Cardinal Ouellet And The Bag Of Potatoes
Aug 05, 2005
At the time of this writing (August 2005), Cardinal Marc Ouellet has been the Archbishop of the Quebec Diocese, in Canada, for almost three years now. We can respectfully ask ourselves what is the result of the Cardinal's efforts so far.
1) Introduction
At the time of this writing (August 2005), Cardinal Marc Ouellet has been the Archbishop of the Quebec Diocese, in Canada, for almost three years now. Unless we live in a gulag, we can respectfully ask ourselves what is the result of the Cardinal's efforts so far.
In order to do so, we're going to use a hyper-sophisticated performance assessment tool: the Potato Bag Test. It consists in finding out if a bag of potatoes dressed as a Bishop would have done better during the same period of time.
2) The Quebec Diocese, before Cardinal Marc Ouellet
Before the arrival of Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Quebec Diocese was sadly known for a whole series of abuses, like:
2.1) the near absence of vocations to the priesthood;
2.2) brazen insubordination to the Apostolic See by a large part of the diocesan ecclesiastical hierarchy;
2.3) Parishes infiltrated by Parish Priests opposed to the Pope;
2.4) abuses in the Sacraments, like collective absolution;
2.5) abuses in the Liturgy, like homilies preached by laypersons;
2.6) the dispersal and low morale of the rare elements still faithful to the Pope; etc., etc...
3) Has there been an improvement?
To begin with, I depend on the reliability of my information sources. I can't claim to be "well-connected". All I can say is I'm in contact with several Priests in the Quebec Diocese; I go to Mass (as far as possible every day); I read the papers; I've done a bit of volunteering at the Saint-Michel-de-Sillery church; etc.
As far as I know, there have been no improvement. I'll list a few facts:
3.1) Vocations. Shortly after arriving in Quebec City, Cardinal Ouellet nominated a new Seminary Director who is well-known for his opposition to the Apostolic See. Of course, vocations are not on the rise! I even contacted this new Director myself, to get information about a little vocational workshop that was coming up, since I feel called to do something for the Church. The Director sent me an e-mail to forbid me to come, and he even forbade me to post his e-mail on my web site! What due diligence and what transparency in this vocational discernment!
3.2) The insubordination of a large part of the clergy. At the last meeting between Cardinal Ouellet and his (approximately) 270 Priests, the meeting quickly degenerated into an attack against the teachings of the Church concerning collective absolution. Not a single Priest stood up to say he agreed with the Pope...
3.3) Infiltrated Parishes. Based on what I can see, Cardinal Ouellet's predecessor, Monsignor Maurice Couture, skillfully infiltrated all Parishes with Parish Priests who are more or less overtly at war with the Church. When there are several Priests, the one who is the least faithful to the Pope just happens to be the Parish Priest! (Note for non-Catholic readers: the "curé" or Parish Priest has authority over all the other Priests in his Parish). But instead of changing them, Cardinal Ouellet renews the terms of those Parish Priests! This is even more insulting when you know several good Priests could and want to become Parish Priests, in order to faithfully teach what the Catholic Church teaches. Cardinal Ouellet reportedly told them, and I quote: "There are no open positions at this time". And this while we are merging Parishes left and right! We must also add the refusals given to the new communities who have Priests who are young and faithful to the Pope, but who get the door slammed in their face by the Cardinal! I'm aware of the case of the Legionaries of Christ, the Opus Dei (who could easily get a Parish), the Fraternity Of Saint Peter, etc.
3.4) Abuses in the Sacraments. The Cardinal had announced that he was ending the abuses concerning collective absolution. When the wolves controlling the Parishes howled, the Cardinal decided to wait another year. A year later, he published his courageous letter against collective absolution. Do you know how the wolves reacted? Now, they give individual absolution, but without confession of sins! The faithful walk up, a bit like for communion, and the Priests give them absolution just like that, without the confession of their sins! Such insubordination on the part of some Priests deserved serious ecclesiastical sanctions. Of course, no effective measures have been taken.
3.5) Abuses in the Liturgy. Homilies made by laypersons have not stopped but rather increased, my informers tell me. As for the other liturgical abuses, I myself was present at a Baptism at the Saint-Michel-de-Sillery church: the Catholic rite was barely recognizable! I even wonder whether the Baptism was valid. Anyway, many of the people present had never seen or heard of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (surprise, surprise...).
3.5) The dispersal and low morale of the remaining good Priests. There are several Priests in the Diocese who love Jesus-Eucharist, the Church, the Pope, the Blessed Mother, etc. Except the Cardinal systematically avoids those Priests! Instead of gathering the lifeblood of the Diocese around him (see [Ex 32:26]), the Cardinal cuts himself off from them.
