LAUNCHING OF THE 2017-18 PASTORAL YEAR FOR OUR 125TH YEAR, WE RE STEPPING OUT IN FAITH! Dear Members of our Diocese, Fortified by our experience of last year and moved by the Spirit, this year we are again called to live a missionary conversion. My pastoral message for the year 2016-2017 is still relevant and remains an important source of motivation and action for 2017-2018. However, several events and activities urge us to make the missionary shift. 1. The 125 th anniversary of the founding of our Diocese Several celebrations have already highlighted this event and I would like to thank all the pastoral regions and their leaders for their invaluable collaboration and their truly wonderful spirit and initiative. Heritage, Presence, Hope: This is the theme that guides our Diocesan Church in the celebrations marking its 125 th anniversary of its founding which will end in June. Yes, we have inherited a beautiful diocesan church, which continues to be present in our world and which is resolutely turning towards the future. As clearly expressed by one of our pastoral regions, let us take a nod at our past, a glance at our present and an inspiring vision towards our future. 2. The ad limina apostolorum visit of the Quebec Bishops in May 2017 In May of 2017, the Bishops of Quebec went to Rome to carry out their visit ad limina apostolorum, a visit "on the threshold of the apostles which included memorable meetings with Pope Francis and the heads of the congregations or dicasteries of the Vatican. On the occasion of this visit, the Bishops of Quebec presented a joint report to Pope Francis, which could be entitled A Church on a Mission in Quebec. It mentions the fundamental question to which the Bishops of Quebec must answer and which is worded as follows: While being pastors for the small number that «little flock» which remains attached to the Church for one reason or another how to be both apostles and missionaries in this Quebec that has become secularized, diversified, plural and pluralistic, which has largely broken it links with Catholic tradition and heritage, which seeks and chooses its points of reference elsewhere than in the Gospel
and for whom the word of the Church is discredited both by the terrible sex scandals and by teachings which seem outdated, disconnected and retrograde? (Report presented to His Holiness Pope Francis by the Assembly of Quebec Bishops in anticipation of the ad limina apostolorum visit, December 2016, I) At the end of a three-hour session we had with him, Pope Francis gave us an answer. Taking up the text of the first reading of the Mass of the day in which the apostle Philip is pushed by the Spirit to join a eunuch in order to help him understand the Word of God and then baptize him (Acts of the Apostles 8:26-39), Pope Francis challenged us as follows: Church of Quebec, rise up, go towards the other, meet with those who seek light and happiness, those who live in the existential peripheries or on the margins of society. This missionary call is launched to our diocesan Church: what good news can we contemplate announcing to this pluralistic and secularized Quebec? How can we announce the beautiful legacy of faith that has been transmitted to us and which cannot be put under a bushel or simply maintained by an instinct of preservation? We need audacity to share this treasure of our faith. Aware of the poverty of our means, we must constantly respond to the call of Jesus to set us on our journey, to take the road to get close to all those people who are hurt by life and to offer them the only true remedy, namely, the Love, Tenderness and Mercy of God. "Silver and gold, I have none; but what I have, I give it to you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, arise and walk "(Acts of the Apostles, 3, 6). 3. The symposium At the heart of faith, the mission: Making the missionary shift in Christian faith education From August 23 to 25, 2017, a symposium was held at Laval University in Quebec on Christian life training and the missionary shift. There was a delegation of 11 people from our diocese. This was a very important moment in the missionary conversion process of our Church. The main objectives of this colloquium were to open ourselves to the calls of Christ and the Spirit; to be reborn together by the Easter experience; to discern the purposes of training in the Christian life in a missionary context; to identify the convictions, the theological foundations and the human and structural factors that enable a fruitful process of change to take place. This colloquium poses deep questions to our local Church: to what conversion is our Church invited in order to extend the mission of the Son and the Spirit here and now? What vision of a revised Church could help inspire new models for training in Christian life?
