Post for November 30, 2007
I got a call from the Curateur publique today to follow up with from the meeting I had a few days ago. The government official in question wanted to meet the elderly priest in person, so I proposed picking her up from her office and going to see him this afternoon. She agreed, and we had a very nice visit. I am not too sure that my elderly brother priest was all that thrilled at meeting her — after all, her task is to evaluate if he will have some of his rights removed, never a pleasant thing — but she was very personable, and he was his usual charming self, and all went well. On a personal note: I felt very affirmed in all I was doing for this priest, both from the official and the priest in question, who were both pleased with my work. To be honest, it felt good.
I do not know what the final outcome of all this will be, but I feel confident things are in good hands.
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Post for November 29, 2007
I attended an all-day meeting at the Assemblée des évêques catholiques du Québec. The Comité des ministères, one of the standing committees of the Quebec bishops, was gathering with the executive members of some of its official partner groups, such as the “group partenaire des prêtres”. The topic was the life and experience of ministry of the lay pastoral agents who work as part of the various ministries in the Quebec church (most often in parishes).
My main purpose at this meeting was to make some additional contacts within the Quebec church. Given that I have a special responsibility to work with foreign priests in Montreal, and given that Montreal probably welcomes more foreign priests than all other Quebec dioceses combined, I (by definition) have a special leadership role within the province on this matter. I wanted to use the chance to network a bit, so that the inter-diocesan dimension might be more apparent, and I was pleased by the contacts I made. We’ll see where it leads.
Still, this does not mean I was not paying attention to the main events of the day! I was struck by how many mentioned they feel there is a lack of common vision regarding the nature of lay ministry and its relation to ordained ministry. This is a theme I’ve heard a lot, in various contexts, so I’ll see if I can get around to writing something on Adventus.org at some point on the topic.
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Post for November 28, 2007
Tonight was the last evening of the Holy Family parish mission, and because I had already done a parish mission there once before, I decided to eliminate the overlap I had with that previous mission and do something a bit different. My last evening, therefore, focussed on the sacraments. Listen to it here, and get the PDF here.
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Post for November 27, 2007
I went to Saint-Luke hospital today to visit with a sick priest. The trip was not planned, but was one of those things that the Holy Spirit seemed to arrange himself. I got a call from a social worker, letting me know that there was a sick priest who had requested special assistance from the local health clinic. Coincidentally, I had already made arrangements to meet the curate of the parish where he lives (on another matter, mind you) so it would give us a chance to coordinate whatever help he might need. And then, I got a call from the pastoral care services of the hospital letting me know they had a special patient — a foreign priest, under their care, asking to see me.
The fact of these three “God-incidences” was in itself a fairly big sign, but the best came from the priest who called me. We had never met before, never even spoken on the phone. And yet, he was able to fill in the blanks for this sick priest. Yes, this elderly brother wanted to see me, but he could only remember my first name. The chaplain told me a name suddenly popped into his head, and he asked the priest, “Fr. Thomas…Dowd?” A big smile of recognition came over the sick man, and the call was made to my office, letting me know that the patient was actually going to be released today.
Many thanks to the pastoral services of the hospital, for their excellent support while I was doing my hospital visit. They set up additional meetings with doctors and social workers, and everyone was very cooperative. We are now working on getting our elder brother home.
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Post for November 26, 2007
It’s been a long time since I joined the regular commute into town, but since this parish mission I am doing is in Deux-Montagnes I’ve decided to beat the traffic and take the train to and from downtown each day. It is an 8-min walk from Holy Family parish, and the central station downtown is right next to the Cathedral (where I regularly live). 50 minutes door to door — can’t beat that!
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Post for November 25, 2007
Today I started to preach my third-ever parish mission on (you guessed it) the Four Basic Questions. The mission will run from Sunday to Wednesday, from 7 – 9 pm (approx) each night.
I won’t be posting audio files for this one, as the content will not be different from the previous mission I preached two weeks ago. Feel free to check out those particular audio files.
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Post for November 24, 2007
I bought a new toy today: a 4-channel stereo mixer. I couldn’t help it, the price was 2/3 off (knocked down to $50 with decent product reviews).
Why get this kind of equipment, especially something so basic? After all, it doesn’t even come with an amplifier. Still, this board does what I want it to do: it will take multiple inputs and mix them to a single output, which then can be fed elsewhere…like, the Internet, where we don’t need an amp.
