin to the Evangelical Stephen Harper—dared to reintroduce legislation, leaving Canada as one of the few nations with no abortion law.

The cardinal’s comments were neither incendiary nor surprising. But, unlike his brother bishops who understand the difficulties of the terrain, move gingerly through the minefields, and try to rebuild credibility as religious leaders in a secularizng world, Ouellet plunges in where even angels fear to tread.

The extreme reactions he elicits have become a defining feature of his leadership. A recent poll has shown that 94 percent of Quebeckers oppose Ouellet’s position on abortion. His episcopal colleagues are aware of the polls. They understand that an effective strategy for consciousness-raising requires rebuilding the church’s credibility in a province that has—in a generation—moved from being as Catholic as preconciliar Ireland to being as secular as France.

Yet, Cardinal Ouellet, in spite of his capacity for stirring resistance, is approachable, personable, and a man of deep faith. I spent time with him a couple of years ago when he came to the parish of St. Francis de Sales in New Brunswick. He was presiding at an anniversary Mass of uncommon liturgical beauty. The choir sung superbly. There were liturgical dancers—and even altar girls. It was an elegant rite defined by a deep festive spirit. Ouellet was clearly in his element, delivered a homily in eloquent French, and effortlessly mingled with parishioners. If he brings those pastoral and spiritual sensibilities to bear in his new role as “bishop-maker,” Catholics worldwide will benefit. Yes, candidates he recommends will be ecclesiologically conservative, but, one hopes, neither doctrinaire nor unapproachable. In other words, like the man who helped to choose them, Ouellet’s bishops will be real pastors.

While some of his provincial confreres have seen fit to critique the new Prefect on his passage, it bears repeating that a majority of Quebec's 19 dioceses will open over the next two years as its occupants reach the retirement age of 75.

Leading that list is the 1.6 million-member Montreal church, where Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte hits the milestone next June. Meanwhile, alongside the choice of his own successor at the helm of Quebec City's million-member fold, likewise already on the docket is a new head of Anglophone Canada's third-largest see: Ontario's 560,000-strong Hamilton diocese, where Bishop Anthony Tonnos turned 75 earlier this month (...and whose auxiliary, according to one local report, "would welcome being considered" for the chair).

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