“This situation is intolerable,” said the archbishop of Quebec.

"We pray that a sense of justice prevails over the desire for profit among those who hold economic power," he said.

Ouellet urged political action to ensure a more just distribution of food and fresh water so that “the poor are not excluded from the common table.”

The plight of the poor and vulnerable people such as the elderly and the disabled formed a theme for the morning’s teachings on the Eucharist that included a witnessing by L’Arche founder Jean Vanier, and linked Christ’s presence in the Eucharist with the needs of the poor, the vulnerable and marginalized.

At a news conference later in the day, with Vanier and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who offered the morning catechesis on the Eucharist, Ouellet stressed the importance of experiencing God’s love in order to bring love, hope and justice to the world.

True relationships are founded on love, on respect and on justice, Ouellet said, and the primary relationship is each human being’s relationship with God.

“We’ve been made for the relationship with God,” he said. “That’s our DNA.”

If that relationship is not nurtured, there is a void, a pain and an anguish, he said, reiterating some of the points that had sparked controversy last year when he presented a brief to a commission studying the accommodation of minorities that blamed Quebec’s uneasiness with immigrants, high rates of suicide and family breakdown on the collapse of Catholicism.

“We need to retrieve the richness of our Christian tradition,” he said.

We need more hope in our society so youth will be less tempted by suicide and in order for there to be more justice in bridging the widening gap between rich and poor, he said.

“When we are loved, we are able to love,” he said.

Ouellet presided at the Eucharist because July 16 marked the 350th anniversary of the arrival to Quebec of Bishop Francois Laval, the first bishop of the North American continent.  Laval spent 50 years serving in Quebec.

Ouellet said he hoped the Good News would revive Quebec because the gift of God in the Eucharist has marked her history. 

“The gift of God (in the Eucharist) has marked Quebec since its origin,” he said.