The Oct. 14 ceremony was a coming home for the popular priest who was born in the Archdiocese of Regina and obtained his early and some post-secondary education at Campion College, University of Regina. Bolen also spent a short stint as Regina vicar general prior to his March 10, 2010 appointment as Bishop of Saskatoon, where he served until appointed to Regina by Pope Francis in July.

The installation ceremony in Holy Rosary Cathedral was attended by 15 bishops and archbishops, including Canada’s papal nuncio Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, priests from Regina and Saskatoon and some visitors from Rome.

The cathedral was filled to capacity and an overflow crowd watching streamed video on a screen in the downstairs hall. The live video was also streamed to several Regina and rural churches.

Bolen in his homily told a short story of what occurred two nights earlier at a farewell Mass in Saskatoon. He expressed again “that there was not a little sadness there” but he told of how the Saskatoon people were told, “We’re not stealing your bishop; we’re just taking him back,” which prompted laughter and applause.

“While it was hard to leave Saskatoon,” said Bolen, “it is very good to be home.”

Bolen also gave some hint of the direction he intends to take the archdiocese.

“That is that we might come to know the dimensions of God, of God’s way with us, the dimensions of God’s mercy,” he said. “We could strive for something more modest, and indeed we will as we walk day by day, but hopefully with that larger vision in mind. One thing that it asks of us is that our vision of God is vast enough to speak the Gospel in our world in such a way that it truly comes alive in the hearts of our sisters and brothers and that asks something new of us today.”

Two of Bolen’s sisters, Jeannette Moquin and Judy Corkery, read the first two readings, Moquin in French, Corkery in English.

In addition to several ecumenical greetings prior to Mass, a First Nations smudging ceremony and honour song was also performed.

(Prairie Messenger)