4) What is going on?
I dearly hope I'm totally wrong. Unfortunately, I'm under the impression that, once again, a "John Paul II" Bishop is going to be bamboozled by a dissident Diocese.
Pope John Paul II, whom I love and who did a lot of good, had the unfortunate habit of naming Bishops who were well-known for their "very diplomatic" approach (I would say "effeminate"). Those Bishops, despite the fact they were faithful to the Pope, almost always ended up "adapting" themselves to their new Diocese, to the point where no real improvement was implemented.
Mr. James Hitchcock, in 1995 (ten years already!) wrote an article of an almost scary lucidity, to try to explain this phenomenon: "Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results" (See on www.wf-f.org). The gist of that article is that the Catholic Faith can be exterminated in a country, even if all Bishops are faithful to the Pope! All you need are "John Paul II Bishops", who are willing and able to renew the Faith in their Diocese, under the condition that the wolves won't howl. Every time those Bishops dare attempt to loosen the death-grip that the wolves have on the throats of the sheep, the wolves howl, so the Bishops back off. Eventually, all the sheep die, and those Bishops can brag they "remained faithful to the Pope" all along!
It appears to me that Cardinal Ouellet risks becoming yet another statistic if he ignores the lessons of History and behaves like the Bishops described by Mr. Hitchcock.
5) What might the Cardinal do instead?
I want to reiterate that I dearly want to be wrong. If I'm not wrong, then I pray that Cardinal Ouellet will confound me, by acting in a manly way to renew the Catholic Faith in the Quebec Diocese. That wouldn't be very complicated. A few measures would suffice, mostly revolving around truth, instead of effeminate diplomacy. Jesus is Truth itself, and a true Bishop must first of all tell the truth:
5.1) Be honest with the faithful. The faithful of the Diocese have a right to know just how bad the situation really is (See "1st Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Cram Telleuo" on www.inquisition.ca).
5.2) Make sure we have at least one Parish. Just by snapping his fingers, the Cardinal could give us one Parish totally faithful to the teachings of the Church (See "Please, Mr. Cardinal, Could You Leave Us One Parish?" on www.inquisition.ca).
5.3) Close the Faculty of Theology and the Seminary. Send the seminarians to Montreal temporarily. Gather a team of orthodox Priests, and a few years from now, re-open the Seminary. Don't let anybody in, except teachers and seminarians who respect all the criteria that the Church imposes.
5.4) Renew catechesis. The vast majority of people who imagine they are Catholics don't even know what the Church teaches (See "2nd Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Cram Telleuo" on www.inquisition.ca).
5.5) Throw Novalis out of our churches. Novalis is the publisher for the "Prions en Église" (Note to sarcastic Anglophones with some scientific training: "Prions" means "Let us pray" in French. No relation with bacteria, viruses or prions!). These are little disposable missalettes which are handed out every Sunday to all parishioners in almost all the churches in the Province of Quebec. These missalettes contain the Liturgical texts for that Sunday's Mass (although with often suspicious adaptations). But these missalettes also contain every Sunday articles that more or less openly attack the official teachings of the Catholic Church, as well as ads to sell books that are just as bad. The Director of "Prions en Église", Jacques Lison, is apparently pro-choice and against Transubstantiation, based on my understanding of his coded language (see his editorial in the Sunday Edition, vol. 69, no. 31. But just about any issue at any given week could also be used).
5.6) Brace ourselves for the inevitable ruthless attacks of bad Priests, the Media, and Satan. That is the easiest part of the plan! All the Cardinal has to do is to outsource it! Indeed, my web site specializes itself in the effective treatment of such attacks
:-)
(See "Free Offer For Catholicotherapy!" on www.inquisition.ca).
6) Conclusion
I sometimes have the impression that three years ago, if the Pope had sent us a bag of potatoes dressed like a Cardinal, the decisions in the Diocese wouldn't have been much different. This is a harsh assessment, even more so coming from one of the many faithful who had been praying for years for the Pope to send us a real Bishop, and who was swept away by a wave of hope when we were told that Cardinal Marc Ouellet was coming.
Some will say that the status quo isn't so bad, and that if Cardinal Ouellet manages to control the bad news coming out of the Diocese, he could keep his good reputation, and even have a chance during the next conclave.
Of course, we would all submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit's decision, but we would prefer if the next conclave didn't give us "Pope Parmentier the First".
Originally published [link]here.[link]http://www.jesus-eucharistie.org/en/serm/pitie_patate.htm[link]
Cardinal Ouellet And The Bag Of Potatoes