Last week, our Judicial Vicar, Father Vincent Pereira convoked a gathering of men and women who are involved in serving the Catholic faithful in the Catholic Marriage Tribunals of the Ottawa ecclesiastical province (dioceses of Hearst, Timmins, Pembroke and Ottawa).

The occasion allowed persons who are in contact with each other by post, phone and electronic mail to meet in person and to find support in the often difficult ecclesial service of meeting with men and women whose marital difficulties raise the issue of whether there was a true marriage, as they simultaneously strive to defend the bond of marriage as willed by God the Creator for humanity and by Christ Jesus for his disciples as a reflection of his love for his body, the church.

There were two presentations by Father Pereira (Some Procedural Notes to Seek the Truth) and Mr. Robert Lariviere (The Art of Instructing a Case) followed by discussions, a luncheon and, at the end of the day, joined by my Vicars, Mass celebrated in the Archbishops' Chapel, a reception and formal dinner at my residence.

Here are some photos from the latter part of the day (I had forgotten to take my camera to the events at the Diocesan Centre):

Today in prayer I will join in spirit with grieving Catholics in Milan, where the funeral of the Capuchin Archbishop of Anatolia, Turkey, will be celebrated.

Whatever authorities finally may conclude about his murder (allegedly by his driver who had been treated as a family member), Archbishop Luigi Padovese's personal and intellectual qualities made him someone who sought and shared the truth with his tiny Christian community and the many Muslims with whom he entered into dialogue.

Father Thomas Michel, a Jesuit Islamologist who teaches in Ankara and is committed to interreligious dialogue, spoke of Bishop Padovese's qualities in an interview in the All Things Catholic blog of John Allen (www.ncronline.org):

What was your impression of Bishop Padovese?

He was a breath of fresh air for the Turkish episcopacy. He brought a lot of new ideas, he was dynamic, and he launched a number of important initiatives. The other bishops saw him as a natural leader, which is why they made him president of the episcopal conference. For instance, one of his priorities was the preparation of catechetical materials. Because the Turkish-speaking Christian community is so small, they don't have many resources. He would take good stuff in Italian and other languages and publish it in Turkish, so his people would have a solid formation in the faith.

With regard to Islam, he was a real leader in dialogue. He had good relations with many Muslim leaders. He had a strong personal friendship with the Turkish Ambassador to the Holy See, and good ties with the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Turkey. They issued a glowing tribute to him after the news broke that he had been killed. More than any other, he was the bishop in Turkey who truly believed in the importance of dialogue.

Padovese was also a very good scholar, a Patrologist. He was an expert on the Capadocian Fathers, and for years he led Pauline tours of Turkey, preaching about St. Basil and the two Gregories. He wrote a pilgrimage guide to Turkey which is still a fine resource.

Allen adds his own personal remarks from encounters with this charming archbishop:

Over the years, I had the chance to meet Padovese and to interview him on several occasions. (The fact that he was a Capuchin, and that I grew up in Capuchin schools and parishes, meant that we actually knew some of the same people.) I always found him to be a perfect expression of the Capuchin ethos: utterly unpretentious, a lively sense of humor, honest and realistic, and primarily concerned with ordinary people.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

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The Ideal of the Priesthood

This reflection is an excerpt of a longer piece that appeared in our Catholic Register this week [www.catholicregister.org].

It speaks of the pressures on priests because of the widespread knowledge of abuse committed by some priests. It also tells of the idealism and zeal of priests that moves them to make sacrifices in the spirit of a generous follower of Christ:

Say a prayer for us, your priests

The Catholic world is reeling under the huge storm of scandals and it pains me to see such things happening. One person went to the extent of saying that “I don’t feel like going to Church any more to hear the great and lofty ideals that these people preach.”

We have reached a stage where people are thinking of giving up on the Church, and priests in general are being blamed for it. Many of us Catholics are joining this outcry. Priests are being looked at with different eyes now — eyes of suspicion, and understandably so. This hurts and pains me as I am a priest.

Yes I am ashamed, I must admit, about what has happened. A priest is supposed to be one who is trusted, at times trusted even more than one’s own parents. A priest is meant to heal and to care and when a priest fails to do that it is saddening.

At the same time I am sad that many people are suddenly changing their opinions about priests. It is a shame that the acts of a few priests are disturbing our faith in the Church and in the priesthood. But let us not forget the many priests who have made an impact on our lives even without our knowing it.

I am a priest. But I am also a son of loving parents, I am also a brother to wonderful siblings, I am an uncle to beautiful nephews and nieces. There are days when I long so much to see my parents; there are days when I would love to be with my brother and sister and their families; there are days when I want to play with my nephews and nieces. I, a priest, desire these very human things.

My brother and sister are bugged when I go to bed at midnight and get up at 4 a.m. saying that I am not getting enough sleep. How do I make them understand that I am kneeling and crying and praying for someone who has asked for my prayers? When they see me losing weight, how do I tell them that I am fasting and praying for some mother who is crying out for her wayward son, or for a childless couple who are praying desperately for a baby to hold in their arms? When they complain that I do not come home for a family function, how do I tell them that the needs of the faithful outside my door are my first priority?

These are things that every priest struggles with. Maybe some of us don’t know that we owe a lot to these men who sacrifice so much.

As a priest I tell the faithful: You ask us to pray for you in your time of need and for you to overcome your weaknesses in life. Today your priests are in need of your prayers....

(The author Fr. Michael Payyapilly, V.C., is assistant director of the Divine Retreat Centre in Muringoor, Kerala, India)

Gathering Nations International



Kenny Blacksmith is an evangelical leader among the First Nations of Canada and has convoked an assembly this weekend at the Civic Centre (Lansdowne Park) to invite the Native Elders of Canada to reflect upon the Government of Canada's apology by Prime Minister Harper for the harm that resulted from the policy of the residential schools and to respond to it by offering forgiveness for the harm done so that, ultimately, repentance, reconciliation, restoration and healing may issue from the process.

Many religious leaders were invited to witness to the Christian Church's role in collaborating in the harm effected by the residential schools and to ask for forgivness. It was a very powerful experience: praise and worship music of high quality, beautiful skits to illustrate the challenges being faced, vivid testimonies by leaders such as Chiefs Elijah Harper and Billy Diamond and an emotional mutual act of asking for and granting forgiveness.



The televangelist David Mainse of 100 Huntley Street (above right), several others and I spoke the apology on our own behalf as leaders in the religious community in the hope that this would, in God's time, further the process of forgiveness and love.

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Pope Benedict XVI speaks at Closing of the Year of Priests



This homily is rather on the long side, but it is a profound meditation of what the Church universal has been experiencing in the Year of Priests which came to a close on Friday. In its own way it speaks to the reality of Forgiveness and Love:

Dear Brothers in the Priestly Ministry, Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Year for Priests which we have celebrated on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of the holy Curè of Ars, the model of priestly ministry in our world, is now coming to an end. We have let the Curé of Ars guide us to a renewed appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere office-holder, like those which every society needs in order to carry out certain functions.

Instead, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ’s name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life. Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ’s words of thanksgiving, which are words of transubstantiation – words which make Christ himself present, the Risen One, his Body and Blood – words which thus transform the elements of the world, which open the world to God and unite it to him.


The priesthood, then, is not simply "office" but sacrament: God makes use of us poor men in order to be, through us, present to all men and women, and to act on their behalf. This audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings – who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in his stead – this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word "priesthood".

That God thinks that we are capable of this; that in this way he calls men to his service and thus from within binds himself to them: this is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year. We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, and our gratitude for the fact that he entrusts himself to our infirmities; that he guides and sustains us daily. In this way we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist – and that God is indeed waiting for us to say "yes".

Together with the whole Church we wanted to make clear once again that we have to ask God for this vocation. We have to beg for workers for God’s harvest, and this petition to God is, at the same time, his own way of knocking on the hearts of young people who consider themselves able to do what God considers them able to do. It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the "enemy"; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.

We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.

Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in "earthen vessels" which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility.

The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of today’s liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be a priest: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart" (Mt 11:29).

We are celebrating the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in the liturgy we peer, as it were, into the heart of Jesus opened in death by the spear of the Roman soldier. Jesus’ heart was indeed opened for us and before us – and thus God’s own heart was opened. The liturgy interprets for us the language of Jesus’ heart, which tells us above all that God is the shepherd of mankind, and so it reveals to us Jesus’ priesthood, which is rooted deep within his heart; so too it shows us the perennial foundation and the effective criterion of all priestly ministry, which must always be anchored in the heart of Jesus and lived out from that starting-point.

Today I would like to meditate especially on those texts with which the Church in prayer responds to the word of God presented in the readings. In those chants, word (Wort) and response (Antwort) interpenetrate. On the one hand, the chants are themselves drawn from the word of God, yet on the other, they are already our human response to that word, a response in which the word itself is communicated and enters into our lives.

The most important of those texts in today’s liturgy is Psalm 23(22) – "The Lord is my shepherd" – in which Israel at prayer received God’s self-revelation as shepherd, and made this the guide of its own life. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want": this first verse expresses joy and gratitude for the fact that God is present to and concerned for humanity. The reading from the Book of Ezechiel begins with the same theme: "I myself will look after and tend my sheep" (Ez 34:11).

God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. God looks after me. He is not a distant God, for whom my life is worthless. The world’s religions, as far as we can see, have always known that in the end there is only one God. But this God was distant. Evidently he had abandoned the world to other powers and forces, to other divinities. It was with these that one had to deal. The one God was good, yet aloof. He was not dangerous, nor was he very helpful. Consequently one didn’t need to worry about him. He did not lord it over us.

Oddly, this kind of thinking re-emerged during the Enlightenment. There was still a recognition that the world presupposes a Creator. Yet this God, after making the world, had evidently withdrawn from it. The world itself had a certain set of laws by which it ran, and God did not, could not, intervene in them. God was only a remote cause. Many perhaps did not even want God to look after them. They did not want God to get in the way. But wherever God’s loving concern is perceived as getting in the way, human beings go awry.

It is fine and consoling to know that there is someone who loves me and looks after me. But it is far more important that there is a God who knows me, loves me and is concerned about me. "I know my own and my own know me" (Jn 10:14), the Church says before the Gospel with the Lord’s words. God knows me, he is concerned about me. This thought should make us truly joyful.

Let us allow it to penetrate the depths of our being. Then let us also realize what it means: God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share his concern about people. As priests, we want to be persons who share his concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God’s concern. Whatever the field of activity entrusted to him, the priest, with the Lord, ought to be able to say: "I know my sheep and mine know me". "To know", in the idiom of sacred Scripture, never refers to merely exterior knowledge, like the knowledge of someone’s telephone number. "Knowing" means being inwardly close to another person. It means loving him or her. We should strive to "know" men and women as God does and for God’s sake; we should strive to walk with them along the path of friendship with God.

Let us return to our Psalm. There we read: "He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me" (23[22]:3ff.). The shepherd points out the right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches us the art of being a person.

What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and woman must ask and one which remains valid at every moment of one’s life. How much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus, who felt compassion for the crowds because they were like a flock without a shepherd. Lord, have mercy on us too! Show us the way! From the Gospel we know this much: he is himself the way.

Living with Christ, following him – this means finding the right way, so that our lives can be meaningful and so that one day we might say: "Yes, it was good to have lived". The people of Israel continue to be grateful to God because in the Commandments he pointed out the way of life. The great Psalm 119(118) is a unique expression of joy for this fact: we are not fumbling in the dark. God has shown us the way and how to walk aright.

The message of the Commandments was synthesized in the life of Jesus and became a living model. Thus we understand that these rules from God are not chains, but the way which he is pointing out to us. We can be glad for them and rejoice that in Christ they stand before us as a lived reality. He himself has made us glad. By walking with Christ, we experience the joy of Revelation, and as priests we need to communicate to others our own joy at the fact that we have been shown the right way.

Then there is the phrase about the "darkest valley" through which the Lord leads us. Our path as individuals will one day lead us into the valley of the shadow of death, where no one can accompany us. Yet he will be there. Christ himself descended into the dark night of death. Even there he will not abandon us. Even there he will lead us. "If I sink to the nether world, you are present there", says Psalm 139(138).

Truly you are there, even in the throes of death, and hence our Responsorial Psalm can say: even there, in the darkest valley, I fear no evil. When speaking of the darkest valley, we can also think of the dark valleys of temptation, discouragement and trial through which everyone has to pass. Even in these dark valleys of life he is there. Lord, in the darkness of temptation, at the hour of dusk when all light seems to have died away, show me that you are there. Help us priests, so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights. So that we can show them your own light.

"Your rod and your staff – they comfort me": the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult crossings. Both of these are likewise part of the Church’s ministry, of the priest’s ministry.

The Church too must use the shepherd’s rod, the rod with which he protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God’s gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod must always become once again the shepherd’s staff – a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord.

At the end of the Psalm we read of the table which is set, the oil which anoints the head, the cup which overflows, and dwelling in the house of the Lord. In the Psalm this is an expression first and foremost of the prospect of the festal joy of being in God’s presence in the temple, of being his guest, whom he himself serves, of dwelling with him.

For us, who pray this Psalm with Christ and his Body which is the Church, this prospect of hope takes on even greater breadth and depth. We see in these words a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God himself makes us his guests and offers himself to us as food –as that bread and fine wine which alone can definitively sate man’s hunger and thirst.

