Beyond the Self-effacing Facade, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet Is a Cardboard Cutout of Benedict XVI
By Joseph Brean
Born June 8, 1944, in La Motte, a small town in the Abitibi region of western Quebec, Marc Ouellet was not always a reserved intellectual. One of eight siblings and a keen hockey player, he took a teaching degree at Laval before being ordained a priest in 1968. He was sent to a parish in Val d’Or, then did a doctorate at Gregorian University in Rome, focused on the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, in whom he saw a “very deep mystic inspiration.” The young priest taught at seminaries in Montreal and Edmonton, and spent more than a decade in Colombia, where he perfected his Spanish. In 1997, he became chairman of dogmatic theology at the John Paul II Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome, and in 2001 was named a bishop and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, which builds bridges with other Christian faiths. Less than three years later, John Paul II made him archbishop of Quebec and primate of Canada, and a cardinal a few months later. Now head of the Congregation of Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, he wields a unique influence that has frequently led to papal speculation. Boosters claim he ticks all the boxes, with Benedict’s mind, John Paul’s heart, and a non-European heritage to boot. Thomas Rosica, a priest in Toronto, is skeptical. He said the qualities cardinals look for in a pope are “administration of large dioceses, pastoral experience, connection, and after having a very theological pope [Benedict XVI] that’s been an incredible person, something tells me that they might be looking for a great pastor with a lot of human skills to reach out. If you look at the trajectory of some of these new [cardinals], it’s quite fascinating.”
As the first New World pope, Cardinal Ouellet would break the European stranglehold, just as the Polish John Paul II broke the Italian stranglehold. Mr. Allen said this might be attractive to some cardinals, though perhaps no more attractive than choosing an African or Asian. “Man, this is the Catholic Church,” he said. “They think in centuries. The New World is still new to them.” The fact Cardinal Ouellet is from Quebec, where the Church has been in decline, “can cut a number of ways,” said Prof. Cere. “You can view Cardinal Ouellet as coming from a poorly performing sector of the Church. Why choose someone who comes from a sector of the Church that is not expanding or growing, and is running into problems? “On the other hand, you’ve got [all the] European cardinals who are struggling with the same stuff… [and they might think] here’s a non-European who understands what we’re up against. In some ways, Quebec looks European in terms of the struggles with secularism and declining membership.”
For Canadians, Cardinal Ouellet achieved his greatest prominence with his denunciation of a “culture of death” in Quebec, in which Marxist-inspired teachers reveled in Catholicism’s decline and promoted its shame, creating a “dictatorship of relativism.” He caused a minor scandal at Easter 2003, when he complained to the newspaper Le Soleil children were “grossly ignorant” of religion. “Kids ask who’s that guy hanging from the cross,” he said. “It’s clear that one hour a week of religious instruction in school isn’t enough to get the message across.” In 2005, he skirted controversy by supporting the removal of NDP MP Joe Comartin from some church activities — including altar serving and marriage- preparation courses — because of his vote for same-sex marriage. But withholding communion, for example from then-prime minister Paul Martin, was a step too far. “We are a community of sinners,” Cardinal Ouellet said. Later that year, things got even trickier when he told the Senate that the Church would refuse to baptize children of same-sex couples if both parents insisted on signing as co-fathers or co-mothers. Eager to build bridges, rather than burn them, he apologized in 2007 for the Church’s historical failings in Quebec, including clergy abuse, the promotion of anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination against women and gays. Later, he said he was “stunned” at the negative public reaction. Likewise, in 2010, a relatively mundane restatement of Catholic doctrine that abortion is a “moral crime,” not even justified by rape, was widely denounced as an effort to recriminalize abortion, when in fact he called for greater support for pregnant women in crisis. A federal cabinet minister labelled his remarks “unacceptable.” Jacques Monet, director of the Canadian Institute of Jesuit Studies, said Cardinal Ouellet had been away from Quebec for a long time, and “missed a lot of the nuances.” “It is either that he was badly advised, or put things in a way that should have been put otherwise,” Mr. Monet said. “He was walking a very fine line, which can be a very good quality.” Apologies don’t cut it. There has to be more, an array of concrete action “Apologies don’t cut it. There has to be more, an array of concrete action,” said Prof. Cere. Publicly, Cardinal Ouellet has been self-effacing almost to the point of being coy, calling the papacy an unenviable “nightmare.” He did not respond to an emailed interview request for this story. “That’s the typical speculation of journalists and authors,” he said in 2003. “Maybe it raises some interests in people. But I don’t think it is substantial. I am too young. And there are too many people in the College of Cardinals with great capacity, great experience and great spirituality.” This denial of all interest in the face of growing speculation is standard practice for senior cardinals who might become pope, the papabiles.
“Some would cynically argue, whether sincere or not, that a serious papal candidate is almost required to assume a self-effacing facade,” said Prof. Cere. Peter Cardinal Turkson of Ghana, for example, has been open to speculation he will be the first African pope, and therefore “has almost ruled himself out by slipping and being willing to entertain the idea that he could possibly be pope,” he added. “Most cardinals don’t want to be pope, and that’s for both lofty and grubby human reasons,” said Mr. Allen. “The lofty thing is they take it seriously. This is the successor of Peter, the vicar of Christ, and knowing themselves as they do, they have a hard time seeing themselves in that role. “The grubby human reason is that it’s an impossible job. The last two popes are proof of that. The job killed John Paul II and the job was so immense that Benedict XVI quit. As opposed to the life of a retired cardinal, especially in Rome, which is a pretty sweet deal. The received wisdom would be that if you really want this job [of pope], then you have no idea what it is about.” When the door closes on the conclave in the Sistine Chapel in mid-March, and the cardinals take an oath in front of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment swearing they have made the best choice, it seems a safe bet a Canadian will be on their minds. But that is the only certainty. The electoral process is “designed to frighten them, literally put the fear of God into them,” said Rocco Palmo, an American Catholic writer who runs the blog Whispers in the Loggia. He said the shock of Benedict’s resignation will continue to reverberate through the deliberations, as the cardinals work toward installing a new pope in time for Easter. “When the conclave results from a surprise, the cardinals surprise the world,” he said.
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