Since this speech by the Cardinal the Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty has resigned.
ARCHDIOCESE OF TORONTO REPORT
ARCHDIOCESE OF TORONTO REPORT
Cardinal’s
Dinner – October 11, 2012
Address
by His Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Collins
As
has been the tradition in our Archdiocese for the last 33 years, we come
together this evening for the annual Cardinal’s Dinner, to break bread, to enjoy
fellowship, and to raise important funds for charity.
I
am grateful to Mr. Patrick Keenan for chairing this year’s dinner, and for his
guidance and leadership in preparing for this evening. We are also grateful for
the leadership of Joe Barnicke, who with Cardinal Carter founded the Cardinal’s
Dinner, and has devotedly fostered its growth over the years.
I
also extend my gratitude to our head table guests and, in a special way, to the
representatives from the many levels of political leadership in our Archdiocese
and beyond. Be assured of my prayers for all of those who hold political office.
It is a sacred trust. We should all pray for our politicians, that they may
always act with wisdom and concern for the common good, in the imitation of
their patron Saint Thomas More, as they make the difficult decisions which are
inherent in their vocation.
We
are also honoured to have with us many representatives of others faiths.
Welcome. As we face the challenges of a
world that so often seems to be hesitant about the light of faith – and at this
moment a Synod of Bishops is gathered in Rome to address this very issue – we
work together, and pray together, joined in a bond of love and mutual
respect.
This
evening, as at every Cardinal’s Dinner, the clergy and religious of the
Archdiocese of Toronto, and lay representatives of our parishes, come together
as an archdiocesan family of faith. You serve faithfully and vigilantly,
bringing the Gospel to life in more than 220 parishes throughout our
Archdiocese. I am continually inspired by what I see in my constant travels
throughout the archdiocese. Thank you for your witness to the Gospel.
For
the leaders from the world of business who join us each year at the dinner,
thank you for your presence. I know that for so many of you the thread of faith
is woven through your work and I am grateful that we have the ability to share
this time together.
Thanksgiving
This
past week we celebrated thanksgiving day. While that is not a church holiday or
feast, the theme of thanksgiving is one that appears often throughout the Bible.
I
am personally thankful to the Holy Father for calling me to enter the College of
Cardinals, as the Cardinal Priest of the parish of Saint Patrick in Rome. I will
be formally installed in my Roman parish on October 23rd. The naming
of the Archbishop of Toronto to the College of Cardinals is a recognition of the
key role played by our Archdiocese and our country in the life of the universal
Church. The experience of being made a
cardinal is truly inspiring, and I was grateful to be joined by many pilgrims
from Canada for the ceremony.
Visually,
the scarlet robes of a cardinal are quite spectacular, but they speak of
something more profound which I also experience very much as Archbishop of
Toronto. They are bright red to represent the blood of martyrs which is the seed
of the Church, and great Cardinals, including one of my heroes, Saint John
Fisher, have shed their blood for Christ. In my office I regularly meet people
from around the world who are courageously witnessing to their faith. I have on
my desk a relic of the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, where many were
martyred not long ago. We should be thankful for their witness, and made more
resolute as we face the various challenges, less dramatic but also severe, which
we confront in our own situation as we seek to be faithful.
We
are always thankful for the example and for the prayers of the saints. On
October 21st I will participate in Rome in the Canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the
Mohawks, great saint of the first nations people of Canada and the United
States. On the 21st in Midland, at Martyrs’ Shrine, there will be a
celebration of this great model of holiness for us all.
We
should also be thankful for those who serve the most vulnerable among us,
imitating Christ who called His disciples to recognize His face in those who
suffer. This evening, Catholic Charities commence their 100th
anniversary celebrations. Throughout the coming year, there will several events
to recognize this anniversary, culminating in a special Mass next
September.
One
year prior to the outbreak of World War I, Archbishop Neil McNeil saw the gaps
and overlaps in the assistance being offered to the needy of the Archdiocese. In
response, he established Catholic Charities in 1913 to provide guidance and
oversight. Today there are 29 member agencies, many of which will be recipients
of the proceeds of tonight’s dinner. They are truly making a difference.
We
live in difficult economic times, with corporations, families and parishes all
under great strain in many different areas. That is why I was so heartened to
see this year’s ShareLife appeal raise close to $15 million, a record amount. It
is testimony to the generosity of our Catholic community, and we are mindful
that these funds will help people of all faiths or no faith at all.