How can we not rejoice that one day we will be guests at the very table of God and live in his dwelling-place? How can we not rejoice at the fact that he has commanded us: "Do this in memory of me"? How can we not rejoice that he has enabled us to set God’s table for men and women, to give them his Body and his Blood, to offer them the precious gift of his very presence. Truly we can pray together, with all our heart, the words of the Psalm: "Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Ps 23[22]:6).

Finally, let us take a brief look at the two communion antiphons which the Church offers us in her liturgy today. First there are the words with which Saint John concludes the account of Jesus’ crucifixion: "One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out" (Jn 19:34). The heart of Jesus is pierced by the spear. Once opened, it becomes a fountain: the water and the blood which stream forth recall the two fundamental sacraments by which the Church lives: Baptism and the Eucharist.

From the Lord’s pierced side, from his open heart, there springs the living fountain which continues to well up over the centuries and which makes the Church. The open heart is the source of a new stream of life; here John was certainly also thinking of the prophecy of Ezechiel who saw flowing forth from the new temple a torrent bestowing fruitfulness and life (Ez 47): Jesus himself is the new temple, and his open heart is the source of a stream of new life which is communicated to us in Baptism and the Eucharist.

The liturgy of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus also permits another phrase, similar to this, to be used as the communion antiphon. It is taken from the Gospel of John: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me. And let the one who believes in me drink. As the Scripture has said: "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water" (cf. Jn 7:37ff.) In faith we drink, so to speak, of the living water of God’s Word. In this way the believer himself becomes a wellspring which gives living water to the parched earth of history.

We see this in the saints. We see this in Mary, that great woman of faith and love who has become in every generation a wellspring of faith, love and life. Every Christian and every priest should become, starting from Christ, a wellspring which gives life to others. We ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirst world. Lord, we thank you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Lord bless us, and bless all those who in our time are thirsty and continue to seek. Amen.

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The Theme of the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time is Forgiveness and Love.



Forgiveness and love are intermingled in today's gospel story (Luke 7:36-8:3), but one could get the impression that the sinful woman was forgiven much because she loved much. However, that is to get matters reversed, Jesus says; rather, she is able to manifest overflowing love because she had been forgiven much, as becomes clear from the parable Jesus tells:

‘Simon, I have something to say to you,’ [Jesus said]. ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’ 41 ‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii,* and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’ 43 Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus* said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ 44 Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’ 48 Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ 49 But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ 50 And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

St. Paul reiterates that God's forgiveness comes first and we reply with deeds of love in the second reading of today's liturgy from Galatians 2:16, 19-21:

"We know that a person is justified* not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.* And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ,* and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law....19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,* who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification* comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing."

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Vie de l’Église: Des évêques qui bloguent

In this Sunday's Prions en ÉgliseFrancois Gloutenay tells of bishops in Canada and France who blog, including yours truly (p. 37).

Today the liturgy permits an Optional Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

In the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Savior's Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church should celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This is not a new devotion. In the seventeenth century, St. John Eudes preached it together with that of the Sacred Heart; in the nineteenth century, Pius VII and Pius IX allowed several churches to celebrate a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. Pius XII instituted today's feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession "peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue" (Decree of May 4, 1944).

The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The Gospel itself invited this attention with exquisite discretion and delicacy. What was first excited was compassion for the Virgin Mother. It was, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross that the Christian heart first made the acquaintance of the Heart of Mary.

Simeon's prophecy paved the way and furnished the devotion with one of its favourite formulae and most popular representations: the heart pierced with a sword. But Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the Cross; "she cooperated through charity", as St. Augustine says, "in the work of our redemption".

It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that slight indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St. Bernard (De duodecim stellis). Stronger evidences are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and also in the large book De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent.

In St. Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1302) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A little earlier it had been included by St. Thomas Becket in the devotion to the joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (d.1245), one of the first spiritual children of St. Dominic, in his other devotions to Mary, and somewhat later it appeared in St. Bridget's Book of Revelations.

St. Ambrose perceived in her the model of a virginal soul. St. Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) was more absorbed in the contemplation of the virginal heart, and it is from him that the Church has borrowed the lessons of the Second Nocturn for the feast of the Heart of Mary. St. Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for God, and dedicated to it his Theotimus.

In the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to St. Jean Eudes (d. 1681) to propagate the devotion, to make it public, and to have a feast celebrated in honor of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards in a number of French dioceses.

In 1799 Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In 1805 Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the feast was soon widely observed.

Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement, started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this movement were first of all the revelation of the "miraculous medal" in 1830 and all the prodigies that followed, and then the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the source of numberless graces. On 21 July 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church. [--Excerpted from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 edition]

DIOCESAN FEAST: 163rd of the Diocese, 124th of the Archdiocese

Les Soeurs de la Visitation Monastery were special guests at this year's diocesan feast as they mark 100 years since their arrival in Canada, on Richmond Road in Ottawa.

These last four contemplatives will leave the Archdiocese in early July to take up reside on a floor in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Pembroke. They have given me consolation by the fact that, after the move, they will still be in the Ottawa Ecclesiastical Province (dioceses of Hearst, Pembroke, Ottawa and Timmins), will keep their civil name (Soeurs de la Visitation d'Ottawa) and will continue to pray for the needs of the Archdiocese.

Besides a substantial gift to support the needs of the Archdiocese and the Priests Pension Plan, they presented me with a beautiful chalice and paten in gratitude for the ministry countless priest chaplains have afforded them over these ten decades. The chalice was used in the Mass on Thursday evening.

The Diocesan Feast begins with a review of the parish banners which are carried in procession, preceded by a KofC Honour Guard

Four brothers from St. Bernard's Parish (Blossom Park) carry their parish's emblem

Ottawa's Holy Spirit Chinese Catholic Community was well-represented

St. Hyacinth Polish Parish brought two banners

The Eucharist was concelebrated by a large number of priests, marking the close of the Year of the Priesthood

The reception after Mass in the cathedral parish hall allowed greetings to be exchanged with many of those attending, here Soeurs de Charite d'Ottawa

Representatives of Annunciation of Our Lord Parish, Gloucester (Associate Pastor Father Jonathan Blake, who served as Master of Ceremonies of the Liturgy, is in the background)

Members of the German-speaking parish, St. Albertus Pfarrgemeinde with pastor Fr. Ernst Schoenhammer, OMI, the archdiocese's longest-serving pastor

Photo credit: Heri Riesbeck

Last evening, Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica hosted this year's DIOCESAN FEAST, linking the close of the PASTORAL YEAR with the SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART. Here is my bilingual homily for the occasion:

« L’AMOUR DU CŒUR DE JÉSUS » - Fête diocésaine – 10 juin/ June 10, 2010 - Diocesan Celebration, Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, Ottawa [Texts: Ezekiel 34: 11-16; Psalm 22 (23); Romans 5, 5b-11; Luke 15, 3-7] “THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS”

Personne n’ignore ce que le mot « cœur » signifie. Le Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, c’est le Cœur de celui qui a donné sa vie pour nous. Saint Paul ne sépare jamais la mort du Christ de sa résurrection. Ce don continue dans la célébration de l’Eucharistie, aujourd’hui comme hier et jusqu’à la fin des temps. Ce don n’est pas « global », mais il est offert à chaque personne, ici et maintenant.

L’Église prie aujourd’hui pour la sanctification des prêtres. Le saint Curé d’Ars, patron de tous les prêtres, disait : « Le sacerdoce, c’est l’amour du cœur de Jésus. » En juin dernier, peu de gens pouvaient soupçonner les drames qui ont été mis à jour au cours de cette année. Et pourtant, nous savons que le péché et le mal ne sont jamais le dernier mot.

The Church prays today for the sanctification of priests. The Curé of Ars used to say: “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.” Last June, very few could foresee the dramatic turn of events that have come to light in recent months. But we know that in the end, evil never triumphs.

Ezekiel and Jesus both give us an image of the Lord who cares for his flock, heals the wounded, redresses wrongs. The Lord speaks of “my sheep”; the Psalmist talks about “my shepherd”: each belongs to the other.

We are gathered to give thanks to God for this pastoral year that is almost complete. During it, each parish has experienced happy moments, while some have suffered losses. A few parishes celebrated their jubilee; others had to join another community to survive. Eight of our brother priests returned Home, while we ordained two permanent deacons and one deacon preparing for priesthood.

People of all ages completed their sacramental initiation, and others came into full communion with the Catholic Church. Catholics from various countries and cultures came together to profess a common faith. Many couples shared with us the joy of their many years of fidelity in the sacrament of matrimony.

Some might say that such events are celebrated every year. That’s true, but when remembering blessings from the Lord, there is no such thing as “repetition”. Each person is unique, and God’s marvels are new every morning.

Nous sommes réunis pour rappeler notre année pastorale 2009-2010. Chaque paroisse a vécu des moments heureux, mais certaines, des moments de deuils. Certaines ont fêté avec enthousiasme un jubilé, alors que d’autres communautés ont dû s’unir afin d’assurer la continuité de leur vie de foi. Huit de nos confrères prêtres sont retournés à Dieu, alors que nous avons ordonné un diacre en vue du presbytérat, et deux diacres permanents.

Des gens de tous âges ont complété leur initiation sacramentelle, et d’autres se sont joints à notre Église. Des catholiques provenant des quatre coins du monde ont manifesté notre unique foi exprimée. Des couples jubilaires nous ont entraînés dans la reconnaissance pour la fidélité à leur engagement dans le mariage.

Ces célébrations se répètent chaque année, me direz-vous. C’est vrai, mais il n’existe jamais de « répétition » lorsqu’il s’agit de se souvenir des faveurs du Seigneur. Chaque personne engagée dans ces fêtes est unique, et les merveilles de Dieu sont toujours nouvelles.

En cette année des prêtres, nous avons imploré du Seigneur d’accorder à notre Église d’Ottawa des vocations sacerdotales. Dans la foi et l’espérance, nous savons que Dieu répond toujours. Le Seigneur attend de nous la persévérance et la confiance.

During this Year of the Priest, we asked God to bless with priestly vocations the Church in Ottawa. In faith and hope, we know that the Lord answers our prayers; from us he expects perseverance and confidence.

The Montée Jeunesse/Youth Summit was a high point of our diocesan year. Young men and women from near and far shared their faith, celebrated their joy in knowing Christ and witnessed their desire to belong to Him. They were not embarrassed to take time to adore Christ present in the Eucharist. How could we ever doubt that the Spirit is at work!

In our communities, a great number of individuals give of their time and energy. Gestures for the growth of the community are innumerable. There are also some who cannot offer help concretely, but they are powerfully present in our midst, nonetheless, by their prayers and sacrifices.

Let us remember those who offer their prayers and sufferings in silence – either on a hospital bed, in a seniors’ residence, or at home. Let us remember those who offer us a simple smile, a word of encouragement. When going back home, please assure them that we are grateful.

Dans quelques semaines, les Sœurs de la Visitation quitteront notre ville. Leur présence contemplative en notre milieu date de 1910. Que le Seigneur leur manifeste notre vive gratitude!

Départs, décès… Notre confiance ne peut pas être ébranlée : le Bon Pasteur n’abandonne pas son troupeau.

Grands parents, parents, éducateurs à tous les niveaux, ne connaissez-vous pas un jeune qui manifeste des signes que le Seigneur les appelle au sacerdoce ou à la vie religieuse? Quelle est votre réaction? Comment aidez-vous ces jeunes – ou moins jeunes – à répondre?

L’année sacerdotale prend fin avec la Solennité du Sacré-Cœur. Votre devoir de prier pour que tous les évêques et les prêtres deviennent saints continue. Vous avez besoin des prêtres pour grandir dans la foi, pour célébrer la vie de Dieu par les sacrements. Les prêtres ont besoin des fidèles, leurs frères et sœurs, pour devenir saints et pour accomplir avec générosité le service que Dieu leur a confié.

Despite disappointments and setbacks, our confident hope cannot be shattered: for the Good Shepherd does not abandon his flock. Grand-parents, parents, educators at all levels, do you know a young man or woman, someone who show signs that the Lord may be calling them to become priests or religious? How do you react? How do you help these young – and not so young – people to respond?

The Year of the Priest ends with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Your duty to pray that all bishops and priests become saints, however, is not coming to an end.

We all need priests to grow in faith, to celebrate the life of God through sacraments. Priests need the faithful, their brothers and sisters, to become saints and to accomplish generously the service God has entrusted to them.

When contemplating the love of the Heart of Jesus, when partaking in his death and resurrection, when letting the Spirit transform us, each one of us can become a saint. And that will be theme of next year’s pastoral year: Celebrating the saints among us and our call to holiness.

Le repas plantureux – la communion eucharistique – que le Seigneur nous a préparé est accessible aujourd’hui.

En contemplant l’amour du Cœur de Jésus, en communiant à sa mort et sa résurrection, en nous laissant transformer par l’Esprit, nous pouvons tous et toutes devenirs saints.

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SACRED HEART FATHERS mark 100 years in Canada

This afternoon at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish Church, directed by the Sacred Heart Fathers, I will join the Congregation in celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving on the occasion of their Centennial in Canada (members of the Netherlands Province arrived in Ottawa in 1952 to minister to Dutch immigrants and have made significant contributions in chaplaincy, higher education, parish ministry and other expressions of reconciliation). Here is a description of the community's charism from their website [www.scjcanada.org]:

We are a Roman Catholic religious community of priests and brothers founded in France in 1878. We were founded by Leo John Dehon who was especially concerned with the appalling living and working conditions of factory workers. His hope was to recover the dignity and value of each person according to the compassion and love that are offered to us in Jesus. Today we number 2300 members serving the church in 42 countries.

