Cardinal Marc Ouellet - You Da Man!!

His Eminence Marc Cardinal Ouellet
Archbishop of Québec
Primate of Canada

Marc Ouellet, PSS (born 8 June 1944 in La Motte, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the present Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 30 June 2010. Previously, he was Archbishop of Quebec, and thus Primate of Canada. He was elevated to the cardinalate, by Pope John Paul II, on 21 October 2003.

Early life and ordination


Ouellet was born in 1944 in La Motte, a small village near the city of Amos in northern Quebec. He attended the Teacher Training College, earning a baccalaureate in education, before obtaining a license in theology from the Grand Séminaire of Montréal. On 25 May 1968, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Gaston Hains of Amos.

Professor and theologian

Ouellet spent most of his priestly career as a professor and rector in seminaries. He also received a license in philosophy from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) (1976), and a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University (1983).

Bishop

Ouellet was named titular archbishop of Acropolis and Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on 3 March 2001. Pope John Paul II personally consecrated him as an archbishop, with Cardinals Angelo Sodano and Giovanni Battista Re as co-consecrators, on 19 March of the same year in St. Peter's Basilica.

Archbishop

On 15 November 2002 he became Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada (installed on 26 January 2003), and has been one of the most staunch defenders of the Catholic faith in the Canadian hierarchy.

Ouellet is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. He is known for his missionary work in South America.

Cardinal

He was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Traspontina by John Paul II in the consistory of 21 October 2003.

He was a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave, and numerous observers believed that Ouellet was papabile himself. A report said that Ouellet had supported Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Ouellet remains eligible to vote in any future papal conclaves that begin before his 80th birthday on 8 June 2024.

Ouellet serves as a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Pontifical Council for Culture, and the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. He takes part in the (generally annual) meetings of these bodies, held in Rome. He is also a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

A Eucharistic Congress took place in 2008 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City.

Cardinal Ouellet was elected the recorder, or relator-general, of the 12th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in early October 2008.

Roman Curia

He is the present Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 30 June 2010. He took over from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who had reached the age limit.[1]

Ouellet is associated with Communio, a journal of theology established by Catholics after the Second Vatican Council, and with Hans Urs von Balthasar, a renowned twentieth-century Swiss theologian.

Quiet revolution

He has suggested that changes around the Quiet Revolution in Quebec in the 1960s went too far.

Liturgy

Ouellet has supported a return to Eucharistic adoration and Gregorian chant.

Pastoral approach

A report by the National Catholic Reporter anticipating the 2005 papal election placed Ouellet among twenty papal possibilities ."[P]eople who have worked with Ouellet," said the report, "describe him as friendly, humble and flexible, and a man not so captive to his own intellectual system as to make him incapable of listening to others."

Catholic education

Ouellet was sharply critical of the Ethics and religious culture course of the Quebec education ministry, saying that it relativized the role of faith within the realm of religion and culture. [2]

Church persecutions

Ouellet has argued that the Catholic Church is persecuted in contemporary secular Quebec for telling the truth.[3]

Public apology

In a letter published in Quebec French-language newspapers on November 21, 2007, Cardinal Ouellet publicly apologized for what he described as past "errors" of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Among the errors he wrote about were attitudes, prior to 1960, which promoted "anti-Semitism, racism, indifference to First Nations and discrimination against women and homosexuals."[4][5][6][7] Cardinal Ouellet said his letter was written in response to the public reaction to the statement he submitted to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, and that it was inspired by a similar letter issued in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.[8]

Abortion

In May 2010 Ouellet stood by his comments that abortion is unjustifiable, even in the case of rape, and urged the federal government to help pregnant women keep their child. He said that "Governments are funding clinics for abortion. I would like equity for organisms that are defending also life. If we have equity in funding those instances to help women I think we would make lots of progress in Canada." Having earlier applauded Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for its stance against funding abortions in the developing world - praise from which Ottawa quickly distanced itself - he said:"If they do not want to fund abortion abroad and they do not bring at home more help to women to keep their child, I think they are incoherent,.[9]

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