When
it comes to helping others, whether it is those suffering from a natural
disaster across the ocean, or those closer to home, faith based organizations
are the first in and last out. Just this past week, we have seen media reports
of the Good Shepherd Refuge serving more than 1,600 thanksgiving meals. Their
doors are open to all, every day of the year, the face of Christ to Toronto’s
homeless.
The
faithful of the Archdiocese of Toronto
have responded with incredible generosity as more than 160 parishes have
committed to welcoming a refugee family
from the Middle East. For those seeking a new home after fleeing violence and
persecution, it is only through the collaboration of people willing to welcome
the stranger that a new beginning is possible.
Stop
and think of the essential role which people of all faiths play in the wellbeing
of our society. That should give pause to those who complain about the voice of
people of faith in our democratic society, and who seek to sterilize public
discourse and publicly funded institutions from religious influence. They should
realize that apart from the strangely forgotten fact that people of faith pay
taxes, Ontario would be a colder, harsher, darker, more cruel place without the
generous action of people of faith motivated by their faith.
As always, we give thanks for
Catholic Education, which from the earliest days of our province, even before
the formation of our Country in 1867, has been an integral part of the
educational system of Ontario. We are so richly blessed with a system in which
the French and English, and the non-religious and Catholic dimensions of our
whole education system work together in co-operation to make education a
treasure for which all Ontarians may truly be thankful. There is more beauty in
the variety of a garden than in the uniform, undifferentiated, monotony of the
dull flat surface of a parking lot. The complementary variety in our educational
system is an advantage for all, producing not only a healthy competition from
which all benefit, but also a fruitful collaboration, and the richness of
different approaches to the key issues of life. That diversity reflects the
reality of the differences that exist in our province. The system works. For
that we should be thankful.
Essential to the fruitfulness of
that diverse educational system that is such a benefit to our province is a
recognition of the legitimate identity of each partner. As for the Catholic
dimension, with which I am most engaged as
Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto, that identity is recognized and protected both by section 93 of our Canadian
constitution – for without recognition of that identity the agreement that
created Canada would not have proceeded – but also by section 1 of the Education
Act of Ontario.
Both
the constitution and the Education Act make it clear that the Catholic identity
of the school must be respected.
This
is true when it comes to the establishment of anti-bullying groups designed to make the
school a better place for all, and in Catholic schools that means following the
method outlined in the document Respecting Difference, of the Ontario Catholic
School Trustees Association. It is our mission to speak up for all those who
suffer, and especially those who are voiceless, for those who are forgotten.
It
is also true when it comes to protecting the freedom of all in the school
community to engage in pro-life activities in order to foster a culture of life
in which the most vulnerable and voiceless among us are protected and honoured
throughout their whole life on earth from the moment of conception to natural
death. Defending the voiceless is our mission.
We
all have a stake in assuring that the faith identity of Catholic schools is
respected – not just Catholics, but also
the countless people of other faiths who freely choose to send their children to
Catholic Schools. In a healthy civil society it is vital that the deeply held
principles that guide the lives of our neighbours are respected. Indeed, all
citizens have a stake in that.
For
all the difficulties we face, there is truly much for which we can be thankful,
and the hope that comes from that allows us together to confront and to seek to
overcome the problems that, sadly, are also part of our life.
This
evening we give special thanks to God for the greatest religious event of the
20th Century, the Second Vatican Council, which began fifty years ago
today, on October 11th, 1962.
The Council ran from 1962 to1965, and produced 16 documents over the
course of four sessions with more than 2,000 bishops worldwide participating in
the deliberations.
As we begin today the Year of Faith
which Pope Benedict has proclaimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the Council, and to lead us to reflect deeply on how our faith can be
strengthened by meditating on the way in which the Holy Spirit guided the Church
through the Council, and how we can be revitalized in our faith, we should
prayerfully study and be nourished by the fruits of the Council, including the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, that great sourcebook of faith, and the
shorter Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
But,
especially in this year of Faith, we should systematically and prayerfully study
the 16 Council documents, and especially the key ones, the four great
constitutions:
1)
The
Constitution on the Liturgy
2)
The
Constitution on the Church,
3)
The
Constitution on the Word of God, and
4)
The
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which opens with the
marvellous line that challenges us to engage in this world in which we live,
with compassion and with a passion for justice: “The joys and hopes and the
sorrows and anxieties of people today, especially of those who are poor and
afflicted, are also the joys and hopes, sorrows and anxieties of the disciples
of Christ, and there is nothing truly human which does not also affect them.”
