While most people are familiar with World Youth Day in its international form, which takes place every 2-3 years, many don’t also know that there is a diocesan version that takes place every year on Palm Sunday. This year was particularly special for me, as I had a chance to celebrate it as auxiliary bishop for the first time.

I did a fair amount of live tweeting that day, so I won’t repeat everything here, but I thought I’d post a couple of pictures:

This first photo is from a catechism session I did in the basement of Santa Cruz parish for the teenagers. I also did a catechism upstairs with the young adults.

This second photo is from our procession through the steets of Montreal. It was amazing — the police closed some fairly major streets for us as we walked, and people were stopping on the sidewalk or leaning out their windows to see us pass by, carrying our palms. It felt good to share the faith that I love with the city that I love.

Today I had a chance to have lunch at Nazareth House, a local centre in downtown Montreal for homeless and marginalized men. Despite it being no more than 10 minutes walk from my office I had never been there before, so I was quite happy to be able to explore this work of charity. Nazareth House is not an official work of the Catholic Church, but it was founded by people of faith (as you could have guessed from the name) and has historically been supported by the Catholic community.

As readers of this blog know, I have been doing a lot of visits lately. The biggest kick I get out of these visits is the little discoveries one makes. In this case, I had a chance to meet Robert, one of the residents of Nazareth House, who it turns out is a fantastic artist (see this online gallery).

Given the limits on my time I am not sure what sort of association I will be able to have with Nazareth House in any formal sort of way, but I am delighted to see the work they are doing and I hope to be back again soon.

UPDATE: Julie has made it through to the finals! Way to go!

My friend Julie Lafontaine was on Canada’s Got Talent this evening, and (hooray!) made it through to the semi-finals. Congrats Julie!

Readers of this blog may know that she wrote and recorded a song in honour of the episcopal ordinations last year, in which I and Christian Lépine (now Montreal’s new Archbishop) joined the successors of the apostles. As a special thanks to her, and a congrats on her success, here is her song once again:

Today I had the chance to visit Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Little Burgundy, a part of town not far from where I live. I had never been to this parish before, although I knew the church had once been torn down to make way for an expressway, leaving only a parish centre with a small worship space. I suppose the parish could have been closed entirely, but many felt it was important to have a church presence in Little Burgundy.

Apart from meeting cute little kids like this one (who, I might add, absolutely wanted to be held by the guy in the pointy hat), I had a chance to visit with DESTA, the youth network that is doing a lot to help black youth (principally of Caribbean origin) finish school and gain skills meant to help improve their employability. I got a tour from the dad of the little one in the picture, and also met the Executive Director of DESTA, Frances Waithe. As it turns out she and I grew up in the same part of town and even attended the same schools, with the same teachers! This happy coincidence meant that this was not the visit of a stranger, but felt like an encounter between friends. And isn’t that the way church should feel? I’m already looking forward to my next visit.

This dramatic title was the name given by the Concordia University Catholic Students Association for a talk they asked me give. I have a special place in my heart for students, and am always especially happy to encourage those of my alma mater, so I gratefully accepted. Still, it was a tall order. Here is the blurb they added to the event:

Bishop Thomas will explore one of the hardest – and most important – questions we all make at a given point in life: the problem of evil. How can there be a good, omnipotent God who co-exists with so much suffering, pain and misery? If you want to hear a deep and satisfying solution to this apparent paradox, don’t miss this talk!

A solution to the problem of evil, in 2 hours? That’s a tall order! So I made sure to open with these words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

Hopefully no one was disappointed that I was not able to present “Christian faith as a whole” in only 2 hours… :-)

Seriously, though, the question of evil, suffering and disasters is one which obviously vexes the heart of man, particularly when one accepts the existence of an all-powerful God. Like Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov, many people, faced with evil and suffering, actively refuse faith in God. I remember reading that book as a young adult, after having providentially picked it up second hand at an outdoor market, and I remember how one chapter in particular, called “Rebellion”, challenged my own understanding of this question. The name of this blog is in some ways an answer to Ivan: I have come to see that the true opposite of Evil is Love, and that Evil is able to exercise its dark mastery wherever Love has grown cold. For me, being a Christian is about living the “civilization of love” as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Christ.

While the room was packed for the talk it unfortunately was not recorded (an oversight on my part), although one participant did provide some notes on his personal website. Given the response of the group, I’m sending a need to expand on this subject for a broader audience, which I will definitely work on. In the meantime, here is a link to a talk I gave about 5 years ago on the subject If God is good, why is there evil in the world?

There was a massive student rally today to protest the governments proposal to raise tuition fees. The rally began in one of our parks downtown, known as Place du Canada, which just happens to be right next to the Cathedral. I went up on the roof of our residence and snapped this photo (cropped a bit to squeeze it better into the blog):

I know it may not look like much in this photo, but it sure feels different when you are down on the ground trying to walk through the crowd! (See my Twitter feed for more details.)

Despite it being a protest, the event had a generally positive, even cheerful feel to it. I had to walk to get to the office as the roads were blocked to cars, and as I did so I passed some riot police to were obviously ready to swing into action if necessary but who looked relaxed and were even smiling. Happily, their services were not required, and Montreal’s largest-ever protest got its message across without violence or vandalism.

The news of the appointment of Christian Lépine as Archbishop of Montreal has gathered steam, of course, and this morning was a special press conference at the diocesen offices, with yours truly present as part of the panel. The full press conference can be found on Youtube:

It was announced in Rome today that the Pope has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Turcotte as Archbishop of Montreal. His resignation was offered when he turned 75, as is required by canon law.

Along with this announcement came the name of the next archbishop: Christian Lépine, with whom I was ordained last September! Deo gratias!

We have a meeting of the College of Consultors this morning at 8am to make things official. Check back for updates!

UPDATE: The College of Consultors met, with Archbishop Lépine taking canonical possession of the diocese as soon as the formal papers come in from the Apostolic Nuncio. This is a photo of the College, along with Archbishop Lépine and Archbishop-emeritus Turcotte.

Today I had the pleasure of concelebrating with Cardinal Turcotte at the annual Green Mass, held at Saint Patrick’s Basilica. While Saint Patrick’s day was actually yesterday, the Basilica has a tradition of holding a special mass on the same Sunday as the Saint Patrick’s parade. Many dignitaries some to this service, including (this year, from the political world) Jean Charest, premier of Quebec, the provincial cabinet minister Geoffrey Kelley, local MP Francis Scarpallegia and Bob Rae, the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Of course, they were part of an assembly that packed the Basilica, and it was good to see so many people sharing their faith through their presence.

This was the first time I have ever had the chance to attend the Green Mass, and I look forward to next year!

Today was the annual luncheon of the Saint Patrick’s Society of Montreal, and yours truly was invited to be at the head table. This was not because I did anything special, but because of my role as a spiritual leader for the English-speaking Catholics of Montreal, who of course at one point were almost all of Irish descent. For that reason, I was asked to be one of two ministers to offer the grace at the beginning of the meal.

The speaker at this year’s luncheon was Kathy Reichs, the forensic anthropologist, producer of the TV show Bones, and best-selling author of the Tempe Brennan novels (seen in this photo with some other not-so-famous guy). Ms. Reichs is well-known in Montreal, not just because she works here but because Montreal is featured in her writing — and its always nice to recognize home in a work of art.