New CCCB President Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith at an event in Ottawa following the CCCB annual plenary in Cornwall. Photo by Deborah Gyapong / CCN.Archbishop Richard Smith is elated by early missal launch
By Deborah Gyapong
The Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA (CCN)--Canada’s bishops made history in the launch of the new English translation of the Roman Missal and emerged “deeply united” from their annual plenary meeting Oct. 17-21, looking ahead to next year’s Synod on the New Evangelization in Rome.
The plenary also made history with the first collaboration with Salt and Light TV to present portions of the plenary live on the Salt and Light digital television network and on the internet, where portions were live-streamed and remain available, along with exclusive interviews and reports on the CCCB and Salt and Light websites. Salt and Light broadcast 12 hours of plenary proceedings, including the daily Mass, that as of Oct. 21 were accessed by 3,000 web visitors, according to a CCCB news release.
These broadcasts are still available at www.saltandlighttv.org.
On Oct. 17, after the annual address by the Apostolic Nuncio, the outgoing president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) Saint-Jerome Bishop Pierre Morissette presented the Nuncio Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana with the second copy of the new missal, printed a month before schedule.
The missal’s first copy will be delivered to the Holy Father when the new president, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, vice president Gatineau Archbishop-elect Paul-Andre Durocher, and CCCB General Secretary Msgr. Pat Powers visit Rome in November. The CCCB’s new executive includes the president and vice president and English Sector co-treasurer Hamilton Bishop Douglas Crosby and newly elected French Sector co-treasurer Saint-Jean Longueuil Bishop Lionel Gendron.
Archbishop Smith said the launch of the new missal provides a “great opportunity” for liturgical catechesis on the mystery of the Eucharist, the mystery of Real Presence that goes beyond the changes in the words and gestures that will begin on the first Sunday of Advent.
In the Eucharist we “do encounter the Risen Lord in a real, personal and transformative way,” said Archbishop Smith, calling the events around the missal launch “a very exciting time.”
Archbishop Smith remains committed to the theme of the New Evangelization that organized the Saint-Jerome Bishop Pierre Morissette’s president’s address, which was carried live on Salt and Light. Morissette wrapped up his two-year term at plenary close Oct. 21.
“The New Evangelization is something held in the heart of every bishop,” said Archbishop Smith, who noted that four delegates from the CCCB were nominated to participate in the Synod on the New Evangelization next October. Delegates will be named by the Holy Father, he said. The bishops will be working towards that synod over the next year and “taking direction from it in the future.”
“The Gospel is such a message of hope and transformation,” Archbishop Smith said. The bishops are looking at “the signs of the times, the difficulties and struggles of our people,” and find a deepened “desire and commitment to find new ways to bring our people into dialog with the person of Jesus Christ.”
While the message of the Gospel remains the same, the cultural context differs and the Church has a responsibility to find “ever new ways” of delivering the timeless message, Archbishop Smith said.
Though the New Evangelization addresses the already baptized, it also addresses itself to all people to “each day to be open to an ever new and ever deeper encounter with the person of Jesus, then renewed by love,” reach out to other, he said.
Portions of the plenary open to invited guests and accredited media included reflections by renowned liturgist Toulouse Archbishop Robert Le Gall the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Exhort Exhortations following the Synod on the Eucharist and the Synod on the Word of God. Salt and Light televised these reflections in French and with English translation and video remains available on their website.
In private sessions, the bishops approved a national pastoral plan on life and family developed by the CCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee on Life and Family in consultation with the Catholic Organization for Life and Family that will begin to roll out in the dioceses next year and launch nationally in 2013. The bishops heard a report on the ongoing renewal of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) being overseen by the Standing Committee on CCODP and a CCODP Liaison Committee. Archbishop Smith said the bishops are pleased with the progress in renewing CCODP’s Catholic identity and expressed appreciation for the agency.
The bishops also heard that the “best efforts” of the Moving Forward Together Campaign to meet the $25 million required in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement of the Catholic entities has only raised $2.5 million so far.
“Those numbers in no way reflect any lack of commitment on part of the bishops to this issue because every bishop across the country is deeply aware of issues facing our aboriginal people,” said Archbishop Smith. “ We want to be there in any way that we can, to support them, to lead them towards any healing of any wrongs, also to learn from them, and the wealth of their own heritage.”
Archbishop Smith blamed the shortfall on problems bishops are experiencing when they have a collection for any purpose during these difficult economic times “where people from one day to the next don’t know what net worth is.”
He added that financial anxieties coupled with multiple requests for funds has made it “easy for donor fatigue to set in,”
Saskatoon Bishop Donald Bolen gave a presentation on the state of ecumenical dialog. Archbishop Smith noted that Bolen’s previous work at the Pontifical Council on Christian Unity gave him a “wealth of insight.”
On the 49th anniversary of ecumenical dialog, Bishop Bolen acknowledged that ecumenical relationships can be difficult because positions some ecumenical partners sometimes “highlight our separation from them,” Archbishop Smith said. Bolen helped focus on the achievements over the years, such as the common understanding on justification with the Lutherans, and progress on the understanding of the relationship between Scripture and tradition with other Protestant denominations. There has also been progress on an understanding of the Eucharist and Mary with the Anglicans.
“There is a long way to go,” Archbishop Smith said, noting that Bishop Bolen reminded not only the bishops but everyone about the imperative of Christian unity because all Christians who “have been born again through baptism into the Paschal Mystery of Jesus” know that he “manifested his will that we be one.”
We have “no other choice, regardless of the circumstances to seek the full visible unity of the people of God," Archbishop Smith said.
The Episcopal Delegate on Anglicanorum coetibus Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins gave a progress report on the dialog and process of possibly establishing an ordinariate for Anglicans wishing to become Catholic while retaining some of their Anglican patrimony but Archbishop Smith said there is no announcement ready at this time.
The bishops also heard a report on immigration by Martin Mark of the Toronto Archdiocese’s Office for Refugees.
“It was a reminder of the urgency on the question generally and a reminder of bishops to be attentive to the realities of refugees around the world, to seek ways to reach out of them and to welcome them,” Archbishop Smith said.
Archbishop Smith stressed his role of service to the conference in his next two years as president.
“We’re blessed with a deeply united conference of bishops,” he said. “It’s a very fraternal experience, a very serious experience, wanting to grapple with issues of the day, and work together as we can and support one another to bring the light of the Gospel to bear on various issues that face us.”
“As conference, as a church, we have a particular responsibility especially in these days to be a sign of unity and thus a sign of hope for our people,” he said.
“We’re in a time of great individualism, which is leaving people lonely and isolated,” he said. “It gives birth to an aggressiveness in society, whether it’s pursuing individual rights, or increase of possessions-- all that can leave the vulnerable peoples feeling on the margins.”
“The mission of the Church is to be a Sacrament or sign and at the heart of that is the unity of the bishops,” he said.