The
Constitution on the Church, in each of its sections, offers us clear guidance
about how we should live according to our particular missions as disciples
living within the community of the Church.
It
speaks of the Church as the People of God, with all of its members - clergy,
religious, and laity - having a specific mission, but all equally called to
holiness. The chapter on the universal call to holiness is a good place to
start, when reading the Council documents.
Many
of the other 16 documents take a section of the Constitution on the Church, and
expand upon it: and so there is a separate document on the mission of lay
people, on that of religious, and of priests, and of bishops.
Particularly
important is what the Council says about the role of lay people. Although lay
people provide invaluable support within the structure of Church organizations,
and in various internal ministries, their main role, according to Vatican II, is
to make the presence of God known in this world through the way in which they
fulfil their lay vocation in the secular world, in their family life, in their
work, and in their engagement in the life of the community. They do this as
individuals, who give example through personal holiness, and sometimes through
their participation in the various lay movements which flourished to some degree
before the Council, but which have truly been a gift of the Holy Spirit since
the Council.
The
main role of clergy and religious is to provide the spiritual support which the
lay people need to fulfil their mission, by preaching the Word of God, by
celebrating the sacraments, and by providing the pastoral care and guidance
needed by the whole community of faith.
Of
course worship is essential, and the Constitution on the Liturgy helps us to
appreciate the sacred liturgy more profoundly.
The
Constitution on the Word of God opened up for us a clearer sense of God’s
presence amongst us, in Scripture and in the living faith of the
Church.
In so many ways, the Council has been a
blessing for which we should be thankful. It guides the Catholic Church in its
relations with our brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we share a common
baptism, but from whom we have sadly been separated over the years. It helps us
to build bridges of love and respect to Jews and Muslims, and to others who are
not Christians. We have seen this
dialogue among believers led by the Popes themselves, most recently Blessed Pope
John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visiting, praying and in dialogue with our
friends of other faith traditions.
Fifty
years after the Council, we need to be guided by its spiritual wisdom,
especially in a society that has become disconnected from the vision of
faith.
This
revitalization is sometimes called “the new evangelization”, and presently a
gathering of bishops and of others is underway in Rome to reflect upon this
theme, and to suggest ways to proceed.
As
I mentioned a few days ago in a pastoral letter on the Feast of St Michael, our
patron saint, we will release a Pastoral Plan in the New Year that helps map out
some of our key priorities, guiding the way in our own journey of evangelization
in this archdiocese.
For
each of us gathered here this evening, perhaps a few short suggestions on how we
can bring the new evangelization to our everyday experiences:
1)
Prayer
– start and end your day with prayer to thank God for everything that He has
blessed you with. On the subway, before an important meeting or most
importantly, when you’re frustrated: give thanks, seek strength, wisdom and
patience.
2)
Witness
– do not be afraid to discuss your faith in the public square. You may be
surprised at how many others wish they could do the same. It doesn’t have to be
as organized as bible study over lunch hour; but talking about how important
faith is in one’s life is something that our world is thirsting for, and that we
can do any time. Our world is ripe for authentic witness – let us fill that
void.
3)
Invitation
– consider inviting someone to join you for a moment of prayer, to rediscover
the Church, or to attend a spiritual service with you. I will do that now: I
invite you to join me at the cathedral on the first or second Sunday of each
month (look at the schedule) for evening prayer, and for the prayerful reading
of the Word of God, known as Lectio Divina.
4)
Forgiveness
– enter into the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Confession allows us to begin
again, refreshed by the forgiveness that comes from our Loving Father. We need to let go of the baggage that weighs
us down. Forgive others but first seek forgiveness yourself.
Conclusion
Tonight
has been about breaking bread with friends, helping those in need, and coming to
realize more fully all of the gifts for which we should give thanks. It is no
surprise that the greatest act of worship in the Church is called “The
Eucharist”, which means, to give thanks.
Particularly,
in this Year of Faith, we give thanks for the gift of faith, and for the way in
which faith leads to hope, which gives us the energy to love, and especially to
show our love for those who are most in need through acts of practical service.
We
give special thanks for the gift of the Second Vatican Council, which helps us
to grow more deeply in faith, hope, and love.
The
words with which good Pope John began the Council fifty years ago today were:
“Holy Mother Church rejoices…” It is for us to bring that joyful message of
hope, peace and love to the world. Thank you for your presence here this evening
and may God continue to bless you now and always.
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