CCCB Permanent Council and Presentation to Associations

Three times a year, between sessions of the Bishops' Plenary Assembly, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' Permanent Council meets in Ottawa at CCCB headquarters at 2500 Don Reid Drive in a business park off Walkley Avenue to address issues of interest to the whole episcopate in Canada.

This week, we had the first session of the new executive and new council, including photos of the occasion. The one bishop missing was Most Reverend Lawrence Huculak, O.S.B.S., metropolitan archeparch of Winnipeg, due to a synod of Ukrainian Bishops in Ukraine.

The new executive urges a "pulling up one's socks" and looking in a new direction: left to right: Co-Treasurer Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I. (Corner Brook-Labrador, NL), Vice-President Archbishop Richard Smith (Edmonton, AB), President Bishop Pierre Morissette (St-Jermone, QC), Co-Treasurer Paul-Andre Durocher (Alexandria-Cornwall, ON)

Other members of the Permanent Council (back row, left to right): Bishops Claude Champagne, O.M.I. (Edmundston, NB), Ronald Fabbro, C.S.B. (London, ON); Archbishops Michael Miller, C.S.B. (Vancouver, BC), Thomas Collins (Toronto, ON); Cardinals Jean-Claude Turcotte (Montreal, QC), Marc Ouellet, p.s.s. (Quebec, QC); Bishop Luc Bouchard (St-Paul, AB); yours truly; Bishop Eugene Tremblay (Amos, QC)

In order to reduce travel costs, other commissions or committees meet around the time of the Permanent Council sessions in November-December, March and June.

Archbishop Paul-Andre Fournier (Rimouski, QC) does last minute consultation for the evening session on Thursday night at Eglise Sacre-Coeur

This week, I was invited to take part in one of these, the annual session when bishops meet with representative Catholic groups from across the country: e.g. CWL, Scouts, Development and Peace, charismatic and evangelizing groups, etc.

The theme pf the meeting of Lay Associations was that of the Synod of 2008: the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church--what role does the Word of God play in your association? I was invited to speak on my experience of the synod, expectations for the post-synodal exhortation and how Lectio Divina can fit into our lives....