More on yesterday's Eucharistic Procession

At the Anglo-Catholic. Hopefully soon my little web elf over there will fix the sizing of the pictures.

I also write about Cardinal Ouellet's homily at the mass during the Youth Summit in Ottawa yesterday morning. I also write a bit about his response to the media attacks in recent days.

Yesterday morning, I attended a mass celebrated by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada. The Archbishop of Ottawa, Terrence Prendergast concelebrated. I found it deeply moving how much love both these bishops radiated to these dynamic young people, many who came down from Quebec, a province where the Catholic Church is in deep trouble. But there is revival and renewal happening; it felt like a new Pentecost.

For standing firmly for the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, Cardinal Ouellet has been scourged in the news media in recent days, called an ayatollah, painted as an extremist. One columnist even wished that he would die of a slow, painful illness. But was he beaten down? Feeling cornered? Intimidated? No, he was bouyant, joyful, brimming with love. When I jokingly addressed him as Monsieur L’ayatollah, he laughed. Beautiful, mirthful laughter.

When I interviewed him about the over-the-top reaction in his province that led to the Quebec legislature’s passing a unanimous resolution affirming the “inalienable right to abortion” and asking the Parliament in Ottawa to do the same, he said he was surprised at the reaction. “I have no power,” he said. “The Catholic Church has no power in Quebec.”

But oh, the power of a few words of truth, spoken with courage, spoken with love. And yes, the reaction from the mainstream media and most of the public square is overwhelmingly hostile. But he does not respond in kind.

Yesterday morning, he gave a homily off the cuff -in both French and English–that was profound, and classical, in the sense that it broke open the texts, bringing them alive. Here are a few scanty highlights.

“We come here first to meet Jesus in the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist,” he said, noting how the Youth Summits represent a Eucharistic movement.

“We want to meet Jesus and we want to bear witness that He is among us and gives us Life.”

One text concerned Paul, who was imprisoned. “Paul is a prisoner, but he is free to evangelize. You can be in prison and evangelize. You can be completely cornered. He had no fear.”

He described Jesus, nailed to the Cross, as the ultimate prisoner.

“The one nailed on the Cross, he is prisoner but he is freeing the whole of humanity; he is giving freedom and real life,” he said. “This is the way of the Gospel.”