Since 1910 Canadian members of the Priests of the Sacred Heart have served in ministries throughout Canada. At present we minister predominantly in the metropolitan areas of Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Our commitment to live together in community is the fullest realization of our solidarity with people. It is a sign that the brotherhood/ sisterhood for which people hunger is possible in Jesus Christ.

Prayer strengthens the bonds of our community life and at the same time it strengthens us for our mission. In our community houses we pray the Prayer of the Church, we celebrate the Eucharist, and honour our tradition of Eucharistic adoration. At these moments, we remember the death and resurrection of the Lord who brings us together, consecrates us, and sends us back onto the streets of the world in the service of the gospel.

The Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart is a religious community committed to continuing Christ's work of rebuilding our world into God's kingdom of justice and love.

We are pastors in urban and rural parishes. We are involved in teaching, counseling, chaplaincies, and social justice concerns. We are engaged in seminary education and religious formation. In all that we do and to all whom we serve, we strive to bring the love of the Heart of Jesus.

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Here is a treatment, in French, regarding their founder, Léon Jean Dehon:

Léon Jean Dehon est né en France en 1843. À son entrée au Séminaire, il avait déjà complété un doctorat en droit civil. Il a été ordonné prêtre à Rome, le 19 décembre 1868, retournant en France en 1871 après avoir complété un autre doctorat.

Il a d'abord été envoyé dans la ville industrielle de St-Quentin. La paroisse de la Basilique, où il avait été nommé, comptait environ 30 000 paroissiens. Cette région était renommée pour sa production textile, et les familles étaient accourues par centaines des campagnes environnantes pour travailler dans les nouvelles manufactures. Il vit tout de suite que les travailleurs vivaient dans une très grande pauvreté. Leurs conditions de travail et leur qualité de vie étaient inacceptables.

De plus, ils étaient éloignés de l'Église, parce qu'ils sentaient que celle-ci ne se souciait pas de leurs besoins. Léon décida alors de mettre sur pied une organisation pour venir en aide aux parents et aux enfants des familles pauvres. Il consacra la majeure partie de sa vie de prêtre à tenter de combler le fossé entre l'Église et les travailleurs démunis.

Il commença à entendre l'appel à devenir membre d'une communauté religieuse. Il en fit l'expérience chez les Jésuites et les Spiritains, mais comprit que ce n'était pas là que le Seigneur l'appelait.

Il prenait de plus en plus conscience de l'amour de Dieu qui remplissait sa vie à travers la personne de Jésus, et il désirait ardemment répondre le plus adéquatement possible à cet amour.

Grâce à l'aide et à l'encouragement de quelques prêtres et religieuses, Léon comprit qu'il était appelé à fonder sa propre communauté religieuse. Il était convaincu qu'elle devait rassembler des hommes qui s'engageraient à développer un profond amour pour le Christ, en choisissant de consacrer leur vie à Dieu, au service de son peuple, en particulier les plus pauvres de la société. Il croyait qu'une telle communauté était nécessaire pour corriger un mal très grave dans la société, soit la façon abusive de traiter les pauvres et les sans-défense.

En la Fête du Sacré-Coeur 1878, Léon dehon fit sa profession religieuse et fonda la Congrégation des Oblats du Sacré-Coeur, qui devint plus tard la Congrégation des Prêtres du Sacré-Coeur.

Son évêque demanda à la nouvelle Congrégation de fonder et diriger une nouvelle école, le Collège Saint-Jean. Très bientôt, la Congrégation s'agrandit et concentra ses efforts en éducation, apostolat auprès des travailleurs les plus pauvres, ainsi que les missions étrangères. Le Fondateur s'assura que la Congrégation grandisse et développe une fraternité à la fois active et contemplative, c'est-à-dire en développant un lien étroit entre le ministère pastoral et la relation intime avec Dieu, nourrie par la prière et l'Eucharistie.

Léon Dehon fut Supérieur Général de sa Congrégation jusqu'à sa mort à Bruxelles, en Belgique, le 12 août 1925. À sa mort, la Congrégation comptait 696 membres et 76 novices, présents en 19 pays.

Le 8 avril 1997, le Pape Jean-Paul II le déclarait "Vénérable", une étape importante dans le long processus vers la canonisation.

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VATICAN CELEBRATION OF THE CONCLUSION OF THE YEAR OF PRIESTS

Today some 9000 priests are attending a celebration of the closing of the Year of Priests with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome

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Mgr Marcel A Gervais

Congratulations to Emeritus Archbishop Marcel Gervais today on the 30th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

This evening, representatives of parishes and communities will come together to celebrate our annual Diocesan Feast.

It is held on the Thursday nearest June 8, the date the Diocese of Bytown (established on June 25, 1847 and renamed the Diocese of Ottawa on June 14, 1860), became the Archdiocese of Ottawa on June 8, 1886.

As the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart marks the close of the Year for Priests (with 9000 priests and bishops joining the Holy Father in Rome for the occasion), we will anticipate this feast at our celebration this evening.

All are welcome.

Today is also the 38th anniversary of my ordination as a priest, along with Father Frank Obrigewitsch and two other Jesuits who are deceased, Fathers Ronald Barnes and Brian Massie.

To mark this occasion, I am reproducing the address the late Thomas B. Fulton (then auxiliary bishop of Toronto, later the Bishop of St. Catharines) addressed to us from the Pontifical, followed by my homily at Saturday's ordination of two Jesuit priests along with photos taken at the ceremony.

These men, your relatives and friends, are now to be raised to the order of priests. Consider carefully the ministry to which they are promoted.

It is true that God has made his entire people a royal priesthood in Christ. But our High Priest, Jesus Christ, also chose some of his followers to carry out publicly in the Church the priestly ministry in his name on behalf of mankind.

He was sent by the Father, and he in turn sent the apostles into the world; through them and their successor, the bishops, he continues his work as Teacher, Priest, and Shepherd.



Priests are co-workers of the order of bishops. They are joined to the bishops in the priestly office and are called to serve God's people.


Our brothers have seriously considered this step and are now to be ordained to the priesthood in the presbyteral order. They are is to serve Christ the Teacher, Priest, and Shepherd in their ministry which is to make his own body, the Church, grow into the people of God, a holy temple.

They are called to share in the priesthood of the bishops and to be moulded into the likeness of Christ, the supreme and eternal Priest. By consecration they will be made true priests of the New Testament, to preach the Gospel, sustain God's people, and celebrate the liturgy, above all, the Lord's sacrifice.



My sons, you are now to be advanced to the order of the presbyterate. You must apply your energies to the duty of teaching in the name of Christ, the chief Teacher. Share with all mankind the word of God you have received with joy. Meditate on the law of God, believe what you read, teach what you believe, and put into practice what you teach.

Let the doctrine you teach be true nourishment for the people of God. Let the example of your life attract the follower of Christ, so that by word and action you may build up the house which is God's Church.

In the same way you must carry out your mission of sanctifying in the power of Christ. Your ministry will perfect the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful by uniting it to Christ's sacrifice, the sacrifice which is offered sacramentally through your hands. Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate.

In the memorial of the Lord's death and resurrection, make every effort to die to sin and to walk in the new life of Christ.

When you baptize, you will bring men and women into the people of God. In the sacrament of penance, you will forgive sins in the name of Christ and the Church. With holy oil you will relieve and console the sick. You will celebrate the liturgy, and offer thanks and praise to God throughout the day, praying not only for the people of God but for the whole world.

Remember that you are chosen from among God's people and appointed to act for them in relation to God. Do your part in the work Christ the Priest with genuine joy and love, and attend to the concerns of Christ before your own.

Finally, conscious of sharing in the work of Christ, the Head and Shepherd of the Church, and united with the bishop and subject to him, seek to bring the faithful together into a unified family and to lead them effectively, through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, to God the Father.

Always remember the example of the good Shepherd who came not to be served but to serve, and to seek out and rescue those who were lost.


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JESUIT PRIESTLY ORDINATIONS OF JOHN D. MEEHAN & TEOFILO C. UGABAN, OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH — TORONTO, ON, SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 2010

“THE PRIESTHOOD IS THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS” [Texts: Jeremiah 1: 4-8, 17-19 (Ps 145, "I will praise your name, my King, my God"); Rom 12: 9-21; John 13: 1-17]

We are in the final days of the Year of the Priest, so I wish to begin by recalling the maxim of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, who said that “The Priesthood is the Love of the Heart of Jesus”.

The Year of the Priest began for me with the joy of presiding at the ordination of two Trappist priests last July in an abbey not far from Ars, France. During my stay, the monks arranged for me to go to the village of St. John Marie Vianney on a day-long outing.

On arrival on pilgrimage in Ars, which is still a small French village not far from bustling Lyon, one enters the house of the holy Curé. One sees how simply he lived, a thread-bare cassock that he had repaired many times contrasting with the beautiful vestments he bought for Mass. For himself the bare necessities; for the Lord's house and work the best he could afford.

This did not mean neglect of the poor, for love of God and love of neighbour go hand in hand. He sold his ermine-trimmed canon's cape the day after it arrived and did the same with the medal of France's Legion of Honour in order to give all he could for the needs of the poor.



With simplicity he embodied in his person and ministry the beautiful second reading from the Epistle to the Romans, which parallels the inaugural sermon of Jesus, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep; … associate with the lowly; … if your enemy is hungry, feed them, if thirsty, give them something to drink”.

Vianney, surprisingly for someone who had difficulty with his studies, had an impressive library. At first he mainly borrowed ideas from scholars and writers, memorizing them and handing them on in his sermons. But later, when the press of confessional duties make it impossible for him to have much time to prepare, he spoke from the heart.

He thereby revealed a gentler, more compassionate side than the severe notions he had imbibed. The ministry, particularly the patient spiritual doctoring of souls, drew from his heart the wellsprings of the Saviour’s compassion. This is an important notion, that in our ministry we are moved by the Holy Spirit to take on the sentiments of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the dispositions of the one Master Ignatius called “God our Lord,” the one who, in today’s gospel passage, scandalized his apostle-friends by washing their feet.

In this year of getting close to the Curé of Ars, I have found a depth in his character and the narrative of his life that endears this priest to all others: religious priests—Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, and yes, even us Jesuits—along with the secular clergy. We can learn from him, as he learned from his priestly mentors.



Jesuits rejoice that, during his vocational discernment, young Jean Marie made a pilgrimage to the shrine of our brother St. John Francis Regis, where he prayed for the grace to learn enough Latin to be ordained.

At the sanctuary at Lalouvesc, Vianney learned that the Apostle of the Ardèche died after contracting a severe fever while hearing confessions in a drafty church. Devoting long hours in the confessional, Regis died an outstanding minister of the sacrament of reconciliation, as would Vianney.

In examining Vianney’s pastoral care of his parish, we note that the saint of Ars adapted the Jesuit missionary’s focus on catechizing the people, even adopting his methods.

Today’s church stands in need of a new realization of the double focus found in the pastoral labours of the Jesuit missioner John Francis Regis and the diocesan pastor Jean-Marie Vianney. We must help the people of 21st century Canada recover an appreciation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation through catechesis that stresses encounter with our Risen Lord Jesus in word and sacrament.

For the ministry of the Sacrament of Reconciliation remains too-little appreciated in our time. Yet it is one of the great gifts Christ has left to his church: rightly is it known not only as confession and reconciliation, but as the sacrament of peace, healing, restoration and renewal.

A new catechesis is also needed, of the sort that follows closely upon the encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus that takes place in making Ignatian Spiritual Exercises or by engaging in similar kinds of spiritual experiences.

We know that each priest’s vocation partially echoes the spiritual realities narrated in today’s first reading from Jeremiah. Indeed, God continues to call in mysterious and ineffable ways; and young people are encouraged by family members and the church community, to answer that call.

We rejoice that our brothers John and Teofilo heard the Lord assert that they were chosen before their conception and reassure that they have no cause to fear. We are glad today that they dared to answer God with their assent, “Yes, Lord I am willing to go; send me”.

May Our Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of the Society of Jesus, holy Father Ignatius, Francis Xavier, the Canadian Martyrs and other patron saints intercede for you, dear brothers, obtaining the grace of joy in your vocation so that you may radiate the light of Christ to the many in our world who yearn to receive it.



Photo credit: Marc de Assis, S.J. & Trevor Scott, S.J.

Today, an optional memorial of St. Ephrem, Doctor of the Church, is permitted.

"The boldness of our love is pleasing to you, O Lord, just as it pleased you that we should steal from your bounty," — Ephrem the Syrian, "Hymns on Faith" 16:5.

Ephrem the Syrian, the great poet saint of the Syriac Church, was born in c. A.D. 306 in Nisibis (North-west of Mosul, Iraq). While some late sources claim that his father was a heathen priest who worshiped an idol called Abnil, his own writings affirm that he was raised in a Christian family.

(Adv. Haereses, XXVI):"I was born in the way of truth: though my boyhood understood not the greatness of the benefit, I knew it when trial came."



Again more explicitly, if we may trust a Confession which is extant only in Greek, "I had been early taught about Christ by my parents; they who begat me after the flesh, had trained me in the fear of the Lord... My parents were confessors before the judge: yea, I am the kindred of martyrs."

He was ordained deacon in c. A.D. 338 and served the Bishop of Nisibis, Mor Ya`qub, who participated in the Council of Nicaea (AD 325). He lived as a solitary and apparently never entered the priesthood. After the cession of Nisibis to Persia in AD 363, Ephrem withdrew into the Roman Empire and settled at Edessa where he composed the hymns that survive to this day. Though in the ecclesiastical hierarchy he was deacon, he is remembered as a great doctor of the universal Church.