That’s right, folks. Live internet radio, here we (eventually) come. Some more equipment will need to be purchased, and a programming structure set in place, but I’ve already scoped out a few streaming audio service providers that offer reasonable prices. So stay tuned! (yes, pun intended!)
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Post for November 23, 2007
I met a young couple this evening who want to get married, but the family is not too keen. Why? She’s Christian, and he’s Muslim. Whoops.
Now I have to say, I really like this couple. The young lady was actually a student of mine a couple of years ago, and I felt quite honoured that she contacted me after so much time to seek some advice. In particular, she wanted to know what the Church had to say about their desire for marriage.
I get a lot of questions about marriage, and inter-faith marriages especially, as there are a lot of misunderstandings out there. So I gave her the straight goods:
- The Catholic Church prefers that a Catholic marry another Catholic. That being said, it is possible to ask for special permission to marry a non-Catholic, and even a non-Christian, provided certain basic criteria are met (e.g. neither party is already married!)
- It is even possible to ask for permission to be married in a non-Catholic ceremony.
- No, the non-Catholic party is not required to convert.
- The couple needs to understand that inter-faith marriages carry many challenges, particularly around things like the celebration of religious holidays and rites of passage, and how the children are to be raised. The Catholic party has a special obligation to preserve his/her faith, as well as to make the effort to see that the kids are raised Catholic. We also inform the non-Catholic of these obligations for the Catholic.
- We verify that the non-Catholic has a basic agreement with certain core Catholic concepts surrounding marriage. For example, Catholics do not practice polygamy, while it is permissible for Muslim men from within their religion. Divorce is also possible, even easy, within Islam. Not every Muslim agrees with these things, though, so we would want to verify the future husband’s agreement with the Catholic viewpoint in this matter.
I don’t know if our talk helped clarify things for this couple, but I hope they have a clearer sense of how to move forward (or not). Please keep them in prayer.
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Post for November 22, 2007
This is not a joke: it actually happened, this very evening.
Well, not quite. Actually, it was two priests. I was one of them — the one who was mistaken for a gangster.
Well, again not quite. My friend Fr. Richard Depairon and I decided to go and shoot some pool at a billiards hall near a former parish of mine. I guess this place has gotten a bit tough since I was there, because we had to pass through a metal detector to get into the place. Fr. Richard got through fine. Me? I set off the alarm, meaning I then got searched for weapons.
“What are these, sir?”
“Ummm, my car keys.”
“And what is in this pocket?”
“Err, my comb.”
“And what is this?”
“My cell phone!”
Now I *did* actually have my clerical shirt on. I guess there must be some sort of street gang where the members now dress in clerical shirts or something, because I was definitely a suspect. We eventually did get in, and I lost against Fr. Richard three games to two. I’ll win the next time — but maybe in a different pool hall.
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Post for November 21, 2007
…and after supper with the monks, I headed to Upstairs to have a drink with a fellow named Vincent, who had recently posted some comments on the Adventus website about a conference I had given. I hadn’t really quite understood the points he was trying to make, and I felt that we risked getting very frustrated in having an exchange merely over internet, so I proposed we meet in person and he accepted.
Unfortunately Upstairs was totally booked due to a show, so we headed to a local coffee shop where it would be a bit quieter. I was quickly impressed with Vincent’s intelligence — he is clearly brilliant — and by his earnest desire to live in truth, whatever it might be. I also realised why I felt we were not connecting over the comments: while he speaks English very well, it is not Vincent’s mother tongue, and I know all about the frustrations that can come from trying to capture nuance in another language. Dear readers, you would have been amused to hear us speaking: Vincent speaking mainly French, me responding mainly in English, and each of us throwing in sentences in the other languages from time to time. A classic Montreal mish-mash.
In terms of the intellectual content of our discussion, I am not sure we came to any real resolution of our philosophical perspectives, but I do believe the we managed to define the differences a bit better. At least, that is what I came away with. Vincent’s thought, it seems to me, is very much in line with the 20th century developments of Enlightenment thought, which is itself drawn directly from the issues raised by Descartes. My own thought, on the other hand, is very Aristotelico-Thomist — my 20th century hero philosophical is Maritain, for example.
