New Canadian Archbishop: Church Dialogue Doesn't Mean Just Yelling Louder

[ComplineSanFran]

There is an excellent interview with the new Archbishop of Saskatchewan in the National Catholic Reporter. He sounds very much like a Pope Francis kind of leader.

Bolen also spoke in the interview about the unique challenges facing the church in his area of the Canadian prairie.

Just prior to the announcement of his new appointment in July, the archbishop had spent 36 hours living on the streets with nine other volunteers to raise funds for Sanctum Care Group, a local HIV hospice and transitional care center.

The archbishop called his June 17-18 experience on the streets of Saskatoon eye opening.

Explaining how he and the other volunteers were asked by organizers to try to panhandle to better understand homeless peoples’ experience, Bolen said he was not surprised that people did not offer much money to him.

“That wasn’t so shocking,” said the archbishop. “What was shocking was that they didn’t make eye contact. We got a little insight into how invisible homeless people are, how we make them invisible because we find them threatening and problematic.”

He is concerned about HIV/AIDS, about homelessness, about ‘mercy within mercy within mercy.’ He was also part of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the horrendous clergy abuse in their residential school system.

It sounds as if he gets out there in the trenches, as it were. The Church needs more like him. I wish him well in his new Archdiocese.

ncronline.org/news/vatican/new-canadian-archbishop-church-dialogue-doesnt-just-mean-yelling-louder#.V8XAzbnip3Q.twitter

 

[Don_Ruggero]

His Grace is a very remarkable person. He has been a great gift for the Church and now will be a very special blessing for the people of Regina.

 

[twf]

His Grace is a very remarkable person. He has been a great gift for the Church and now will be a very special blessing for the people of Regina.

Father - you seem to know almost everyone in the hierarchy . I mean that as a compliment.
This particular appointment wasn’t really on my radar (Saskatchewan is not overly close…), but I had the privilege of attending the ordination and installation of Bishop Joseph in Kamloops, BC last week. The Archbishop of Vancouver was the principal consecrator with the Bishop of Prince George and the Bishop Emeritus of Kamloops as co-consecrators (who, like Bishop Joseph himself, were also priests here in Vancouver once upon a time). The Archbishop of Winnipeg, another former Vancouver priest, gave the homily. The new Bishop’s story as a refugee from Communist Vietnam, who underwent torture and imprisonment for his desire to serve God as a priest, is truly remarkable. I don’t know if His Excellency would remember me, but we had a number of good conversations some years ago when he was an official in the Vancouver curia.
If I could make it to Regina for the installation of the new archbishop I would. Alas, I will be up near the Alaska border on business.