Ephrem wrote exclusively in Syriac, the Edessene dialect of Aramaic, but his works were translated into Armenian and Greek, and via the latter into Latin and Slavonic. Many works in these languages attributed to him are, however, not genuine. Much of Ephrem's exegetical, dogmatic and ascetic works are in verse form. He wrote several polemical works refuting the heresies of Marcion, Bardaisan, Mani, the Arians and the Anomoeans.

Ephrem wrote widely-regarded biblical commentaries on Genesis and the Diatesseron. His writings extensively employ typology and symbolism. Over 500 genuine hymns survive, of great beauty and insight. His poetry is in two genres: madrãshe (hymns) and memre (verse homilies).

After his death, the hymns were arranged into hymn cycles, the most famous of which are those on Faith (including the five 'On the Pearl'), on Paradise and on Nisibis (the second half of which is on the Descent of Christ into Hell). His liturgical poetry had a great influence on Syriac and Greek hymnography. Syriac churches honor him as 'the lyre of the Holy Spirit'.

Ephrem departed to his heavenly abode on June 9, A.D. 373. His memory is commemorated on this day in the Latin Church, but in the Syriac Orthodox Church on the first Saturday of Great Lent.

"You (Jesus) alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?" — Ephrem the Syrian, Nisibene Hymns 27:8; ca. 361 AD

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The PRIESTHOOD and the HOLY EUCHARIST

Celebrating after the Ordination Mass

On Saturday, I presided at the ordination of two Jesuits at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Toronto and on Sunday, after celebrating Confirmations at St. Hyacinth Parish, joined this strong Polish faith community in a procession around the block with the Blessed Sacrament (in a light rain).

I managed to take photos of two of the four altars of repose on the processional route and am waiting for photos of the vivid moments of this devotional exercise from the parish for the blog (perhaps next week).

Tomorrow`s blog posting will feature an extended treatment on priesthood with lovely photos of the ordination; meantime here are some photos of the celebration which followed, accompanied by an extract from paragraph 23 of Pope Benedict's February 22, 2007 post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, "Sacrament of Love".

"I consider it important to recall several important points about the relationship between the sacrament of the Eucharist and Holy Orders.

"First of all, we need to stress once again that the connection between Holy Orders and the Eucharist is seen most clearly at Mass, when the Bishop or priest presides in the person of Christ the Head.

"The Church teaches that priestly ordination is the indispensable condition for the valid celebration of the Eucharist. Indeed, "in the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, High Priest of the redemptive sacrifice."

"Certainly the ordained minister also acts "in the name of the whole Church, when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the eucharistic sacrifice."

Father Teo Ugaban celebrates with family, friends

"As a result, priests should be conscious of the fact that in their ministry they must never put themselves or their personal opinions in first place, but Jesus Christ. Any attempt to make themselves the centre of the liturgical action contradicts their very identity as priests. The priest is above all a servant of others, and he must continually work at being a sign pointing to Christ, a docile instrument in the Lord's hands.

"This is seen particularly in his humility in leading the liturgical assembly, in obedience to the rite, uniting himself to it in mind and heart, and avoiding anything that might give the impression of an inordinate emphasis on his own personality.

Congratulating the parents of Father John Meehan

"I encourage the clergy always to see their eucharistic ministry as a humble service offered to Christ and his Church. The priesthood, as Saint Augustine said, is amoris officium [love's office], it is the office of the good shepherd, who offers his life for his sheep (cf. Jn 10:14-15)".

Presenting the working document for the special Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI prayed for “just and lasting solutions” to the region’s conflicts, which cause so much hardship:

The Catholic Church in the Middle East:
Communion and Witness
"Now the company of those who believed
were of one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32)

“I reiterate my personal appeal for an urgent and concerted international effort to resolve the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, especially in the Holy Land, before such conflicts lead to greater bloodshed,” the pope said June 6 at the end of a Mass in a Nicosia sports arena.

The pope gave the document to representatives from the Latin-rite, Maronite, Melkite, Armenian, Coptic, Chaldean and Assyrian Catholic Churches living in countries from Egypt to Iran.

The synod will be held at the Vatican Oct. 10-24 and focus on “communion and witness” in the region where Christianity was born, but where Christians are a minority.



Pope Benedict told the region’s Catholics that the synod would be an occasion “to highlight the important value of the Christian presence and witness in the biblical lands, not just for the Christian community around the world, but also for your neighbors and fellow citizens.”

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CANADIAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRUSTEES ASSOCIATION 50th CONVENTION

A major difficulty I find in participating in a convention held in one's own city is the distraction of dropping in and out while attending to other business and, in my case this past weekend, travelling out of town to attend the Jesuit ordinations in Toronto.

However, in the case of the Canadian Catholic School Trustees Association, I was able to take in a good bit even so: the opening prayer service on Thursday night, with the keynote address by Michael Higgins on the creativity of Catholic public schooling; the major address the next morning by Mark McGowan on four key figures in Canadian Catholic education, including Richard Scott, Mayor of Ottawa who argued for, and proposed solutions concerning, Catholic education.

On my return from Toronto, I presided at the anticipated Sunday Eucharist at Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica on Saturday afternoon that served as the convention's Closing Mass and the closing banquet at which Patrick Daly was awarded the Justice James Higgins Award for leadership in the cause of Catholic schooling.

Some photos from the Convention:

Children from Ottawa Catholic schools carry the flags of Canada the ten provinces and three territories in the inaugural procession

Coordinating the grand entrance...

St. Mark's High School students give a retrospective history of Catholic education in song

The choir stalls in the cloister of the Sœurs de la Visitation from which God's praises have been sung for close to 100 years

Yesterday, as the Visitation Congregation worldwide celebrated the 400th anniversary of foundation in Annecy, France, I presided at the Closing Eucharist in the Monastery Chapel of the Soeurs de la Visitation on Richmond Road in Westborough.

The Mass was concelebrated by Father John (Jack) McCann, OMI, the anniversary of his first Mass of Thanksgiving in that same chapel some 55 years ago, Father Robert (Bob) Laplante, chaplain at the monastery in recent years and Abbe Daniel Berniquez, E.V., who is also Vicar for Religious in the French sector.

A number of lay friends shared in the Mass, the time of Eucharistic adoration that followed and Vespers of the Solemnity of the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.

While occasion was bittersweet, the homily gave me an opportunity to speak of the role of Contemplative Life in our Archdiocese, thanking the Sisters for their witness over the past one hundred years:

FÊTE-DIEU (C) – SŒURS DE LA VISITATION - 6 juin 2010 – Ottawa, ON, [Textes : Genèse 14, 18-20; Psaume 109 (110); 1 Corinthiens 11, 23-26; Luc 9, 11b-17], « Fêtons Dieu! »

Chères Sœurs de la Visitation, En cette Fête-Dieu, je pourrais centrer mon homélie sur Melkisédek, roi de justice et de paix, prêtre du Très-Haut qui préfigure le Christ. Ou encore sur le passage de la lettre de Paul aux Corinthiens que nous proclamons à chaque messe, puisque ce sont les paroles que le prêtre prononce pour changer le pain et le vin en Corps et Sang du Christ. Et je pourrais aussi rappeler les liens entre le récit de la multiplication des pains et le dernier repas de Jésus avec ses disciples, liens que l’évangéliste Luc lui-même trace.

Mais tout ça, vous le savez déjà. Plusieurs d’entre vous en sont à votre soixantième Fête-Dieu, ou même plus encore... Et votre vie contemplative vous a mises en contact étroit avec la Parole de Dieu. Par vocation, vous avez « ruminé » les textes, vous en avez scruté le sens et vous avez mis tous vos efforts pour vous laisser transformer par les Écritures. Jésus-Christ, Parole de Dieu et Pain de vie, a été – et demeure toujours – le centre de votre vie, sa source intarissable.

Tout monastère de religieux et religieuses catholiques est bâti autour d’une chapelle ou d’une église. Vous persévérez dans votre vocation parce que la présence eucharistique de celui qui vous a aimées le premier est à proximité.

Nombre de fois, chaque jour, vous venez y chanter les louanges de Dieu par l’Office divin ou d’autres exercices du culte prescrits par votre Règle. Et combien de fois ne venez-vous pas « faire une visite à l’Époux » dans un geste spontané? L’eucharistie célébrée chaque jour et à laquelle vous communiez est la force vive qui vous permet de persévérer, de durer à travers les épreuves du quotidien.

En territoire missionnaire, et ce, depuis des siècles, l’évêque d’un diocèse nouvellement créé voit à l'obtention d'une communauté de contemplatifs, hommes ou femmes, pour son territoire. L’expression un peu vieillie de « paratonnerre pour le diocèse » demeure toutefois pertinente. À Ottawa, la présence discrète de votre communauté a été très fructueuse. Depuis l’annonce de votre départ de notre ville, je suis convaincu qu’ont abondé les témoignages d’affection de la part des femmes et des hommes qui vous ont côtoyés. Et que dire des faveurs ‘non identifiées’ que vos prières ont obtenues?

Votre vocation contemplative se vit dans la foi – parfois même dans « la nuit obscure de la foi »… Notre foi commune en un Dieu qui nous aime au point de mourir pour nous est la foi qui nous fait espérer. Le temps est venu pour vous de vivre dans un milieu où vous pourrez à la fois vivre votre vocation particulière et aussi voir aux besoins qui apparaissent avec l’âge. Je pourrais me consoler en disant que vous demeurez dans la province ecclésiastique d’Ottawa… Ce ne serait pas une parole de consolation très efficace.

Une chose demeure certaine : le Seigneur ne se laisse pas vaincre en générosité. Le don de vous-même qui caractérise votre existence continuera de porter ses fruits. La vocation contemplative est essentielle à toute action apostolique ou pastorale. Si le ministère ordonné n’est pas soutenu par la louange incessante, l’Action de grâce joyeuse, l’intercession soutenue de personnes qui se vouent à cette tâche, ce ministère de porte pas tous les fruits que l’Église et le monde sont en droit d’attendre.

La plupart d’entre vous auront passé toute votre vie d’adulte entre les murs de ce monastère. Votre détachement ne demeure pas stérile, j’en suis convaincu. Demandez, pour nous qui restons, les lumières de l’Esprit afin de pouvoir discerner la vie contemplative que Dieu veut pour notre milieu.

Avec confiance et par l’intercession de Notre-Dame, modèle de vie contemplative, demandez à Dieu de susciter chez des femmes et des hommes de chez nous cette vocation particulière. Demandez au Christ d’attirer à sa suite des personnes qui oseront tout quitter pour vivre en présence de Dieu, en pure perte.

Et en ce jour historique, Fêtons Dieu! Dieu qui est la source de toute bonté, de toute miséricorde, de toute beauté. En communiant au Corps et au Sang du Christ, mort et ressuscité, rendons-lui grâce pour tout ce qu’il a accompli et continue d’accomplir en vous, par vous. Sainte Fête-Dieu!

Celebrating 400 years of the Monastery of the Visitation's foundation in Annecy, France and the 100 years of the Visitation in Canada; the community room has been almost entirely stripped for the transfer to Pembroke

Plans are almost set for their final departure dates for the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Pembroke, where a floor of one wing is being readied for them, especially suited to the aged religious sisters.

Some sisters will leave for Pembroke this week, the remainder will go on July 2. All will return to the Cathedral on Sunday, August 15 at the 10:30am Sunday Mass for a Mass of Thanksgiving for the Centennial of their presence in the Archdiocese and Canada (on August 14, 1910).

Meantime, their Superior Soeur Suzanne-Christine Proulx has accepted to come to the Diocesan Feast this Thursday evening, June 10, as we recall the gift of their presence among us as a powerhouse of prayer--the gift of contemplative religious life--these many decades. The sisters will bring the offerings at the Presentation of the Gifts and I will use the chalice and paten that they gave me as a parting gift (along with a generous contribution for diocesan needs and the priests' retirement fund).

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Jesuit Novices of 1961

Left to right: Jesuits Joe Schner, Frank Obrigewitsch

On Friday, while visiting at Pedro Arrupe House, the Jesuit community where I resided for several years (1984-87), I discovered that my two classmates were present for dinner, Fathers Joseph Schner (President of Toronto's Regis College) and Frank Obrigewitsch, superior of the Jesuit Community and Dean of Campion College, Regina.

Since it is not often that the Novitiate Class of 1961 find themselves together in one place, we had a picture of ourselves taken in the back yard on Isabella Street to mark the occasion (I think our last photo was taken in Regina). (Photos from the Jesuit Ordinations on Saturday will appear later this week.)

Today marks the 55th anniversary of the Priestly Ordination of Father Robert Bedard, founder of the Companions of the Cross.

As he is in hospital, I will join some of his confreres for Mass. Please keep him in your prayers.

Some photos of last Saturday's ordination of Father David Bergeron of the Companions [photo credit: Annmarie Gruden Photograph] are interspersed with this reflection on the Priestly Order of Melchizedek into which Our Blessed Lord was anointed by the Holy Spirit and to which all who share in his priestly office belong:

The Body and Blood of Christ (Year "C") - June 6, 2010JESUS AND THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK [Texts: Genesis 14:18-20 [Psalm 110]; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17]

Classical stained glass windows in older Catholic churches regularly portray Melchizedek. This mysterious figure presented to Abraham "bread and wine", sacrificial offerings that anticipate the elements transformed into Christ's body and blood at the Eucharist.

