Cardinal Marc Ouellet greets the Lt. Gov. of Quebec Aug. 15

The B.C. Catholic has posted my interview with Cardinal Marc Ouellet on Monday.  May his words set your heart on fire!

I am posting just a small excerpt.  Please go on over and read the whole thing.

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Church needs bishops who are bold men of faith: Cardinal Ouellet

By Deborah Gyapong
Canadian Catholic News

QUEBEC CITY (CCN)—In his new duties helping the Pope choose bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet will be looking for bold “men of faith” who have “the guts to help people live it out.”

A bishop has to lead the community, so he needs a deep supernatural vision as well as the capacity to assess the political, cultural, and sociological context, said the new Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops in an interview. Above all, a bishop must be “audacious in proposing the Word and in believing in the Power of the Word and the power of the Spirit."

“We have to dare to speak to the deep heart, where the Spirit of the Lord is touching people beyond what we can calculate,” said Ouellet. “We need spiritual discernment and not just political calculation of the risk of the possibility of the message being received.”

Eight challenging years as Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada have forged Ouellet’s vision of the episcopacy. During that time he faced preaching the Good News in a culture that has fallen away from its Christian roots.

Being faithful to Catholic teaching meant opposition from Quebec’s deeply secularized, post-Catholic society. At the same time he had the challenge of making sure his priests were following him. “They are also in a situation of tension,” he said. “This is a difficult balance.”

Ouellet also stressed the importance of solidarity among bishops.

Earlier this year, Ouellet had spoken out against the lack of episcopal support for the Holy Father during the firestorm of media criticism for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis. Ouellet, too, has often stood alone inside a negative media maelstrom in Quebec.

But he recognized that in a large province like Quebec, each bishop has a different context. A rural diocese in a homogeneous part of the province faces different challenges from a big multicultural city like Montreal in how the Gospel message is conveyed, he said.

The need for unity and solidarity goes far beyond any political statements, he said, but involves a personal commitment that rises beyond a dogmatic faith to an “existential faith that means spiritual discernment of the presence of God and of God’s will.”

We are in a world where the Christian heritage being strongly contested, so we have to recognize that and propose it better, though not through an attempt to restore the past, he said.

“We have to tell people about the Crucified and Risen Lord, who is shaping the Church today, with people faithful to His Word, to His Divine Presence and to the community he wants to see living of His Spirit.”

A bishop must always take a personal approach, he said. Bishops not only must state dogmatic positions, they must believe in them deeply, “then you have the power of conviction.”