One interesting thing about these sorts of discussions, mind you, is that even if we don’t manage to convince the other person of anything it can help clarify our own thoughts on a subject. In my case, what emerged was a clearer grasp on the levels of nature (i.e. the natural, the preternatural, and the supernatural) and their respective sciences (empirical science, philosophy, and theology). Vincent argued that theology often refuses to respect the independence of the empirical sciences, for example, by continuing to make comments about matters related to the empirical sciences. My point was that, because the supernatural is a higher order of existence than the natural, theology cannot help but take the natural into consideration as it reflects on its own data. The empirical sciences rely on data obtained through observation, the philosophical sciences on data obtained through abstraction, and theology on data obtained through revelation. Some revelation is found written in creation, however, not just in the Bible, and so theology cannot help but consider the discoveries of the natural sciences, and to simply avoid it would be a betrayal of theology’s own nature and mission.
Anyway, I enjoyed my evening, even if it had its moments of frustration. I hope Vincent and I can get together again, and perhaps even use the Internet conversation more effectively as well.
» Filed Under Theology | 2 Comments
Post for November 21, 2007
I had the honour this evening of presiding mass with the Fraternité monastique de Jerusalem, a new religious community that has a centre in Montreal. The evening of prayer actually began with Vespers (evening prayer), followed immediately by a mass which I also preached. I think they were a bit surprised at first when I decided to preach in both English and French, but to be honest I am more comfortable that way — if I lose my train of thought I can just switch languages, repeat a brief translation of what I just said, and then get back on track in the other language.
After Mass I had supper with the monks (the nuns have their own residence), and although we ate in silence we had a chance for a brief conversation afterwards. It was nice to meet these religious on their home turf, especially given that I have one brother and two nuns in my theology class at the Grand Seminary — it helps me to see things from their point of view.
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Post for November 20, 2007
Part of the work of my branch of the diocesan curia (i.e. the Office for Pastoral Personnel) is to help look after priests who find themselves in particular difficulties. I have been recently helping an elderly brother who requires assistance, particularly with his financial affairs, and today I went to the Curateur Publique for an initial interview with an eye to being declared his official “tutor”. Normally this step is not necessary, as Quebec law allows for a family council to appoint a tutor for someone, but as this priest has no family of his own the government steps in and acts in the place of the family. Should I be officially appointed as his tutor (which seems likely), I will then have to render accounts to a liaison with the public curator of my management of his affairs. I have no problem with any of this, of course, and I am happy to be able to help him in this way. To be honest, I’ve been unofficially acting in this capacity already, and the public official I met with seemed satisfied with how things are being managed. I just hope things can hurry up a bit — but all will happen in God’s time I am sure.
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Post for November 19, 2007
I just got an email containing a link to an on-line photo album for a baptism I did at the beginning of the month. Great pictures!
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Post for November 17, 2007
This just might be a first: I offered spiritual direction to someone today over webcam. No, it did not involve the sacrament of confession — that can only be offered face to face — but for the discussion of other things it worked just great. In fact, in some ways it worked even better than a regular face-to-face meeting. This is because, in addition to the video link, it was possible to have the regular typed messages that you can do with an instant messaging service. This serves as a journal of the key points raised in the spiritual direction session, and can then be used for prayerful reflection later on. All that, plus you avoid the hassle of fighting traffic to get downtown.
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Post for November 16, 2007
As I believe I’ve mentioned in the past, I am the Treasurer of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. My main goal in this post is to establish a more effective system of financial governance regarding the activities in the Centre. Things already work fairly well — we’ve never had any problems with our auditors, for example, — but I want to move us to a system of departmental accounting. This will allow us to craft budgets that are truly representative of the Centre’s activities, rather than just grouping of cost centres. As well, we are going to shift our endowment fund to a slightly more aggressive investment stance (going after a higher return), and establish a policy regarding expense authorizations. This is all work I’ve done before for other organizations, so I don’t see a particular difficulty in doing it — although I do need to find the time! Still, I think it will be worth it. If we can get this done right, it will provide effective financial oversight and at the same time unleash the creative energies of the staff and volunteers to accomplish the mission of the Centre. And that would be awesome.