The First Eucharistic Prayer asks God to “look with favour on these offerings (the consecrated bread and wine) and accept them as once You accepted the gifts of Your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by Your priest Melchizedek”.

Melchizedek's name means “king of righteousness" or "my king is righteousness/ salvation”. As we encounter him in today's first reading, he held two offices. He was king of Salem, a title interpreted to mean “king of peace” (see Hebrews 7:2), though originally it may have referred to ancient, pre-Davidic Jerusalem.

Melchizedek was also priest of “God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth”. Carrying out his priestly duties, he blessed Abram (Abraham) as the latter was returning victorious from battling a coalition of city-state chieftains. Abram took joint action with five ancient kings committed to fight four other kings who had plundered the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and taken captive Abram's nephew Lot, a resident of Sodom.



Later on, Abram would intercede on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah--cities that are a byword for sinfulness—for the sake of the few righteous folk in them (Genesis 18:22-33).

In this earlier episode, Abram risked his life to benefit them. Though Abram's thoughts were focused on gaining back Lot's freedom, in the process he liberated great sinners. Already God's chosen, Abram made common cause with non-Hebrews to undo evil.

Melchizedek brought Abram food and drink, blessing him in the name of God Most High, the Creator. Then Melchizedek blessed Abram's God for delivering him.

In response, Abram gave Melchizedek tithes, thereby implicitly recognizing the legitimacy of Melchizedek's priesthood in service of the same God Abram worshipped.

Scriptural mention of Melchizedek includes Psalm 110, a royal psalm, and Hebrews 5-7, in which the sacred author gives his existence a messianic interpretation.

Psalm 110, the Old Testament text most cited by the New Testament, calls the ruling Israelite king “a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek”. Ancient readers may have considered Melchizedek to be the precursor of both the priestly and royal lines of Davidic kingship. In this vein, extra-biblical writings describe Melchizedek as the ideal priest-king, with the Dead Sea Scrolls even viewing him as a heavenly judge.

The Epistle to the Hebrews offers an elaborate interpretation of the figure of Melchizedek. In it, Melchizedek is represented as a supernatural figure whose miraculous origin and indestructible life foreshadow the eternal life of the Son of God (5:6, 10; 6:20-7:22).

The author of Hebrews was convinced that, through his sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus had shown Himself to be God's unique high priest, though He did not belong to a priestly tribe (“it is evident that Our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests” [7:14]).

In his being, Melchizedek who was “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God ... remains a priest forever” (7:3) and foretells the priesthood of Jesus.



In today's gospel, Jesus anticipates His priestly role in the Upper Room and on the Cross. He acted as the liberator of afflicted people, healing “those who needed to be cured” and speaking to the crowds “about the Kingdom of God”.

Then Jesus performed a great miracle, multiplying five loaves and two fish in order to feed five thousand men. Jesus' gestures (“He looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them”) envisioned the priestly ones He would make at the Last Supper as He gave Himself under the forms of bread and wine (cf. Luke 22:19-20).

As Christian disciples gather on the Solemnity of the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, they herald Christ's priestly death [and resurrection] until the end of time (“as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes”).

In the Eucharist, Christians share in the sacrificial offering of Jesus who remains “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”.

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Concelebrants at the ordination

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KUDOS TO REGINA!

Congratulations and best wishes to Most Reverend Daniel Bohan, the priests, religious and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of Regina, which this year celebrates its centennial.

The major liturgical celebration of this anniversary will take place in the Brandt Centre (formerly the Agridome) this afternoon.

Ad multos et faustissimos annos!

Today is the liturgical memorial of St. Boniface, a monk of Exeter in England, one of the great figures of the Benedictine Order and of the monastic apostolate in the Middle Ages. Gregory II sent him to preach the Gospel in Germany.

A Benedictine monk was chosen by divine Providence to become Germany's great apostle and patron. Boniface's first missionary endeavor proved unsuccessful (716). Before attempting a second he went to Rome and received papal authorization (718). Under the holy bishop Willibrord he converted Frisia within a period of three years. On November 30, 722, Boniface was consecrated bishop by Pope Gregory II.

In 724 he turned his attention to the Hessian people, among whom he continued his missionary activity with renewed zeal. On an eminence near the village of Geismar on the Eder, he felled a giant oak that the people honored as the national sanctuary of the god Thor. Boniface used the wood to build a chapel in honor of St. Peter. This courageous act assured the eventual triumph of the Gospel in Germany.

The resident clergy and the priests dwelling at the court, whose unworthy lives needed censure, were constantly creating difficulties. Nevertheless Boniface continued to labor quietly, discreetly. He prayed unceasingly, put his trust in God alone, recommended his work to the prayers of his spiritual brothers and sisters in England. And God did not abandon him.

Conversions were amazingly numerous. In 732 Gregory III sent him the pallium, the insignia of the archiepiscopal dignity. Boniface now devoted his time and talent to the ecclesiastical organization of the Church in Germany. He installed worthy bishops, set diocesan boundaries, promoted the spiritual life of the clergy and laity, held national synods (between 742 and 747), and in 744 founded the monastery of Fulda, which became a center of religious life in central Germany. In 745 he chose Mayence for his archiepiscopal see, and affiliated to it thirteen suffragan dioceses. This completed the ecclesiastical organization of Germany.

The final years of his busy life were spent, as were his earlier ones, in missionary activity. Word came to him in 754 that a part of Frisia had lapsed from the faith. He took leave of his priests and, sensing the approach of death, carried along a shroud. He was 74 years of age when with youthful enthusiasm he began the work of restoration, a mission he was not to complete. A band of semi-barbarous pagans overpowered and put him to death when he was about to administer confirmation to a group of neophytes at Dockum.

Tradition makes him the patron of brewers; tailors; Germany; Prussia.

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"De Colores": Ottawa Grand Ultreya



On Wednesday evening, I was invited to preside at the Eucharist at Our Lady of Fatima Church for the semi-annual Follow-Up (Ultreya) to the Cursillo Movement .

It's always a vibrant and joyful gathering with testimonies, food and good fun.

The Ottawa Challenge Movement is a version of the Cursillo (short course in Christian life) for youth, so there is lots of energy when these young adults are around.

Some photos from the gathering:

A twenty-something Cursillista tells how her faith gives flavour to her life

The new Ottawa Challenge Movement executive for the 2010-2011 activity year

Father Peter Monty SJ signs for the deaf members of the Cursillo movement

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JOSEPH PLEVNIK, S.J. (December 18, 1928 - June 4, 2010)

Today's posting comes from Toronto where this morning I will preside at the Jesuit Ordinations at Our Lady of Lourdes Church.

On arrival yesterday, I was told that my former professor and colleague at Regis College was close to death at the Jesuit Infirmary in Pickering. Brother John Olney kindly drove me there after supper and Father Philip Shano took me to his room where we prayed and grieved in anticipation. Shortly after 9:00 PM, the Lord of his life came to take him to Himself.

Like his life-long friend Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, Joe was from Slovenia and had studied Scripture (New Testament) at Wurzburg, Germany under the legendary Rudolf Schnackenburg; his thesis was on the Parousia of Christ, a brilliant study of the development of Paul's thinking on the Second Coming of Christ. Inter alia,Joe taught courses on Luke's Gospel, aspects of Pauline Theology and a graduate course on New Testament Methodology.

While Christians yearn to be present at the Lord's return in glory, most will meet him when He comes in the mystery of death. May Christ take this loyal disciple to enjoy the gift of God's mercy, which is also, paradoxically, the fruit of his labours.

The month of June is dedicated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The entire month falls within the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, which is represented by the liturgical color green. This symbol of hope is the color of the sprouting seed and arouses in the faithful the hope of reaping the eternal harvest of heaven, especially the hope of a glorious resurrection. It is used in the offices and Masses of Ordinary Time.

The last portion of the liturgical year represents the time of our pilgrimage to heaven during which we hope for reward (www.catholicculture.org).

The Holy Father's June Prayer Intentions

General: Respect for Human Life—“That every national and international institution may strive to guarantee respect for human life from conception to natural death”.

Missionary: Churches in Asia—“That the Churches in Asia, a "little flock" among non-Christian populations, may communicate the gospel well and give joyful witness to their faith”.


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POPE BENEDICT XVI JOURNEYS TO CYPRUS

Today, the Holy Father travels to the divided island of Cyprus to entrust to the hierarchy of the various churches (Latin and Oriental) of the Middle East Region the Instumentum laboris (Working Document) for the Synod that will take place in Rome in October 2010.

Catholics make up about 3.5% of the mainly Orthodox Christian Greek portion of Cyprus; Muslims constitute the majority in the northern portion of the island under Turkish rule. So there is in the visit an anticipation of the minority status of Christians that is their reality in the Middle East.

SYMBOL OF CYPRUS: A UNIQUE FLAG

The national flag of Republic of Cyprus was adopted in 1960 after gaining independence from the United Kingdom. The flag was chosen by the President of the Republic Makarios III and the Vice-President Fazil Kucuk as the result of the flag design competition.

According to the Constitution, the flag should not have blue or red colours (the colours of the flags of Greece and Turkey) and should not feature a cross or a crescent. The flag should look neutral. The national flag design competition was won by a Turkish Cypriot teacher and artist Ismet Guney.

Cyprus is the only country to display its land area on its official flag. The background of the flag is white that represents peace. In the middle, there is the map of the island that has the copper colour to represent the historical attachment of Cyprus to this metal. Under the island's map there are olive tree's branches. The branches of the olive tree represent peace as well.

The flag of Cyprus is used on land as the national and civil flag and at sea as the national and civil ensign. Many sea vessels in the world go under the Cyprus flag as Cyprus has the third largest fleet within the European Union, with 16% of the total fleet of the 25 EU Member States. The European fleet capacity has increased upon Cyprus' accession due to the Cyprus fleet contribution.

One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa.

He protected his fellow pages (aged 13 to 30) from the homosexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler’s demands.

For his own unwillingness to submit to the immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886, by Mwanga’s order.

Charles first learned of Christ’s teachings from two retainers in the court of Chief Mawulugungu. While a catechumen, he entered the royal household as assistant to Joseph Mukaso, head of the court pages.

On the night of Mukaso’s martyrdom for encouraging the African youths to resist Mwanga, Charles requested and received Baptism. Imprisoned with his friends, Charles’s courage and belief in God inspired them to remain chaste and faithful.

When Pope Paul VI canonized these 22 martyrs on October 18, 1964, he referred to the Anglican pages martyred for the same reason.

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CANADIAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRUSTEES ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONVENTION

Here is how the CCSTA's website describes their 50th annual convention beginning today and running through Saturday evening:

OTTAWA beckons, as the Canadian Catholic School Trustees’ Association (CCSTA) prepares for the 50th Annual General Meeting and Convention on June 3-5, 2010. The theme for the convention is 50 Years – A Legacy of Faith, celebrating CCSTA’s journey in providing a forum for each trustee to celebrate the many relationships and partnerships that make Canadian Catholic Education such a precious treasure.

The Convention will be held in the historic Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel, a world-famous establishment overlooking the Ottawa River and the Parliament Buildings. Ottawa is a city without parallel in early June. The streets are awash with culture - picturesque waterways, magnificent tulip gardens, fine dining and entertainment, and quiet scenic drives and bike paths, provide leisure activities for all. Did we mention food? Ottawa is known for its cosmopolitan eateries - delegates and guests will enjoy a fusion of unique local, Canadian and international flavours.

This year’s planners have put together a program to suit a variety of tastes. If you have never been to one of CCSTA’s conventions, you will find an edifying mix of keynote speakers who will engage and inspire. You will be charmed by our student performance at the Opening Ceremony, and the uplifting choral groups during the convention. Our entertainment program will have you standing on your feet so come prepared to shake, rattle and roll, or simply be entertained.

And finally, the convention will conclude with a Eucharistic Celebration at Notre-Dame Basilica on Sussex Drive, followed by a Gala banquet and entertainment in the Château Laurier Ballroom.

This website will keep you up-to-date with all of the resources you need to prepare yourself for this special event. Come to celebrate, to learn, to see old friends and make new ones……..but come!

50 Years - A Legacy of Faith/ 50 ANs - Un héritage de foi promises to be a momentous occasion.

Welcome to the Capital and the Archdiocese of Ottawa!

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YEAR OF THE PRIEST, 1ST THURSDAY OF JUNE

In this year dedicated to priests and prayer for priests, the Church has provided a special plenary indulgence on the first Thursdays of each month.

For the faithful, a plenary indulgence can be obtained on the opening and closing days of the Year for Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.



To obtain the indulgence one must attend Mass in an oratory or Church and offer prayers to "Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to his heart."

The conditions for the faithful for earning a plenary indulgence are to have gone to confession and prayed for the intentions designated by the Pope.

This is the last 1st Thursday in the Year for Priests. The last opportunity for this indulgence with be the final day of the Year for Priests, next Friday, June 1, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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Anniversary of POPE JOHN XXIII's Death

I recall the news of the death of "Good Pope John" on this day in 1963; I was a second year novice helping prepare the grounds of the Martyrs Shrine in Midland, ON for the season of pilgrims and visitors.

Whether I was sacristan or for some other reason I was responsible for tolling the Shrine's bells to mark the news of the Holy Father's passing. Since his beatification, his remains have been moved up to the main floor of St. Peter's Vatican Basilica where Mass may be celebrated and his intercession with the Lord invoked.

