Holy Name of Mary - Ordination of Bishop Dowd, Mgr Lepine

This feast in honour of the Holy Name of Mary is part of the expansion of the Roman Missal's Third Edition.

Collect for the Memorial

of the Most Holy Name of Mary

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, for all who celebrate the glorious Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she may obtain your merciful favor. Through our Lord.

* * * * * *

TWO NEW AUXILIARY BISHOPS

FOR MONTREAL

Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral Basilica, Montreal

On Saturday evening, a crowded cathedral welcomed some thirty bishops, hundreds of priests and deacons, a large number of religious sisters and over a thousand of the lay faithful for the episcopal ordination of Montreal's two newest auxiliary bishops, Mgr Christian Lepine and Bishop Thomas Dowd.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte presided the ceremony as the principal celebrant and consecrator, assisted by Mgr Lionel Gendron and Mgr Andre Gazaille (the co-consecrators), who had recently been his auxiliaries and been called to become the Ordinaries of the dioceses of St. Jean-Longueuil and Nicolet respectively and joined by the other bishops present in laying on hands in the rite of episcopal consecration.

Bishop Dowd, whose parents and siblings reside in Ottawa, will preside at two celebrations of Masses of Thanksgiving next weekend, one at Ottawa's Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica on Saturday at 17h15 (which will be a bilingual celebration for the occasion) and another the next day at St. Albertus Pfarrgemeinde, the German-language parish where current pastor Father Ernst Schoenhammer, OMI baptized him some forty years ago when he was serving as the associate pastor there.

Some photos from before the ordination evening:

Relatives (uncle and aunt) of Mgr Lepine

A few of the religious sisters present

My sister-in-law Renee and friend Flora

Bishop Dowd's parents and Father Schoenhammer

The "laying on of hands" in the ordination ritual (photo: D'Arcy Grant)