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Post for November 15, 2007
In his general email yesterday, Cardinal Turcotte announced that my boss was being given a promotion: Msgr. Jean Fortier is now the Vicar General of the Archdiocese, replacing Bishop Anthony Mancini who was recently named Archbishop of Halifax. Bishop Lionel Gendron is being named his replacement in the Office for Pastoral Personnel, which means I have a new boss! He dropped by our team meeting this morning, just to get a feel of how things go within the OPP, and he should be starting full-time next week.
A lot of people have asked me my thoughts on this change. Frankly, I think the appointment of Msgr. Fortier as VG was the obvious and inspired choice. I am sad to lose him as a boss, to be honest, as he is a real prince of a man and a pleasure to work with, but I honestly think this is a good move for the diocese.
As for Bishop Gendron, I have always gotten along well with him, going back to my days in the seminary. He was the provincial superior of the Sulpicians, the community of priests that run the seminary, and on two occasions when I was a seminarian he came to do what is called a “canonical visitation”. His door was open to anyone who wanted to speak with him about the life and operation of the seminary, so I took the chance to do exactly that. I was always treated with respect, and I felt I had been listened to. Even after I left the seminary we would occasionally meet for lunch or supper, just to chat. I look forward to working with him, although I suspect it will mean more work on my plate — Bishop Gendron is a bishop, after all, which means he will often have to be away for issues on a provincial or national level, and his staff will therefore have to offer special assistance for issues on the local level. Bring it on, I say!
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Post for November 14, 2007
This week our topic was the sacramentals and devotions of the Church.
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Post for November 14, 2007
Part 4 of the Faith Enrichment evenings at St. Mary parish in Greenfield Park:
Many thanks to the parish for this wonderful opportunity!
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Post for November 13, 2007
Part 3 of the Faith Enrichment evenings at St. Mary parish in Greenfield Park:
Stay tuned for future parts!
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Post for November 12, 2007
Part 2 of the Faith Enrichment evenings at St. Mary parish in Greenfield Park:
Stay tuned for future parts!
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Post for November 11, 2007
I was in the diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil today, visiting the parish of St. Mary, in order to preach the first of a four-part “faith enrichment” series. The first part was a Powerpoint presentation, and then (after a short break) and open question and answer session. I thought I’d share this material:
Stay tuned for parts 2, 3, and 4!
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Post for November 10, 2007
Today I gave a session to the diaconal candidates (those preparing to become permanent deacons) on how to journey with a grieving family, and particularly how to prepare and preside a funeral. I promised them some resources to go with the talk, and there they are:
Each download is meant to be printed out first (in the case of the pamphlet, back to back on single sheets and then folded; and in the case of the readings packages, on coloured paper.
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Post for November 9, 2007
I was once an active member of the Challenge movement — active enough that I am often considered the “founder” of the Montreal branch of the movement, even though we were a whole team that worked on things together.
Although it has been some time since I was directly involved in directing the movement, I am really pleased to see that it continues to progress. This evening was a special mass of commissioning for the new leadership team, and as well the handing on of the spiritual direction task to my good friend (and fellow Challenger) Father Stephen Otvos.
Please do say a prayer for the young adults of Challenge as the movement approaches its 10th year anniversary!
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Post for November 8, 2007
I was at Holy Cross parish today, meeting with Fr. Victor Tucci and the healing ministry steering committee in order to plan our next healing service. Things look like they will be a go, although we’ve had to change the date from November 14 to November 28. The official announcement, therefore, is as follows:
Eucharistic Service with Prayers for Healing
November 28, 2007
Rosary at 7:00 p.m., mass at 7:30 p.m.
Anointing of the sick and Reconciliation available
Location: Holy Cross parish
1960 Jolicoeur Street, Montreal (click for map)
Please let others know!
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Post for November 7, 2007
This week our topic was the sacrament of Holy Orders.
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Post for November 6, 2007
I gave a talk for the Cercle Sacerdotal de Montréal today, on The Priest in a Secularized Society. About 18 brother priests were in attendance. They were the real reason I accepted to do the talk: I believe strongly in the continuing education of priests through these sorts of things, so when I had the chance to help out with that kind of a project I just had to jump on it.
I must say, though, I had a tough act to follow — the speaker just before me was Msgr. Mariano Fazio, the Rector of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. I felt quite honoured by be “in the same league” as him, and I think the talk went well — the brother priests who were there seemed to appreciate it.
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Post for November 5, 2007
I was visiting my brother’s home today, and at one point was just sitting on his couch when my youngest niece (Maya, 7 years old) came over and sat down next to me. She then promptly leaned over and put her head on my chest in what was (I am sure) the most heart-melting snuggle the world has ever seen.
Or at least, it seemed that way to me.
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Post for November 3, 2007
I gave a talk to the West Island Alpha group (French-speaking) this morning on the topic “Does Jesus heal today?” The short answer is: Yes, he does. But I think the approach of the Lord to healing is likely not our own. See this post on Adventus.org for a story of what I mean.
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Post for November 2, 2007
I gave a presentation at the Faith Enrichment Conference today, and you can find it on-line at Adventus.org.
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Post for November 2, 2007
Bonjour aux lecteurs du Journal de Montréal! Ceci est mon blogue personnel en anglais, mais je contribue aussi (avec d’autres) sur un autre blogue: Adventus.org. Vous êtes tous les bienvenus!
For my English readers: the Journal de Montreal, one of our daily newspapers, did a piece on religion on the Internet, in which I was quoted (and my photo appeared as well). Apparently it was the Cardinal’s idea that I be his “spokesperson” on this topic — he knows of my blogging, and he is keen to see the message of Christ be spread by means of the Internet. This is simply my welcome to any French-speaking persons who happen upon this site by means of a search engine.
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Post for November 1, 2007
Today we had a large gathering of the various offices and departments of the Archdiocese, as well as different pastoral agents working in the parishes, to listen to a presentation by Jacques Racine of Laval University on the new program for religious education that will start to be offered in our elementary and high schools as of September 2008 (French only).
The bottom line? There will be absolutely no religious education to be offered in public schools. Instead, students will take courses on ethics and religious culture.
In itself, I have no problem with the idea that students will learn about the many different religions that are present in Quebec society. That being said, however, I have a number of questions regarding this program, its philosophy, and how it will be implemented. At the meeting, after the first 2 hours of presentation, I stood up and pointed out that nowhere in the government’s proposed strategy do we find the mention of the parents. There isn’t even one mention of them at all. The speaker’s answer to my point was, in my opinion, disappointing: he put forward that most parents would rather have their kids playing soccer than doing religion, and I got the impression he thought that they really couldn’t be trusted to properly take care of their kids. A number of other people present later shared with me that this was their impression as well.
The bottom line is that parents have a sacred right to be responsible for the education of their children, and the state should be supporting this right, not replacing it. And what if these parents want to band together to create an institution to support them in this right, an institution like a school? Whoops, that they can’t do anymore. Nevermind that the school acts in loco parentis, here in Quebec the public school actually takes its marching orders from the government, not the parents.
A colleague of mine asked his own question at the meeting, regarding how the various religions of the world will be portrayed in the course. How will the ministry verify that the religions are being portrayed accurately? There was no answer, apart from “well they should consult”. In short, then, the Ministry of Education is setting itself up to be the authority that sets the definition of a “true” Muslim or Catholic or Jew. I never thought I’d be a witness to the birth of a new secular magisterium, but there it was.
It is a clear part of Catholic teaching that parents have a sacred right and duty to bring their children up to be good citizens and followers of God according to their conscience. The State must support that duty, not replace it, or else it tramples on the very rights it was founded to protect. Currently the only way to have a Catholic school in Quebec is to create a homeschool group or found a private school — in other words, to pay extra. It becomes a kind of “tax” on the conscience of individual believers, where the people who are best off are those whose faith is vague or totally absent.
Personally, I see this new program as part of the slow establishment of a kind of “gentle totalitarianism” here in Quebec à la Brave New World. Even the definition of the “common good” being put forward in the ethics education is changed. The common good is no longer those conditions that help people freely live their quest for happiness, it is instead the set of values that a society defines for itself as its own particular good. Translation: YOU MUST CONFORM, or else you are a bad citizen. Once again, the State is trying to shoehorn the consciences of individuals into a collective mould. It simply will not do.
Should parents resist this new program? As I say, in itself it might even be a good thing. But we need to start to take back the whole educational establishment itself, and that will not be easy. It will demand much effort and sacrifice. But without it, Big Brother just might try and snuff out Baby Jesus, and they will be no good for anyone.
» Filed Under Archdiocese of Montreal | 7 Comments
