“I will do my best to continue to be a bishop who serves, who is close to the poor, who preaches the Gospel. These are all the things I love to do. And that’s where I’m at my best — with people, preaching the Gospel and teaching,” said Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, archbishop of Quebec, who was made a cardinal at a ceremony Feb. 22 in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

“There’s a lot of joy in serving and I want to continue to serve in any way possible.”

Lacroix said he does not know yet precisely how he will be called to serve the Church as a cardinal or what additional tasks and responsibilities the Pope might assign him.

“The best service I can give to the Church right now is to be grounded with my people, with my clergy, consecrated women, all apostolic groups as archbishop of Quebec,” he said. “I will be of no help if I’m not connected to reality.

“I want to be a good cardinal. I hope the Lord will give me the strength, health and wisdom to be a good servant of the Gospel.”

Lacroix was among the first few on the list of 19 prelates to be called forward by Pope Francis to receive his red biretta. He proceeded to the sanctuary of St. Peter’s Basilica and knelt before the pontiff. His biretta tilted slightly to the left, the two men embraced and exchanged a few words.

“The Pope told me that my titular church is St. Joseph of Aurelia,” he said. “He said St. Joseph is the patron saint of Canada and he will help me.”

Lacroix said the Pope is familiar with the Church in Canada and is deeply concerned about its life.

“I take it as (his) way to say to Quebec, ‘I’m with you.’ It’s a way of saying he’s close to us,” said Lacroix about his elevation to the College of Cardinals. “He’s told me a few times that Quebec needs to be uplifted.”

He noted the Pope’s familiarity with Quebec where, as a young Jesuit, Pope Francis had gone several times to the Villa Manrèse, a Jesuit spirituality centre. He returned decades later for the International Eucharistic Congress in 2008 as a guest speaker and “he saw the change,” said Lacroix.

“He’s interested in knowing more (about Quebec), and that closeness with the Holy Father is so good for us,” he said. “It’s encouraging; it’s uplifting. The Holy Father is helping us lift up Quebec.

“I’m very, very enthused to serve at the same time as Pope Francis,” he added.

Lacroix is the 17th Canadian bishop to be made a cardinal. He is among the four current Canadian-born cardinals, including Thomas Collins of Toronto, Jean-Claude Turcotte, archbishop-emeritus of Montreal, and Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

Collins remarked on four of the Church’s 122 voting cardinals coming from Canada.

“We’re very blessed in terms of representation in the Catholic Church… it is a sign of the significance of Canada within the universal Church and the trust and confidence of the Holy Father in our country,” said Collins.

“We’re used to being negotiators in Quebec with the English-French question,” Turcotte told reporters, speculating on the choice for a third French-Canadian cardinal at this one time. Quebec bishops do not merit the cardinalate more than others, he said, but perhaps “they have qualities that the Pope finds useful” for the universal Church.

“I think he will be very close to the people,” Turcotte added about Lacroix. “He’s not afraid of work.”

At a reception at the Pontifical Canadian College following the consistory, Lacroix shared what the Pope had written in the nomination letter to the new cardinals.

“He said (the cardinalate) is neither a promotion, nor an honour nor a decoration. It is an invitation to open your hearts to serve more, and I am looking forward to doing so with my brother-bishops,” Lacroix told the more than 200 people gathered.

Several of the bishops in attendance in Rome remarked on Lacroix’s qualities and his enthusiasm for evangelization.

“He is a man who lives the joy of the Gospel,” said Gatineau Archbishop Paul-André Durocher, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The simple joy of the believer is what strikes you and his obvious love for people. I think the Pope recognizes him as a leader in the Church for evangelization.”

Archbishop Christian Lépine of Montreal said it is “very obvious” that Lacroix is “a man of faith.”

“He is comfortable speaking about the faith in his personal life and in the public square,” said Lépine. “He communicates the joy of believing, the joy of the faith, spontaneously.”

About 150 people accompanied Lacroix to Rome for the ecclesial event, including his parents, his six siblings and their spouses, his nieces and nephews. The Canadian government also sent an official delegation, led by Denis Lebel, Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs. Lacroix’s pastor from his former parish in the United States also attended, along with friends from his time as a missionary in South America.

During the reception, Lacroix noted that the Quebec government, busy with “big debates at the moment” — reference to the controversial Charter of Values and euthanasia bill and pending election call — did not send an official delegation.

“But we carry Quebec in our hearts, in our prayer and in our mission,” he added.

Lacroix was born in small-town Quebec — Saint-Hilaire-de- Dorset, population less than 100 — and moved to the United States with his family when he was still a boy. After 11 years, at the age of 19, he returned. He studied theology at Laval University and entered the Pius X Secular Institute in 1975. He was ordained to the priesthood 13 years later.

He served as a missionary in South America for nine years, before returning once again to his home province. In 2009, he was ordained auxiliary bishop of Quebec. Two years later, he succeeded Ouellet as archbishop of the diocese.

“I have no merit in this but I lived in those three different cultures, three different languages, three very different ways of expressing your faith, so I’m used to diversity, so that’s good, and that will certainly help me,” said the 56-year-old prelate referring to his new role in the universal Church.

Lacroix does not expect his elevation to the College of Cardinals to change his ministry in his diocese all that much, though he has observed that cardinals seem to have more opportunities to speak with higher-level government officials.

“I may have to exercise a new dimension of my mission,” he said. “For the rest, I will try to do what Pope Francis has asked us to do: open our minds and our hearts to serve more.”