QUOTATION: The Right to Life

Courage is required to restate the most essential things : Thou shalt not kill. We cannot dispose of a human being at his birth nor at his death. Life belongs to God. If man arrogates the right to dispose of his brother’s life, we no longer live in a culture where there is equality of rights, we are in culture where the rights of the strongest dominate. The strongest imposes his right, his supposed right, more exactly. What we have defined as the right to abortion is not a true right because it violates another’s rights. We must recall these things, enter into conflict with the dominant culture up to a certain point, at least in certain countries, and thus risk exposing ourselves to criticism. Witnessing to the truth in the name of Christ obliges us to this audacious claim, which must always be spoken with respect.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Actualité et avenir du Concile oecuménique Vatican II

QUOTATION: Clerical Authority

We can’t not exercise the service of authority: leave everything be, not intervene, not speak the truth which can hurt but which clarifies and helps us to get back up. We then leave people in confusion for fear of hurting them or speaking a truth that is not at all popular and which goes against the ambient culture. This applies to bishops, priests and pastors. It is a greater charity to communicate a truth that alienates a person from us for a time, a time during which he can come to realize that we acted in his favour.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Actualité et avenir du Concile oecuménique Vatican II

QUOTATION: Mary in Christ's Redemption

The fact that Mary, for example, is present at the foot of the cross means that she is associated, in the very act of Redemption, to the sacrifice of Christ by the expressed will of the Saviour who says to her “Woman, here is your son,” (Jn, 19:27) The Saviour asks of her to consent to his own sacrifice, and thus to his death, and in exchange for the acceptance of the death of her son--  which is Mary’s sacrifice—the mother of Christ is brought to accept humanity, symbolized by John, as her new son.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Actualité et avenir du Concile oecuménique Vatican II

QUOTATION: May They All Be One!

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This is precisely what struck me in returning to the prayer of Christ: He does not say “May they all be united” but “May they all be one.” (John 17:21).

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Actualité et avenir du Concile œcuménique de Vatican II, 2012

QUOTATION: False Freedom

Our culture, strongly influenced by the media, almost no longer believes in that deep and enduring love that is the foundation of the family’s stability. It presumes itself to be free and liberating, but it multiplies the phenomena of dependence: drug addiction, pornography, alcoholism, tobacco, superstition, fetishism, satanic cults, etc. We think ourselves free when we make love to any one, but the result is the failure of love and bitter disenchantment, which sometimes causes despair and even suicide. We avoid these ills by the mastery of self, chastity and prayer.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, “Rajeunir l’Église” (2003) reprinted in Dieu plus Merveilleux que les rêves, 2004.

QUOTATION: Persecution of Christians

Today’s persecutions are more subtle than those of the beginning. They don’t necessarily use violence to disperse the faithful or to confine them behind bars. They create a climate of reserve and silence where the believer and even the priest no longer dare to present themselves as such in the public square. They are given the impression that they have a heavy past that they must forget, and that they would be better off keeping quiet rather than to come off too strongly as bearers of an important message for society. The youth suffer from this religious void which leaves them impoverished in terms of values.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, “Grande joie”, General diocesan assembly of priests and deacons, May 7, 2003, reprinted in Dieu plus merveilleux que les rêves, 2004

QUOTATION: Bishops

Today, especially in the context of our secularized societies, we need bishops who are the first evangelizers, and not mere administrators of dioceses. Who are capable of proclaiming the Gospel. Who are not only theologically faithful to the magisterium and the pope, but are also capable of expounding and, if need be, of defending the faith publicly.

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet