Bishop hopeful of the future

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

16 October 2007

Posted By Terri Saunders

As he prepares to step down as president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops later this week, a Quebec archbishop is hopeful for the future of his church.

"I am more confident about the future than I was 20 years ago," said Rev. Andre Gaumond Monday. "There is a phenomenon happening wherein young people are living their faith and I believe things are slowly getting to a point where more and more people are returning to the church."

In order to accomplish such a mass influx, Gaumond says, it will be essential for the faithful, and those who lead them, to get back to basics.

"We have to start all over again," said Gaumond. "Return to the basics of what Jesus Christ told us."

Gaumond and his counterparts throughout the country are in Cornwall this week for their annual meeting. Throughout the course of a series of workshops and lectures, more than 80 bishops will focus on what's being termed the "new evangelization."

"Our church has lots to do in order to reawaken the spiritual forces of our world," Gaumond told the group in an address Monday morning. "Changes in thinking, the large number of immigrants, and various decisions by our political leaders - all these make it necessary for us to continue reviewing our pastoral approaches."

Gaumond said his hope is particularly buoyed when he sees young people within the church living their faith on a daily basis.

"They work together and they are organized," said Gaumond. "They are not afraid to proclaim their faith."

Gaumond said while he believes the task for all Catholics to make a return to a simpler expression of faith, he doesn't have the road map on how they can all get there.

"It's not easy to keep firmly to the gospel," he said.

"If I knew how to do it, I would have a very special task to accomplish in the church."

Gaumond said there is research which shows Canadian Catholics, particularly within English-speaking communities, are coming back to the church and numbers are going up.

"Something is happening," he said. "Through teaching and through dialogue, we are getting back to the basics. We have to start somewhere and we have to be confident."

Over the past couple of decades, the Catholic Church in Canada has had to deal with some major issues, including addressing sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy and the declining number of young men choosing the priesthood as a vocation.

In 1992, the conference embarked on a journey away from decades of silence surrounding allegations of sexual abuse by priests and published the groundbreaking From Pain to Hope, a report outlining how the church would respond in the future to such incidents.

"The review and revision of From Pain to Hope and other work on finding the means to prevent sexual abuse were among the most important areas of study over the past years," said Gaumond, who pointed out Canadian bishops and their diocesan collaborators have taken a second look at their respective polices and have updated them. "We will have an opportunity during this meeting to note further suggestions for managing and preventing cases of sexual abuse."

Workshops will continue throughout the week at Nav Canada. The conference is expected to elect a new executive, including Gaumond's successor, today.

tsaunders@standard-freeholder.com