This summer’s floods in southern Alberta and the ghastly explosion that took some four dozen lives at Lac-Mégantic, Que., highlighted the fact Canada’s bishops do not have an organized structure to respond to tragedies here at home, said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general secretary.
This year’s plenary will feature a “thorough conversation on charity” that features not only presentations by Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of the Holy See’s charitable federation Caritas Internationalis, and general secretary Michel Roy, but also reflections on “how we can come to the aid of people right here in our own country,” said Powers.
When CCCB President Archbishop Richard Smith “wrote his letters of sympathy he invited all the bishops of Canada to stand in solidary with these people” affected by tragedy, Powers said. Both Calgary Bishop Fred Henry and Sherbrooke Archbishop Luc Cyr have told him they were “tremendously heartened by the support they received from all over the country.”
The motivation for inviting Rodriguez began with Smith and Powers reflecting on the past year that had “really highlighted the role of the diocesan bishop as a promoter of caritas in his own diocese,” Powers said.
Rodriguez will discuss the role of the bishop and of episcopal conferences in justice, peace and caritas, said Powers. Roy will follow with an in depth presentation of the structure of Caritas Internationalis.
The Caritas president will make the presentation on the role of bishops and episcopal conferences in justice and peace during the portion of the plenary open to observers and accredited media, but Rodriguez will also spend an hour behind closed doors with the Canadian bishops. There is no specific agenda for that hour, Powers said.
Instead it is an opportunity for the bishops to follow up with questions and an “honest, straightforward exchange totally off the record,” he said.
The plenary will also hear from three or four bishops from the Global South who will share their concerns about Canadian mining and extractive industries operating in their countries, he said.
The bishops will also have a chance to examine the challenges facing contemporary families in Canada, Powers said. Representatives of four of Canada’s largest dioceses’ family and life offices will make a presentation on the pastoral care of families and how they are meeting the current challenges, he said.
Various episcopal commissions will make presentations that flow from the plenary’s overall theme. The justice and peace commission will mark the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris and “its implications for contemporary ministry,” said Powers.
The bishops will also deal with governance issues.
Smith’s two-year term as president comes to an end after he chairs this plenary session. Over the course of the week, the bishops will have elected a new president, vice president and co-treasurers for the CCCB executive and a new Permanent Council.
“I think it’s going to be a very interesting week of activity, reflection and prayer,” said Powers. “I think what you see here is a real balance and an effort to deal with all of the issues that bishops are facing on a day-to-day basis in their dioceses and we are facing in the country.”
The CCCB marks its 70th anniversary this year with a celebration dinner Sept. 26 honouring all former presidents of the conference and featuring Montreal Archbishop-emeritus Cardinal Jean- Claude Turcotte and Edmonton Archbishop-emeritus Joseph MacNeil as guest speakers.
Salt + Light TV will be televising the morning Eucharists each day as well as the 5 p.m. (Eastern time) news conferences.
“We’re happy to have the Salt + Light people with us,” Powers said. “It’s all part and parcel of how we want all Catholics in the country” to share in the plenary session, which each year is “an important and historical moment for the Church.”
The ongoing work of the standing committee on the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace and a D&P liaison committee continues, Powers said. They will be bringing forward a report and internal documents that are “pretty well completed” and ready for the bishops to review.