Ontario at the Vatican

The Bishops of Ontario are in Rome this week for their visit Ad Limina Apostolorum.  They met this morning with His Holiness.

His Excellency, Paul-André Durocher (Archbishop of Gatineau) explained the significance of the visit Ad Limina in a post on his private blog dated Saturday, April 22, 2017.  While the bishops of Ontario are participating in their Ad Limina this week, the bishops of Quebec are on retreat.  Next week, their roles will be reversed.  Here is my translation of Archbishop Durocher's explanation:

I write to you from Rome, where I arrived this afternoon to begin the Ad Limina visit.  This is an expression of the Church that leaves many people perplexed.  What is it all about? 

First, a bit of Latin.  (After all, it is still the official language of the Roman Catholic Church!)  The visit Ad Limina apostolorum - which is its complete title - designates a visit 'to the threshold of the apostles', more precisely, to the tombs of the apostles who are buried in Rome: Saint Peter and Saint Paul.  From all corners of the world, bishops come regularly (every five years usually) to pray and to celebrate Mass near these tombs in order to demonstrate their unity with the Church, the apostolic Church.  At the same time, they wish to express the profound connection that unites them to the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome ... the Pope.  This is therefore a pilgrimage that is meant to help me understand my ministry as a bishop, a ministry that concerns not only my own diocese ... but the universal Church that stretches across both time and space.  The Ad Limina visit is therefore first and foremost a spiritual experience, an experience of prayer: this is the reason why we, the bishops of Quebec, decided to begin our visit with a five-day retreat which will begin on Monday.

At the same time, this visit gives us a chance to provide the Pope with a report about our care for the portion of the People of God that has been entrusted to our care.  People sometimes ask me who my hierarchical superior is.  To whom am I accountable for my work?  The response is very simple: the Pope.  To be sure, the Pope cannot personally follow each one of the 2000 or so dioceses in the world.  This is done by an administrative body that is organized into various dicasteries (more church jargon - which means departments or ministries) ... We refer to this administrative body as the Roman Curia.  Concretely, during the two weeks that will follow our retreat, in addition to visiting the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul, we will meet with representatives of these discasteries in order to inform them of our own realities and, with them, to consider the more global dimension of the challenges we face.  The culminating point of this process rests assuredly in the meeting with Pope Francis when we will have the change to sit with him for two hours of sharing and reflection.  In preparation for these meetings, each bishop has prepared an important document explaining the state of his diocese and giving an account of the path that has been travelled since the last such visit.

You will notice that I do not make my Ad Limina visit alone.  I do so with all the bishops of Quebec.  The bishops of the Atlantic provinces and those from Western Canada made similar visits during Lent.  The bishops of Ontario are here one week before us.  In this way, all the bishops of Canada will have completed this important pilgrimage in the space of a few months.  Surely, we will have a chance to reflect on these visits during our annual meetings with the CCCB in September.

The tradition of the Ad Limina visit dates back to the Middle Ages.  At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pope decreed that each bishop would make such a visit every five years.  In fact, because of the increasing number of bishops in the world and because of the increasing responsibilities taken on by the Pope, the most recent Ad Limina visits have been a bit more spread out.  The last such visits for the bishops of Canada took place in 2006.  This will be my third such visit since my episcopal ordination in 1997.  I experienced the first one with John Paul II, the second with Benedict XVI ... and this third one will be with Pope Francis.  I consider myself very lucky to be able to have met these three great men and pastors.  Each has inspired me in his own way.  I hope that this third Ad Limina visit will enrich me as much as the two previous ones did.  Please pray that my hope will come to pass.