Yesterday, some thirty Diocesan Vocation Directors from across Canada (Newfoundland & Labrador to British Columbia) gathered at St. Theresa's Church, just off the downtown core of Ottawa for their third national convention (there were earlier sessions in Halifax and Edmonton).

Last evening, to invite participation from the Archdiocese to pray for priestly vocations, a Holy Hour was held at St. Patrick's Basilica. There was contemporary music, the Ark of the New Covenant circled the church at the start of the service and the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for veneration.


Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, of Salt and Light Television gave an extended reflection on the call to holiness, focussing on Father Jerzy Popieluszko (who will be beatified on Sunday in Warsaw) and Blessed Brother Andre Bessette of Montreal (who will be canonized on October 17 in Rome).

A reception was held in the Scavi, the underground meeting hall of the basilica.
This morning, I have been asked to lead a half-day of reflection for the directors themselves, concluding with Mass and lunch. After further sessions tomorrow, the meeting will conclude with Mass and a banquet.

Some photos from the evening's Eucharistic adoration and reception following:








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Dominican Church of Saint Jean-Baptiste



The Confirmation season is gradually wrapping up. On Sunday, I celebrated this lovely sacrament of personal commitment with students from Lycée Claudel and five other francophones (including two young men from Montréal, who received permission from their pastor to be confirmed in Ottawa).

This ceremony was held during Sunday Eucharist at St. Jean-Baptiste, the parish directed by the Dominican Fathers. Recently, the friary inaugurated a vestment-making shop (les Ateliers St. Martin de Porres) and the photos show off the latest creations, including the new mitre I am wearing.







Later, at Notre Dame Cathedral's noon Mass, I presided at a celebration during which sixty English-speaking young adults were confirmed. Photos from this ceremony will be avaiable later in the week.

My last Confirmation celebration before the summer break will be this coming Sunday at St. Hyacinth, a personal parish for the Polish-speaking faithful.

"Philosophy is the knowledge of that which exists, and a clear understanding of the truth; and happiness is the reward of such knowledge and understanding" (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 3).

St. Justin, philosopher and martyr, was born of pagan parents in Flavia in Samaria at the beginning of the second century.

Following his conversion to the faith, he wrote many works in defense of religion, of which we have only two: the Apology and the Dialogue with Trypho.

Justin also opened a school in Rome in which public debates were held. He was martyred along with several companions during the reign of Marcus Aurelius around the year 165.

Justin never ended his quest for religious truth even when he converted to Christianity after years of studying various pagan philosophies.
As a young man, he was principally attracted to the school of Plato. However, he found that the Christian religion answered the great questions about life and existence better than the philosophers.

Upon his conversion he continued to wear the philosopher's mantle, and became the first Christian philosopher. He combined the Christian religion with the best elements in Greek philosophy. In his view, philosophy was a pedagogue of Christ, an educator that was to lead one to Christ.

Justin is known as an apologist, one who defends in writing the Christian religion against the attacks and misunderstandings of the pagans. Two of his so-called apologies have come down to us; they are addressed to the Roman emperor and to the Senate.

As patron of philosophers, Justin may inspire us to use our natural powers (especially our power to know and understand) in the service of Christ and to build up the Christian life within us. Since we are prone to error, especially in reference to the deep questions concerning life and existence, we should also be willing to correct and check our natural thinking in light of religious truth. Thus we will be able to say with the learned saints of the Church: I believe in order to understand, and I understand in order to believe. --Excerpted from Saint of the Day (www.americancatholic.org).

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IRELAND IN THE NEWS

Croagh Patrick (the "reek"), pilgrimage site, Archdiocese of Tuam

There were two stories regarding Ireland that came to our attention in Canada yesterday:

# details of the Visitation of the Irish Church promised in March in Pope Benedict's Letter to Ireland, which includes among the Visitors Archbishop Collins of Toronto (visiting the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly) and myself (to visit the Archdiocese of Tuam in the West of Ireland);

#and information on the logo and theme of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress scheduled for Dublin in 2012 and of the possibility of registering on-line for an electronic journal about the IEC.

In order to assist the journey of catechetical and pastoral preparation leading up to the event, and also in celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ on June 6, 2010, the organizers have released the first issue of an on-line magazine, entitled E-Congress, to share information on the details of their pastoral program. E-Congress is currently available in English and Irish on its own website at: http://www.iec2012.ie/E-Congress/index.html; the organizers hope the next issue will also be available in French and Spanish.

Those interested in being notified of the availability of future issues of the on-line magazine are encouraged to register on its distribution list.

Further details follow.

Apostolic Visitation in IRELAND

Excerpts from the Vatican's Press Release regarding the Apostolic Visitation:

Following the Holy Father’s Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, the Apostolic Visitation of certain Irish dioceses, seminaries and religious congregations will begin in autumn of this year.

Through this Visitation, the Holy See intends to offer assistance to the Bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful as they seek to respond adequately to the situation caused by the tragic cases of abuse perpetrated by priests and religious upon minors. It is also intended to contribute to the desired spiritual and moral renewal that is already being vigorously pursued by the Church in Ireland.

The Apostolic Visitors will set out to explore more deeply questions concerning the handling of cases of abuse and the assistance owed to the victims; they will monitor the effectiveness of and seek possible improvements to the current procedures for preventing abuse, taking as their points of reference the Pontifical Motu Proprio "Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela" and the norms contained in Safeguarding Children: Standards and Guidance Document for the Catholic Church in Ireland, commissioned and produced by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

The Visitation will begin in the four Metropolitan Archdioceses of Ireland (Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Emly, and Tuam) and will then be extended to some other dioceses.

The Visitors named by the Holy Father for the dioceses are: His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Emeritus Archbishop of Westminster, for the Archdiocese of Armagh; His Eminence Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, for the Archdiocese of Dublin; the Most Reverend Thomas Christopher Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, for the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly; the Most Reverend Terrence Thomas Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa, for the Archdiocese of Tuam....

Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, Archdiocese of Tuam

His Holiness invites all the members of the Irish Catholic community to support this fraternal initiative with their prayers. He invokes God’s blessings upon the Visitors, and upon all the Bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful of Ireland, that the Visitation may be for them an occasion of renewed fervour in the Christian life, and that it may deepen their faith and strengthen their hope in Christ our Saviour.

The Standing Committee of the Irish Bishops Conference welcomed this news:

We welcome the news today that the Apostolic Visitation in Ireland, announced by Pope Benedict XVI in his Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, will begin in the autumn of this year. An expression of the personal closeness of Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland, this Visitation represents one more important step on the path to healing, reparation and renewal in the Church in Ireland. We pledge our full co-operation with all those involved and whose names were announced today.

The Apostolic Visitation will be an opportunity to further develop the work that is being undertaken in the Church in Ireland to address the needs of survivors of abuse, to build upon the strong procedures and guidelines for the safeguarding of children and to work for a renewal of faith.

The Apostolic Visitation is also an opportunity to reflect, evaluate and review certain aspects of life in the Church in Ireland at this time, mindful of Pope Benedict's words in his Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, "In solidarity with all of you, I am praying earnestly that, by God's grace, the wounds afflicting so many individuals and families may be healed and that the Church in Ireland may experience a season of rebirth and spiritual renewal."

We look forward to receiving further details of the precise terms of reference of the Apostolic Visitation in due course.

Your prayers are also welcome for a blessed outcome of these visitation exercises.

* * * * * *

PREPARING FOR DUBLIN'S 2012 EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

The Logo, entitled People in Communion, was designed on behalf of the Congress Committee by Martin Barlow of Portadown, Co. Armagh.

The design concept is based on the idea of people “from every nation, race, tribe and language” (Rev.7:9) being drawn together in Communion as “One Body” formed by faith in the person of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and the sacrifice he made upon the cross.

Our sense of community, belonging, celebration and acceptance is captured in the design by the graphic representation of the people with both arms outstretched.

Two separate sources form the inspiration for the design:

• Paragraph 7 of Lumen Gentium, which reads: “Really partaking of the body and blood of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another. Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread.”

• Paragraph 3 of the Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia of Pope John Paul II, which sums up the design, reads: The Church was born of the paschal mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an outstanding way the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the centre of the Church’s life....

The end result is a very modern design through the use of colour and graphic. At times the “people” graphic can be separated from the wording, allowing it to take up an iconic form. The design also lends itself to the use and mix of English and Irish in the strap line.

The logo has been submitted for registration to the Irish Patents Office.
Permission for its use in print or design is required. All applications for use require the prior permission of the Committee of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress.

Our Lady of Walsingham (famous English shrine to Our Blessed Mother)

Today's Feast of the Visitation is of medieval origin; it was kept by the Franciscan Order before 1263, and soon its observance spread throughout the entire Church.

Previously it was celebrated on July 2. Now it is celebrated between the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord and the birth of St. John the Baptist, in conformity with the Gospel accounts. Some places appropriately observe a celebration of the reality and sanctity of human life in the womb. The liturgical color is white.

The Visitation recalls for us the following great truths and events: The visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Annunciation; the cleansing of John the Baptist from original sin in the womb of his mother at the words of Our Lady's greeting; Elizabeth's proclaiming of Mary—under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost—as Mother of God and "blessed among women"; Mary's singing of the sublime hymn, Magnificat ("My magnifies the Lord") which has become a part of the daily official prayer of the Church.

The Visitation is frequently depicted in art, and was the central mystery of St. Francis de Sales' devotions.

* * * * * *

The Visitation - "And Mary rising up in those days went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda" [Lk. 1:39].

How lyrical that is, the opening sentence of St. Luke's description of the Visitation. We can feel the rush of warmth and kindness, the sudden urgency of love that sent that girl hurrying over the hills. "Those days" in which she rose on that impulse were the days in which Christ was being formed in her, the impulse was his impulse.

Many women, if they were expecting a child, would refuse to hurry over the hills on a visit of pure kindness. They would say they had a duty to themselves and to their unborn child which came before anything or anyone else.

The Mother of God considered no such thing. Elizabeth was going to have a child, too, and although Mary's own child was God, she could not forget Elizabeth's need—almost incredible to us, but characteristic of her.

She greeted her cousin Elizabeth, and at the sound of her voice, John quickened in his mother's womb and leapt for joy.

I am come, said Christ, that they may have life and may have it more abundantly. [Jn. 10, 10] Even before He was born His presence gave life.

With what piercing shoots of joy does this story of Christ unfold! First the conception of a child in a child's heart, and then this first salutation, an infant leaping for joy in his mother's womb, knowing the hidden Christ and leaping into life.

How did Elizabeth herself know what had happened to Our Lady? What made her realize that this little cousin who was so familiar to her was the mother of her God?

She knew it by the child within herself, by the quickening into life which was a leap of joy.

If we practice this contemplation taught and shown to us by Our Lady, we will find that our experience is like hers.

If Christ is growing in us, if we are at peace, recollected, because we know that however insignificant our life seems to be, from it He is forming Himself; if we go with eager wills, "in haste," to wherever our circumstances compel us, because we believe that He desires to be in that place, we shall find that we are driven more and more to act on the impulse of His love.

And the answer we shall get from others to those impulses will be an awakening into life, or the leap into joy of the already wakened life within them. -Excerpted from Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God

* * * * * *

AND WITH YOUR SPIRIT

"If the Holy Spirit were not in our Bishop [referring to Bishop Flavian of Antioch] when he gave the peace to all shortly before ascending to his holy sanctuary, you would not have replied to him all together, And with your spirit. This is why you reply with this expression….reminding yourselves by this reply that he who is here does nothing of his own power, nor are the offered gifts the work of human nature, but is it the grace of the Spirit present and hovering over all things which prepared that mystic sacrifice." (St. John Chrysostom, Homily on the Holy Pentecost)

In Advent 2011 (we now presume), the new English translation of the Roman Missal will come into effect in Canada. To prepare for this, catechesis will be necessary.

One of the major changes will be the response "And with your spirit" said several times at Mass in response to the bishop, priest (or deacon's) greeting, "The Lord be with you". Here is a treatment of this text from the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It may be freely reproduced on condition that the copyright by the USCCB is acknowledged.

[Commentaries for a popular understanding of elements of the Liturgy are provided here and may be reproduced freely with the customary copyright acknowledgement by our readers (source: http://usccb.org/romanmissal/translating_notes.shtml).]

Perhaps the most common dialogue in the Liturgy of the Roman Rite consists of the greeting:

Priest: Dominus vobiscum.
People: Et cum spiritu tuo.

Since 1970, this has been translated as:
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.

As a part of the revised translation of the Roman Missal..., the translation of this dialogue has been revised, to read:

Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.

Since it is clear that the change to “and with your spirit” is a significant and wide ranging change in a longstanding liturgical practice, the following questions are provided to clarify the reasons for the change and the meaning of the dialogue itself.

1. Why has the response et cum spiritu tuo been translated as "and with your spirit"?

The re-translation was necessary because it is a more correct rendering of et cum spiritu tuo. Recent scholarship has recognized the need for a more precise translation capable of expressing the full meaning of the Latin text.

2. What about the other major languages? Do they have to change their translations?

No. English is the only major language of the Roman Rite which did not translate the word "spiritu". The Italian (E con il tuo spirito), French (Et avec votre esprit), Spanish (Y con tu espíritu) and German (Und mit deinem Geiste) renderings of 1970 all translated the Latin word spiritu precisely.

