October 2006

My clan online!

I got an email recently from an interesting source….the outgoing Taoiseach of the O’Dubhda clan! This is the clan to which all the “Dowd”s of the world belong, including yours truly.

Been a while…

Some of you may wonder where I’ve been hiding for the last little while. I’ve been around, but very busy, occupied with certain matters about which I should not blog. As I wrote once before, right around the time I was getting ready for my new position, I now deal with certain confidential and sensitive issues and so I want to be extra-careful I don’t break any confidences or appear to somehow be acting in the name of the Cardinal on them. So I’ve held back from blogging for a bit.

The local church and the Incarnation

My new ministry at the Archdiocese is slowly giving me a new appreciation for the concept of "local Church". You see, my main task is to process requests from priests who want to transfer from their diocese to ours, whether temporarily or permanently. I'm seeing more and more that this is not merely an administrative task, but a deeply theological one, rooted in the Incarnation of Christ.

Back from a conference

I was near Quebec City the last few days for a conference of the young priests of Quebec. I went to one of these 4 years ago (they happen every 2 years), and this year I decided to go once again. It was a good chance to get to know priests from all over the province, as well as to hobnob with some of the upper crust of Quebec society (Denise Bombardier, Michel Bisonnette and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, for example).