February 2012

I’ve been in Toronto to be part of the welcome back celebrations for one of the worlds newest Cardinals, Thomas Collins of Toronto. I took the train in to Toronto yesterday, which actually gave me a lot of time to get some work done (particularly reading). Once in Toronto a driver met me and took me to the hotel, where there was a simple private cocktail and dinner for the bishops gathered to celebrate this moment with their brother now a cardinal. I hit the day early, as I was pretty beat.

Bishop Christian Lépine and I drove up to Quebec City yesterday (in the midst of a crazy blizzard) so as to be present today to the ordination of two new bishops for that diocese. Congrats to Bishops Gaétan Proulx and Denis Grondin! You can check out all the ordination footage at this site of the church of Quebec: ECDQ.TV.

I took a break this evening from the pastoral visitation I am conducting at Saint Richard parish to head to Valleyfield for the installation of Bishop Noël Simard as 8th bishop of the diocese of Valleyfield. Welcome back to Quebec, Bishop Simard!

I’ve started a new parish pastoral visit, this time at Saint Richard parish. I moved into the rectory yesterday, and then headed off to Saint Patrick Square, a local retirement residence, for Saturday evening mass. The people there were very welcoming, and we enjoyed a time afterwards for coffee, cookies and conversation. This morning was mass at Saint Richard’s proper, followed by a sumptuous buffet lunch. It gave me the chance to chat with well over 100 people here at the parish.

This morning I had a chance to visit The Priory elementary school in Westmount. I had heard of this school before but never visited it, so I was very happy to receive an invitation from the current principal, Mrs. Debbie Hueff. Tuesday, it turns out, is one of the days where the children have a regular assembly, so we set it for this day so that I would have a chance to address the kids.

This evening I was a guest speaker at the Newman Centre, as part of a panel to discuss Doug Farrow’s recent book Ascension Theology.

I found myself with a whole weekend devoid of pastoral commitments, so I decided to take the opportunity to visit family. It’s important to do that from time to time — even for a bishop.