3. Has the Holy See ever addressed this question?

In 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published an instruction entitled, Liturgiam authenticam, subtitled, On the Use of Vernacular Languages in the Publication of the Books of the Roman Liturgy. The instruction directs specifically that: “Certain expressions that belong to the heritage of the whole or of a great part of the ancient Church, as well as others that have become part of the general human patrimony, are to be respected by a translation that is as literal as possible, as for example the words of the people’s response Et cum spiritu tuo, or the expression mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa in the Act of Penance of the Order of Mass” (Liturgiam authenticam, #56).

4. Where does this dialogue come from?

The response et cum spiritu tuo is found in the Liturgies of both East and West, from the earliest days of the Church. One of the first instances of its use is found in the Traditio Apostolica of Saint Hippolytus, composed in Greek around AD 215.

5. How is this dialogue used in the Liturgy?

The dialogue is only used between the priest and the people, or exceptionally, between the deacon and the people. The greeting is never used in the Roman Liturgy between a non-ordained person and the gathered assembly.

6. What does the priest mean when he says “The Lord be with you”?

By greeting the people with the words “The Lord be with you,” the priest expresses his desire that the dynamic activity of God’s spirit be given to the people of God, enabling them to do the work of transforming the world that God has entrusted to them.

7. What do the people mean when they respond “and with your spirit”?

The expression et cum spiritu tuo is only addressed to an ordained minister. Some scholars have suggested that spiritu refers to the gift of the spirit he received at ordination. In their response, the people assure the priest of the same divine assistance of God’s spirit and, more specifically, help for the priest to use the charismatic gifts given to him in ordination and in so doing to fulfill his prophetic function in the Church.

8. What further reading could you suggest on this dialogue?

For those who wish to pursue this issue from a more scholarly perspective, they might consult:

• J.A. Jungmann, S.J., The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, trans. F.A. Brunner C.Ss.R. (Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1986), 363.

• Michael K. Magee, The Liturgical Translation of the Response “Et cum spiritu tuo”, Communio 29 (Spring 2002) 152-171.

• W.C. Van Unnik, “Dominus Vobiscum:” The Background of a Liturgical Formula, in A.J.B. Higgins (ed.), New Testament Essays (Manchester, University Press, 1959) 270-305.

© United States Conference of Catholic Bishops • 3211 Fourth St NE • Washington DC 20017 • 202.541.3060 • All rights Reserved

El Greco, The Trinity

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Year "C") May 30, 2010

GLORY TO THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

[Texts: Proverbs 8:22-31 [Psalm 8]; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

In today's gospel, Jesus describes the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church in the following words, "He will guide you into all the truth".

The Spirit speaks the truth from Jesus in order to glorify Him. Yet all Jesus possessed had come to Him from the Father; and Jesus' sole desire was to glorify the Father. In these glimpses into the interior dynamics of God, disciples grasp the selfless life of the Trinity. Each Person of the Trinity is unique; yet each is oriented to the Others.

Still, people only know the inner life of God from God's movement towards them in creation (first reading) and in the way they have actually been saved (second reading). Here, again, Christians discover the way in which the Persons of the Trinity selflessly work together `for us men and for our salvation' (Nicene Creed).

Proverbs noted that divine Wisdom was present with God in the creation of the universe, "delighting in the human race". The sage author of Proverbs issued a plea that humans discover the way to life. Early on, Lady Wisdom preached and uttered prophetic judgments, denouncing folly and uttering scorn against ignorance. But in chapter 8, Wisdom became an evangelist, tenderly pleading her case. Choosing for or against wisdom, in Lady Wisdom's view, is a matter of life and death.

The majesty of creation which this passage depicts, reaches its climax with the assertion that God delights in being present with His children. Christians may infer that, since this is so, God delights even more in those who have been re-created as the brothers and sisters of Jesus. This came about through Christ's gift of himself on the cross, a sacrifice out of love for both the Father and for us.

In Romans, Paul told believers that the Spirit makes them fearless in the face of difficulties through the Father's saving activity (`God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us'). The first part of Romans (chapters 1-4) was devoted to showing how, in salvation history, men and women had become alienated from God by the rebellion of sin.

As long as they remained in this condition--which they could do nothing to undo--sufferings and anything that suggested the prospect of death were to be feared. For these brought with them the threats of judgment and condemnation for sin which would follow. Paul brought his history of sin to an end with the Good News that God had done what human beings could not do: reconciled sinful humanity by putting forth Jesus as the expiation of our sins (4:25).

Now Paul turns to the experience of finding peace with God. Because their status as sons and daughters of God comes by faith and through Jesus, Christians can "boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God". Far from fearing suffering, the Christian's daily tribulations lead to an inner transformation of life through sharing in God's life through faith, hope and love.

The Christian's conviction that such hope is not deceptive issues from the Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart of each believer. The dynamic of salvation history reveals the plan by which the Trinity entered into and continues to enter the lives of God's people.

In the farewell discourse Jesus offered His testament to His disciples. He revealed that the Word He spoke to them would serve as the guiding principle for the apostles' and the Church's future. The power of the Word to guide Christian lives is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work.

The Spirit actualizes (makes real here and now) the Word spoken by Jesus in the past, so that it might be life-giving in the Church. Even the way the Spirit carries out this mission is reminiscent of Jesus. For the Spirit points beyond -- to Jesus, just as Jesus always pointed beyond Himself to the Father.

And this, paradoxically, is to Jesus's glory, revealing as it does how obedient He was to the Father's will. For the Christian, the way to his or her glory is by way of entering into the dynamic of the Trinity's life so that ultimately God might be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15-28).

* * * * * *

St. JOAN OF ARC

This year's observance of the feast of Joan of Arc is not permitted because of Sunday's solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. But here are a few aspects of her story:

St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France. On January 6, 1412, Joan of Arc was born to pious parents of the French peasant class, at the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine. At a very early age, she heard voices: those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.

At first the messages were personal and general. Then at last came the crowning order. In May, 1428, her voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. For at that time the English king was after the throne of France, and the Duke of Burgundy, the chief rival of the French king, was siding with him and gobbling up evermore French territory.

After overcoming opposition from churchmen and courtiers, the seventeen year old girl was given a small army with which she raised the seige of Orleans on May 8, 1429. She then enjoyed a series of spectacular military successes, during which the King was able to enter Rheims and be crowned with her at his side.

In May 1430, as she was attempting to relieve Compiegne, she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English when Charles and the French did nothing to save her. After months of imprisonment, she was tried at Rouen by a tribunal presided over by the infamous Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who hoped that the English would help him to become archbishop.

Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of theology, Joan was trapped into making a few damaging statements. When she refused to retract the assertion that it was the saints of God who had commanded her to do what she had done, she was condemned to death as a heretic, sorceress, and adulteress, and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was nineteen years old. Some thirty years later, she was exonerated of all guilt and she was ultimately canonized in 1920, making official what the people had known for centuries. Joan was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV; her feast day is May 30.

St. Joan of Arc's story has a special significance in Ottawa for among the religious congregations present here the Institute of St. Jeanne d'Arc is of diocesan foundation. Some years ago, after a dearth of applicants, the institute decided not to accept new members.

Here are few points about its historic origins:

L'Institut JEANNE D'ARC d'Ottawa



Les Sœurs de l’Institut Jeanne-d’Arc constituent l’une des rares communautés religieuses de langue française à avoir été fondées en Ontario. Il y a eu, bien entendu, la fondation des Sœurs Grises de la Croix en 1845, par Élisabeth Bruyère, mais cette communauté s’est détachée des Sœurs Grises de la Croix de Montréal pour s’implanter à Bytown (Ottawa).

En novembre 1910, Albina Aubry et Laura Chartrand fondent un foyer pour jeunes filles à Ottawa. Au début, il s’agit d’une succursale du Foyer Notre-Dame, ouvert à Montréal en 1903, mais il s’en détache le 1er mars 1913 et prend le nom d’Institut Jeanne d’Arc.

Sœur Marie-Thomas d’Aquin (née Jeanne-Lydia Branda) fonde la congrégation des Sœurs de l’Institut Jeanne d’Arc d’Ottawa, érigé canoniquement le 7 octobre 1919 par Mgr Charles H. Gauthier, archevêque d’Ottawa.

Jeanne-Lydia Branda voit le jour le 13 août 1877 à Saint-Romain-la-Virvée (France). Elle entre chez les Sœurs de Saint-Dominique en 1899, se rend à Lewiston (Maine) en 1904, prononce ses vœux en 1906 et prend le nom de sœur Marie-Thomas d’Aquin.

Elle arrive à Ottawa en 1914, crée la revue Jeanne d’Arc, qu’elle dirige jusqu’en 1957, puis fonde la congrégation des Sœurs de l’Institut Jeanne-d’Arc en 1919. Elle en est la supérieure jusqu’en 1942.

Sous le pseudonyme de Marie Sylvia et de Jeanne-Louise Branda, Mère Marie-Thomas d’Aquin publie divers recueils de poésie, dont Vers le bien (1916), Vers le beau (1924), Vers le vrai (1928) et Reflets d’opales (1945).

Membre de la Société des auteurs canadiens et de la Société des poètes canadiens-français, elle reçoit la croix de la Légion d’honneur en 1956. Elle est décédée à Ottawa le 17 mars 1963.

L’Institut Jeanne-d’Arc n’a œuvré qu’à Ottawa. Il s’est voué principalement à la protection des jeunes filles en offrant diverses formes d’aide, dont le cours commercial dispensé de 1920 à 1957.

La communauté oeuvrait depuis un édifice de la rue Sussex. Son emplacement fait jadis partie du «mille historique» de la Commission de la capitale nationale. Aujourd'hui, les Sœurs ont leur résidence principale sur la rue Princeton dans l'ouest d'Ottawa.

HOLY REDEEMER "ALLELUIA" MASS

On Wednesday evening, I travelled to Kanata for the annual "Alleluia" Mass, celebrated with the children of Holy Redeemer Parish who this spring celebrated their First Reconciliation (confession) and, during the Easter Season, received their First Holy Communion.

While it was a few days beyond the Easter Season's close (to accommodate my schedule), this Eucharist gives all the families whose members took part in the Christian Initiation of Children to come together with fellow parishioners and other families for this joyful occasion.

We had joyful music, an honour guard provided by the Knights of Columbus, photos for those who wanted such, souvenir cards of the archbishop (some of which got autographed--I felt briefly like a celebrity) and, wouldn't you know it, fruit juices, cake and other sweets (even some fresh fruits and veggies). Herewith some photos taken following Mass:



A couple of children join me in cutting the celebratory cake

Father Pierre Champoux and the C.I.C. team at Holy Redeemer

* * * * * *

ORDINATIONS TODAY AND NEXT SATURDAY

Lots of our priests are celebrating the anniversary of their priestly ordination in late May or early June (my 38th anniversary is on June 10th). So presiding at priestly ordinations is always a joyous occasion for me (or any bishop).

Today at 10 am in Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, I will ordain David Bergeron of the Companions of the Cross a priest. A native of Granby, Quebec (in the St. Hyacinthe Diocese), he was ordained a deacon there by Mgr Francois Lapierre last September. His first Mass will be celebrated on Sunday in his home parish. The ordination ceremony today will be bilingual.

David Bergeron prepares the chalice at Mass shortly after his diaconal ordination

Left: John Meehan, SJ
Right: Teofilo [Teo] Ugaban, S.J.

Next Saturday at 10am in Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Toronto, I will ordain two Jesuit confreres to the priesthood:

John Meehan from Antigonish, Nova Scotia (a professional historian, whose book entitled, The Dominion and the Rising Sun, was awarded the Prime Minister's Award when it was published in Japanese) and Teofilo Ugaban who was born in the Philippines and immigrated with his family to Vancouver (and who possesses a striking gift as a painter).

Please pray for these men (and others being ordained these days) and for the fruitfulness of the ministry, which they will devote to God's people in the coming years.

* * * * * *

THE HOLY GOALIE

Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki, when Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago kept up his pick-up hockey skill playing in nets; he has even skated with the Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators.

When named Bishop of Springfield in Illinois (he will be installed on June 22--well after the Stanley Cup is awarded), he made the following comments at his first press conference:

"My favorite sport is hockey; I still play hockey. I am a goalie. My nickname is, the 'Holy Goalie.'

"If you’re trying to figure out how my mind works, you should know that most hockey players say that goalies are different. I get enjoyment from standing in front of a hockey net and having people shoot pucks at me at 100 miles per hour. I am used to taking shots. With that in mind, I will now take your questions."

Not only that he has produced his very own GUIDE TO THE 2010 STANLEY CUP FINALS BETWEEN THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS AND THE PHILADELPHIA FLYERS; naturally this presentation does not constitute magisterial teaching; take it all with a grain of salt, says another hockey fan who has been through the wringer with the series that took us to the finals. Herewith the Holy Goalie's guide:

Here are a few points to keep in mind as the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers face off against each other in the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Final Series:

● The Blackhawk Indian head logo has been called by many as the best logo in professional sports. It is a respectful and dignified depiction of a real person, Chief Black Hawk, who headed an Indian tribe that roamed the plains of the Midwest.

● The Philadelphia Flyers logo is officially described as “a black P-Wing with an orange circle in the middle.” On April 4, 1966, co-owner Bill Putnam announced there would be a name-the-team contest and that orange, black and white would be the team colors. Wanting what he referred to as "hot" colors, Putnam's choice was influenced by the orange and white of his alma mater, the University of Texas, and the orange and black of Philadelphia's previous NHL team, the Quakers. Also announced on April 4 was the hiring of a Chicago firm to design the team's arena.