For our Christian communities, on the whole, there are some unavoidable questions or imperatives: for a people in search of happiness and meaning in life, let us be communities that listen, meditate and proclaim the teaching of Jesus, light and wisdom for humanity. For a people struggling to develop a harmonious "living together", let us be communities of solidarity and welcome, especially for the foreigner, the migrant and the refugee who flees his country because of war or persecution. For a society that seeks its identity, let us be communities that celebrate and defend the dignity of every person, especially the weak and excluded; as Jesus says in the proclamation of his Kingdom to the poor. For a society that seeks ethical beacons and all too often finds itself in confusion and relativism in the name of freedom and autonomy, let us be communities of discernment in which the quest for the beautiful, the true and the good, fulfillment and true authenticity, is enlightened by Jesus, living Word and light of the world. To all those who work in our Christian communities, in the formation of Christian life, to all our volunteers in parishes, l say a big thank you for the faithfulness of their service and I encourage you to take up this beautiful challenge of missionary conversion. 4. Social Pastoral Care and Pastoral Care of Creation To grow, our communities must regain their missionary vitality. In our diocese, in order to achieve this goal, we especially support social pastoral care and the pastoral care of creation (Green Church). In 2012, the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec (AECQ) adopted the following definition of social pastoral care: "Social pastoral care is the activity of the Church which, conscious of its mission at the heart of the world, takes an evangelical option for the poor and the excluded and translates it into practices of solidarity and liberation. It works with all people of good will to transform social relations and unjust structures, from local to international, in order to make social, political, economic, cultural and environmental realities more just and human." (Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec, Committee for Social Affairs and Social Pastoral Table of the Dioceses of Quebec, May 2012, p. 4). In March 2017, the AECQ held a special session with representatives of social pastoral care to reflect on the role and implementation of social pastoral care in our dioceses and Christian communities. Here we have another challenge in the Church to better understand the need for pastoral care in our communities if we truly want to update the social dimension of our faith. Together, individually and collectively, with the illumination of the Gospel and the rich social teaching of the Church, we
must roll up our sleeves to carry with us the "joys and hopes, sadness and anxieties of men of this time "(Vatican Council ll, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of this Time Gaudium et Spes', n.1). Together we seek to articulate faith, prayer and social commitment and find ways to respond to the many social, economic, political, cultural and environmental issues we face. Let us also look for ways to promote the emergence of an integral ecology that promotes social justice and concern for creation, as Pope Francis reminds us in his encyclical letter, Laudato Si, on the safeguarding of our common home (24 May 2015). It is not without reason that Pope Francis made the 33rd Sunday of ordinary time (19 November this year) the World Day of the Poor. In his message for this day the Pope writes that he "wanted to offer to the Church this day so that throughout the world, the Christian communities become ever more and more concrete signs of the charity of Christ for those who are most in need". And for the Pope to continue inviting all men and women of goodwill "to have their gaze fixed on this day, on all those who hold out their hands crying for help and soliciting our solidarity" (n.6). To all those who work in our Church to bring about a better world and the Kingdom of God, have confidence in the future. God constantly makes new things and realizes His plan of a new earth and heaven by us and with us. 5. The Ordinary Synod of Bishops in Youth, Faith and the Discernment of Vocations Finally, among all the activities and events that will marshal our time and energies, I cannot ignore the Ordinary Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and the discernment of vocations that will take place in Rome in October 2018. Our diocesan ministers of youth ministry and vocations are already engaged on the path of this Synod which wants to reaffirm the Church's desire to "question how to accompany young people to recognize and welcome the call to love and life in fullness ". The Church also wants to "ask young people to help them define the most effective ways today to announce the Good News. (Preparatory Document, introduction). A wide consultation of the whole people of God is underway and in March 2018, the bishops of Quebec will hold a provincial forum for reflection and sharing with young people from all regions of Quebec. ln his letter to the young people on the occasion of the presentation of the Preparatory Document of this Synod, a letter published on January 13, 2017, Pope Francis called on the young people to turn their gaze to Jesus, to hear His voice, to discern what God wants for them in their lives. He also invites them to make their cry heard against injustice and the culture of waste and indifference. To the young
people of the diocese, I invite you to listen to the Master and to commit yourselves to change things and build a better world of justice, love, peace, sharing and solidarity. CONCLUSION Missionary conversion is not a choice, it is an evangelical requirement. It is not only related to the particular context that currently marks our Church and our world, but it is a permanent conversion that constantly requires our "yes" and our willingness to change to meet the challenges and stakes of today.several images are used to talk about the Church. There is that of the family: in effect, the Church is the family of the children of God united by one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:4) and called to establish peace, unity and love among them. Pope Francis uses the images of an open house and a field hospital. In the joy of the Gospel, the Pope strongly recalls that "the Church is not a customs house, but the paternal home where there is room for everyone with his or her difficult life" (n.47). As a field hospital, the Church is there to welcome and relieve the wounded. But when Pope Francis calls the Church to be a missionary Church and "to step out", it seems to me that he is referring to a boat. Now a boat is not made to be moored to the port but to navigate. To be a missionary church is to go out to sea and to sail into deep water. For this, we need a taste for adventure and risk. Recognize that we need boldness and initiative to rethink our ways of doing things, our methods and our style. Let the Spirit of God, who is the God of innovation, surprise us and push us to the open sea. With my gratitude and my blessing. Given at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, September 4, 2017, Labor Day. Noël Simard Bishop of Valleyfield