Bishop McGrattan
Bishop William McGrattan, formerly an auxiliary bishop from Toronto’s central district, was recently appointed by Pope Francis as Bishop of the Peterborough Diocese. On 9 April, I had the great privilege to meet the new bishop at his first press conference at his office in Peterborough where he was introduced by the newly retired Bishop De Angelis.
Bishop McGrattan told us that he is a hockey fan, but added that he had to stop playing the game three years ago. When asked if he was an outdoorsman, he said that while he did not hunt, he is looking forward to fishing in the Kawartha Lakes.
Although he has come to Peterborough from Toronto, from his background and experience he is familiar with parish life in both urban and rural parishes, being originally from the London area. He was ordained when he was twenty-five and served as a parish priest for three years in Chatham, Ontario. He was asked to study and then to teach at the seminary in King’s College. He has been a priest for twenty-three years and was ordained as an auxiliary bishop four years ago.
He told us, “There is a bit of sadness in leaving Toronto and the friends I have made there, but also excitement in coming to Peterborough. Once you say yes to becoming a bishop, you place your life in the hands of the Holy Father. There is something called obedience. So we as Catholics trust that God works through the Holy Father. When I was told I had been selected and was asked for my response, I did not have to think about it. I just said, ‘Yes.'” His installation is to take place on 23 June, the vigil of the feast of St. John the Baptist.
The following are just some of the many very welcome, hope-filled, and encouraging statements Bishop McGrattan made at his press conference:
“John the Baptist said of Christ, ‘He must increase, I must decrease.’ He is a role model of Christian witness and encounter. It is fitting that my installation happens on his feast day.”
“I want to focus on the youth, especially in the context of the family, and to find ways to make families strong. I am a strong believer in the parish—this is where Christ touches people with the sacraments.”
“It is in the community, the parish, that we are baptized into the life of the whole Church. The gift of Faith is really found in the parish. What I want to do is to strengthen the parishes. The stronger the parish is the stronger the diocese. I want to support the lay groups in the parishes, such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Catholic Women’s League, the Knights of Columbus.”
“I try to support the lay movements in the parishes—to support the groups that work to promote the dignity of each person and babies in the womb.”
One of the reporters asked if he meant that he supported the pro-life movement. “Yes, prolife, the unborn, and also it is important that we defend the elderly, the aged. We as a Church are not ready to accept any threats to the end of life and we must support the burden undertaken by their caregivers. Pope Francis was correct: how we care for the young and the elderly says a lot about who we are as a Church.”
“It is essential that we outreach from the parish. We must act as Christ would act. In our tradition we preserve truth, beauty, the arts, goodness, and promote good moral living. We offer this to society, and I hope to continue in that long tradition.”
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→
Three Easter Musical Gems: Bach, Palestrina and Byrd
A very blessed and glorious Easter! Christus surrexit vere, alleluia! As we begin this Easter Octave with the great Solemnity of Easter, music to lift the soul would be one of Bach’s Easter cantatas, composed during his time at Leipzig in the early 1700’s, for the six Sundays of this festive season, leading up to[…]Continue reading→
Good Friday and Suffering
Evil and pain is always a mystery, that whole mysterium iniquitatis, of which Saint Paul writes (2 Thess 2:7). In 1984, Pope Saint John Paul II penned an Apostolic Letter on the nature and purpose of human suffering, Salvifici Doloris (curiously, now looking back, the same year he made his first apostolic journey to Canada).[…]Continue reading→