Ouellet greets new Vatican post with joy and fear
By Deborah Gyapong
Canadian
Catholic News
OTTAWA (CCN) — Cardinal
Marc Ouellet welcomes his appointment as Prefect of the Congregation
for Bishops with joy, gratitude and some trepidation.
The cardinal, who has served as Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of
Canada since 2002, said he felt a sense of fear in front of the enormous
responsibility he will have in advising the pope on his nominations
of bishops throughout the world.
“It is a difficult and huge responsibility in the life of the
church,” the cardinal told a news conference in Quebec City June
30, televised live over the Quebec diocese’s ECDQ.TV network.
The post is among the most powerful positions in the Vatican, ranking
close to that of the Secretary of State and the Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Ouellet, who turned 66 in June, said the Holy See’s Secretary
of State contacted him in late May to tell him the news. Rumours about
his appointment began appearing in early June in Italian newspapers
and Catholic websites.
Ouellet said he would be meeting with the pope in early July to learn
more about his new post and the reasons why the Holy Father chose him.
The Congregation for Bishops has a long tradition, he said. “I
will not invent a new procedure; I will look for the best bishops possible.”
The bishop has a key role in charge of the unity of the diocese, he
told journalists. He must be wise, prudent and patient, and work as
best he can with the people, the priests and deacons and all the personnel
in the diocese, he said.
The cardinal downplayed a question on whether he was chosen for his
conservative views.
“The pope has known me for years,” he said. “I think
he has great trust in me, and so he knows that I am available and I
will support him. I have been supporting him in difficult times we’ve
had to go through.”
Ouellet replaces Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 76, who resigned upon
reaching the age limit for retirement.
Asked whether being part of the Roman curia and perhaps even becoming
pope has always been a dream of his, Ouellet said, “No, it was
not my dream when I was young.”
“My dream was to be a missionary,” he said, before pausing,
apparently overcome with emotion. As a member of the Sulpician Order,
he did serve as a missionary in South America and elsewhere, teaching
in seminaries for 10 years before he was called to Rome to teach at
a university there, he said. He spent a couple of years in the curia
as secretary of the Congregation for Christian Unity, before his appointment
to Quebec.
“I am surprised to be in this position,” he said. “I
don’t think I will be pope someday. I don’t think so. I
concentrate my attention on what is coming before me with this new responsibility.”
Ouellet said he was not concerned that he would be remembered for his
comments on abortion that provoked an avalanche of negative, even vitriolic
news coverage last spring.
Over his seven-and-a-half years in Quebec, he said he has been involved
in many debates, including the role of the state in Catholic education,
the redefinition of marriage and abortion. He added part of a bishop’s
role is to be involved in public life through debate.
But he did not expect those debates to dominate his legacy. He said
the 2008 International Eucharistic Congress that coincided with the
400th anniversary of Quebec’s founding would be the “best
memory of Quebec” during his time as archbishop.
The Congress spread the good news that Catholicism “is still living
among us,” and “still flourishes,” he said.
Though Quebec has the highest number of self-identified Catholics, it
has the lowest church attendance, the highest rate of out-of-wedlock
births, a high suicide rate and other indicators of what Ouellet had
called the collapse of Catholic faith in the province. But he said he
was “not pessimistic” about the future of the church in
Quebec. He spoke of the new Catholic movements growing “discreetly”
in Quebec and other signs of life and renewal in the province.
Asked if he had a word for his successor, Ouellet said, “He must
have faith!”
A bishop must also have spiritual discernment, which is not simply a
political prudence, he said. He must be able to see into lives of people,
into their personal charisms, to encourage that life and the action
of the Holy Spirit.
While he felt joy and surprise at the appointment, the idea of leaving
Quebec “touched my heart” because of the deep ties and friendships
he has built there and has left him with a certain sadness.
Ouellet’s appointment came shortly after the announcement of a
new Vatican dicastery, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the
New Evangelization, to be headed Archbishop Rino Fisichella.
Ouellet said the new dicastery stemmed from the pope’s responsibility
for the unity of the Catholic Church. In the western world, Christianity
is going through difficult times, a time of crisis, he said. It would
promote a fresh decision in favour of the Gospel, in favour of Christ,
he said.
In a statement, president of Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Saint-Jerome Bishop Pierre Morissette said Ouellet’s appointment
“is a tremendous honour not only for him but also for the church
in Canada.”
“With his varied and enriching forms of experience in Rome as
well as in Canada and elsewhere in the world, Cardinal Ouellet brings
with him in his new responsibilities an extensive knowledge of the church
today, and a deep appreciation of its challenges and opportunities in
the contemporary world.
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