● It was co-owner Ed Snider's sister Phyllis who ended up naming the team when she suggested Flyers on a return trip from a Broadway play. Ed knew immediately it would be the winning name, since it captured the speed of the game and went well phonetically with Philadelphia. On August 3, 1966, the team name was announced. Of the 11,000 ballots received, more than 100 selected Flyers as the team name and were entered into a drawing to select a winner. 9-year-old boy Alec Stockard from Narberth, Pennsylvania, who had spelled it "Fliers" on his entry, won the drawing and was declared the winner.

● The Blackhawks were called the Portland Rose Buds before a coffee baron in Chicago, named Frederick McLaughlin purchased the team in the mid 1920's. McLaughlin moved the team to Chicago and was awarded a NHL franchise on September 25, 1926. The team name came from its first owner, Major Fredrick McLaughlin. As a commander of the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion of the U.S. Army's World War I Expeditionary Force, the Major belonged to the 86th Blackhawk Division and felt a great affection for the name. He also was aware of the history of Chief Black Hawk. After McLaughlin named the team, his wife Irene, designed the unique Black, Red, and White striped uniforms with the head of Chief Black Hawk on the logo.

● The grit and determination of the Chicago Blackhawks is epitomized by defenseman Duncan Keith, who lost seven teeth when he was hit in the face by a puck in last Sunday’s game that clinched the semi-final series against the San Jose Sharks. He only missed four shifts and ended up playing a game-high 29 minutes, 2 seconds and assisted on the tying goal. Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said, "He's a warrior." His defense partner said, "Seeing him suck on some gauze there really gave us a lift.”

● Flyers goalie Michael Leighton came up through the Chicago Blackhawks organization. After the Hawks drafted him 165th overall in 1999, he played for them sparingly in 2002 and started 33 games for the struggling squad the next season. But a lockout and an injury in the minor leagues derailed him. After being traded, he played with several other teams before being claimed off waivers by the Flyers on January 11, 2007. On May 22nd, Leighton became the first Flyer to record three shutout wins in the Conference Finals against the Montreal Canadiens.

● Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi was born on August 29, 1983 in Vantaa, Finland. Niemi played junior hockey for Kiekko-Vantaa from 2000 until 2005, when he turned pro with the Pelicans of the Finnish hockey league. He played three seasons with the Pelicans before signing with the Chicago Blackhawks as an undrafted free agent in 2008. After playing in the minors, he made the Blackhawks roster last Fall. Niemi won the starting goaltender job for the Blackhawks near the close of the 2009-2010 NHL regular season.

● The Flyers made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth by beating the New York Rangers in a shootout in the last game of the regular season. They were on the brink of elimination against the Boston Bruins, down 3 games to 0 before coming back to tie the series, then were down 3 goals to 0 in game seven before rallying to win. This is a tough team that doesn’t give up, but the Blackhawks are loaded with talent and they haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1961, so they are hungry.

● The Holy Goalie’s pick: Blackhawks in 5.

Reverend Gerald LECLAIRE, SJ [R.I.P.]

On Pentecost Sunday, we lost another veteran missionary to India and Bhutan, Father Gerald Leclaire at the age of 81 and in his 63rd year of Jesuit life. His funeral will take place this morning at Ignatius Chapel, Manresa Retreat House, Pickering, with burial this afternoon at the Jesuit Cemetery in Guelph.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Jean-Alphonse and Adelaide Culleton, he attended D’Arcy McGee High School before entering the Society of Jesus at Guelph on September 7, 1947. After philosophy in Toronto, he studied history at the University of Toronto for 3 years.

In 1957 he was missioned to Darjeeling, India, with ordination taking place on March 22, 1961. His priestly ministry began in Gayaganga as co-pastor, and then a year later (1965) he moved to St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling to become Rector and Prefect of Studies. His teaching centred on history and theology.

Fr. Leclaire, in 1978, accepted a posting to the Kingdom of Bhutan. He became principal of Sherubtse School in eastern Bhutan. For 11 years he carried the burden of this school and then in 1989 he returned to St. Joseph’s College as principal and lecturer. He was appointed Rector in 1997, a post he held for only two years before suffering a massive stroke while on a visit to Canada.

Fr. Leclaire, despite his debilitating stroke which robbed him of speech, always enjoyed visitors at Pickering and he could be seen outdoors on his motorized cart whizzing around the property; he did this almost daily, weather permitting. He bore his heavy cross with equanimity and courage and was an example to many who were his companions at the infirmary.

Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.

* * * * * *

Sesquicentennial of St. Joseph's Parish, Orleans

There were many photos taken at Saturday's 150 anniversary Mass at Paroisse St. Joseph, Orleans.

One CD of photos reduced a 1000+ collection to 150 chosen photos.

This selection is necessarily more limited.

Enjoy!

Today's optional memorial features St. Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury (Died AD 604). Also known as St. Augustine the Less to distinguish him from his illustrious namesake from Hippo, Augustine was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great as leader of the mission sent from Rome for the evangelization of the English. He landed in the Isle of Thanet in the Spring of AD 597 and, within a year, Aethelbert, King of Kent, was baptized with several thousand of his subjects.

The foundation of Canterbury Cathedral was laid five years later, supposedly, on the site of an old Roman Church. Augustine was consecrated by Vergilius, Archbishop of Arles and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

The alienation between the British Church and the Italian missionaries might have been averted had Augustine recognized the consideration that was due to the Church which had existed in Britain for three centuries, and had been more tolerant of the diversity between British and Roman usage.

Augustine laid the foundation stone of the Monastery of St. Peter & St. Paul outside Canterbury, later known as St. Augustine's, in the year of his arrival and there he was buried. He died on 26th May, traditionally in AD 604, but possibly as late as 609. (Edited from G.M. Bevan's "Portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury" [1908])

* * * * * *

The Debate about Abortion is ON

Photo credit: Le Soleil, Patrice Laroche

Tuesday evening, I flew to Quebec City to join Cardinal Marc Ouellet at a press conference to attempt to change the climate on the matter and to reduce the number of abortions by inviting governments to offer greater assistance to women (couples) who find themselves in difficulties because of an unintended pregnancy rather than only facilitating access to abortion.

Here are the texts given by the Cardinal (in French) and by me (in English):

Le débat sur l’avortement est ouvert et il ne faut pas en avoir peur. 100 000 avortements par année au Canada, plus de 25 000 au Québec, c’est beaucoup trop. On pourrait les réduire de moitié si seulement les femmes en détresse à cause d’une grossesse inattendue étaient accueillies, informées et accompagnées avec compassion et solidarité dans leur choix.

Mes interventions pour une culture de la vie ont fait l’objet de toutes sortes d’interprétations depuis une dizaine de jours dans la presse francophone et anglophone du Canada. C’est pourquoi je tiens à clarifier le sens de mon engagement dans le débat actuel sur l’avortement. Je vous remercie d’avoir répondu à mon invitation et de me permettre de recentrer le débat sur l’essentiel. Les cas très exceptionnels ne doivent pas nous empêcher de voir la triste réalité de l’avortement devenu trop répandu.

Je remercie Mgr Terrence Prendergast, archevêque d’Ottawa, de se joindre à moi pour lancer un appel à la solidarité avec les plus démunis de notre société : l’enfant à naître et la femme qui se trouve contrainte de recourir à l’avortement.

Je précise d’entrée de jeu que mon commentaire pour la défense de l’enfant innocent, même en cas de viol, était motivé par le désir de rappeler la dignité de la femme en toutes circonstances et le respect qui est dû à toute vie humaine naissante. Je constate qu’on a retenu et interprété seulement une partie de mon message. J’attire ici l’attention sur l’autre partie, dans l’espoir que le public prenne conscience du véritable enjeu de ce débat : l’appui à la femme enceinte de la part de l’homme, de la famille, de la société.

Je n’ai dit nulle part que je condamnais la femme qui avait eu recours à l’avortement. J’ai même dit le contraire en parlant directement à l’une d’entre elles sur les ondes d’une émission de télévision. Je n’ai déclaré aucune femme criminelle parce qu’elle avait subi un avortement. Je sais très bien que la responsabilité ultime de cette décision morale relève de la conscience personnelle qui agit en fonction de divers facteurs, dont l’intention de la personne et les circonstances. Dieu seul est juge de la conscience de chacun et chacune parce que Lui seul peut mesurer tous les éléments de chaque cas.

Mon propos a toujours été de rappeler la norme morale objective avec la préoccupation de sauver la vie de l’enfant innocent et d’épargner à la mère les conséquences graves d’un avortement délibérément provoqué : c’est précisément le souci de la santé physique, psychologique et spirituelle de la femme en difficulté qui a motivé mes interventions. Je suis très désolé que mes propos, déformés ou cités hors contexte, aient pu causer des souffrances additionnelles aux femmes qui font face à des situations semblables. J’espère que ces mises au point serviront à assainir et à recentrer le débat.

Car débat il y a et il doit y avoir, même si une motion à Québec et une affirmation du premier ministre à Ottawa vont dans le sens contraire et refusent de rouvrir la législation sur l’avortement.

Je déplore cette attitude de plusieurs de nos représentants qui ne semblent pas vouloir regarder en face l’injustice que notre pays cautionne en n’accordant aucune protection juridique à l’enfant dans le sein de sa mère. Notre pays est à cet égard un cas unique dans le monde. Beaucoup l’ignorent et croient vivre dans l’un des pays les plus avancés dans le domaine des droits humains. Or, nous n’avons de leçon à faire à personne en ce domaine. Nous devrions même nous ouvrir à ce qui se fait ailleurs afin de mieux voir ce qu’il nous faudrait améliorer pour protéger les enfants encore sans voix qui espèrent voir le jour.

Avec mon collègue, archevêque d’Ottawa, qui entretient lui aussi, comme moi, des rapports plus étroits avec les gouvernants, je m’adresse à la conscience de mes compatriotes, femmes et hommes, pour que nous réclamions un jour ensemble que le vide juridique actuel en matière d’avortement, un état de chose injuste, soit modifié en notre pays.

Cependant, tenant compte de l’impasse politique et juridique dans laquelle nous vivons, je lance un appel avec mon collègue d’Ottawa pour qu’une campagne de sensibilisation et des programmes d’aide aux femmes en détresse se développent davantage en notre pays. Il manque beaucoup d’information, d’accompagnement et d’aide financière, pour que les femmes enceintes soient mises en situation de faire un choix éclairé. Il importe beaucoup qu’à tous les niveaux, gouvernemental, médical et social, des programmes d’aide plus efficace pour les femmes en situation de grossesse difficile soient mis en œuvre afin que le plus grand nombre possible parmi elles puissent éviter l’avortement.

Le débat actuel nous place d’une façon inattendue devant un choix de société qui peut dépasser les clivages habituels et rallier le plus grand nombre. La présence des jeunes dans ce débat révèle une nouvelle sensibilité qui n’est plus celle d’il y a vingt ans. L’expérience des familles a aussi beaucoup changé, mais le fait demeure que la venue d’un enfant apporte au foyer beaucoup de bonheur.

Cette valeur s’ajoute à tout un patrimoine de solidarité sociale pour les plus démunis qui fait notre fierté et qui réclame du Québec et de toutes les provinces du Canada un nouveau choix. Il appartient désormais à tous et toutes de réfléchir à ce choix. N’ayons pas peur de ce débat qui configurera l’avenir de notre peuple.

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Life: the inalienable right

Photo credit: Canadian Press

1) Two weeks ago, nearly twelve thousand people gathered on Parliament Hill and thousands more in several Canadian cities to stand up in defence of the unborn. These people represent many in the silent majority who are on the side of life. The significant Pro-Life caucus of our Federal Government works quietly, day after day, to keep human life at the top of the Government agenda.

2) To be actively in favour of life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop. There can be no true peace unless life is defended and promoted.

3) We must never lose sight of the atrocities against the unborn, the untold and too-seldom spoken of pain and lingering anguish experienced by those who have been involved in abortions; doing otherwise has severely narrowed our national discourse about moral values in the public square.

4) Whatever is opposed to life itself, whatever violates the dignity of the human person, whatever insults human dignity … all of these things and more poison human society. Concern about abortion and the implications for the mother and her child does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. We must strive to see the whole picture, not with tunnel vision. We cannot ignore the other great challenges faced by humanity today. But that is not our topic today.

5) For, the right to life is primordial. In Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, (Charity in Truth), the Holy Father addresses clearly the dignity and respect for human life: “Openness to life is at the centre of true development… When a society moves toward the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good. If personal and social sensitivity toward the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.”

6) Favouring the cause of life is not an activity for a political party or a particular side of the spectrum. It is an obligation for everyone: left, right and centre! If we are in favour of life—pro-woman, pro-child, pro-family, we must engage the culture around us and offer positive solutions. It is this positive purpose that has brought me here today to join with Cardinal Ouellet to make an appeal on behalf of women who find themselves without helpful alternatives when they face an unanticipated pregnancy and on behalf of the child the woman carries in her womb.

7) All across Canada, there are public, Catholic and Christian centres that reach out to help those in distress over pregnancy and new life. The outstanding work of Birthright cuts across all religious and sectarian lines and stands for life. Many cities, from Vancouver to St. John’s, have crisis pregnancy centres which provide safe places, welcome, and options for young women and men to preserve, protect and uphold the life of the newly conceived child as well as their own human dignity. There, ordinary people reach out to those in crisis and distress to save lives.

8) What His Eminence and I are asking today is that governmental agencies take on their proper role in affording help for pregnant women in distress—and others affected by new life in the womb—to reduce the extraordinarily high number of abortions in our country.