A Canadian1 Pope? Part 1: the Word on Marc Ouellet
Vancouver Sun
The odds are strong – seven to two – that Canada will next month become much more famous. Two big British bookmakers are putting serious money on a Canadian horse: Ladbrokes and PaddyPower are betting that Marc Ouellet, a cardinal from Quebec, could be elected pope at the March conclave. If that happens, Canada’s Catholic roots and its supposedly polite, multi-faith culture will be thrust into the international spotlight. The interest has already arrived. Popular American satirist Stephen Colbert devoted much of a show last week to mock-complaining that Ouellet would be “too Canadian” (i.e., too nice) to be pope. When a man is catapulted to the top of a church of 1.2 billion people, unpredictable things happen to him and his country of origin. For good or ill. RELATED: A Canadian pope? PART TWO: The state of northern Catholicism A media blitz struck Poland after native son Karol Cardinal Wojtyla became John Paul II in 1978. It happened to Germany when Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Since John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 1,500 years, the world’s Catholics and the mass media had a field day probing the intricacies of Poland, including Wojtyla’s battle against Communist influence. When Germany’s turn came, people around the world learned about Ratzinger’s nickname, “God’s Rottweiler.” His connection to the Hitler Youth was dug up, as was Catholicism’s struggles with the country’s Lutherans and secularists. So, if Ouellet is elected, what would the world discover about Canada and its Catholic Church? They would be introduced to a secularized country that’s nevertheless been strongly shaped by the Roman Catholic church, by far the country’s largest religion. Four out of 10 Canadians, about 12 million people, claim a Catholic identity. Outsiders will also find a Catholic Church that has been buffeted by change. It’s been hammered by Catholics walking away from their family church, especially in Quebec, where the cardinal’s hometown church in the small town of La Motte has been turned into a community centre. International journalists would also discover the bitter legacy of the aboriginal residential schools, some Catholic-run, that featured abuse by priests, nuns and staff. The world will also find that Canada’s bishops are not generally as confrontational as those elsewhere, whether on abortion, artificial contraception or homosexuality. If the world’s inhabitants start paying attention to Canadian religion, they would also join many here in wondering whether waves of Catholic immigrants are masking big problems in the Roman church. Or whether they will be its salvation. AMONG TOP FIVE Before painting a fuller picture of the Catholic scene in Canada, the intense speculation about Ouellet calls for further analysis. The buzz around the erudite, multilingual 68-year-old is not new. It’s been strong for more than a decade. Three of North America’s leading Vatican watchers place Ouellet among the five cardinals most likely to be elected to replace the retiring Benedict. There has not been a non-European pope in 1,500 years. The three specialists, authors John Allen and David Gibson, and church historian Matthew Bunson, are realists aware of that history. They know politics play a role in the secret vote. The Catholic Church is much bigger in Latin America and Africa than in the West, but Europeans control more than half the ballots in the 116-member College of Cardinals. Italian cardinals, out of the last two pope’s deference to the Roman church’s origins, still hold more than a quarter of the votes. That’s partly why the three specialists agreed four Italian cardinals – Angelo Scola, Angelo Bagnasco, Gianfranco Ravasi and Leonardo Sandri – are among the front-runners for the next pope. The only non-European the Vatican-watchers named to the top five is Ouellet. Allen, author of best-selling books on the Vatican, argued Ouellet has an edge because he heads the powerful Congregation of Bishops, which chooses bishops around the globe. “It’s a great spot for making friends and influencing people,” says Allen. He also described Ouellet as a veteran in dealing with the secularized West and an intellectual with “a cosmopolitan resume.” The odds for Ouellet, who speaks six languages, are helped because he once ran a seminary in Latin America, home to 41 per cent of the world’s Catholics (compared with the 24 per cent in secularized Europe). More importantly, media-savvy Ouellet has had top jobs in the Vatican for more than 15 years, which means he’s met many of those who will be casting ballots. The three experts added that Ouellet and Benedict know each other well and are aligned in conservative theological thinking. Ouellet would not be a dramatic change from the Catholic status quo. Gibson, author of a biography of Pope Benedict, is even more enthusiastic about Ouellet’s chances. Gibson acknowledges a lot of morally persuasive talk suggests the next pope should come from where the church is predominant (Latin America) or rapidly growing (Africa). But Gibson is among those who believe the tradition-bound European cardinals will balk at that, in part because distance means they will simply have had little opportunity to get to know those cardinals. All of which points to Ouellet as an alluring non-European compromise. As Gibson explains: “The electors could get a traditional pick (in Ouellet) and still say, ‘Hey, we’re innovators. We went to North America!’” A ‘NICE’ PERSON What kind of person would the world be getting if Ouellet became pope? They would, indeed, be getting a somewhat “nice” person, as Colbert worried.
On the Feb. 11 episode of The Colbert Report, Colbert quipped: “Cardinal Marc Ouellet is also a contender, with only one major weakness: He is Canadian.” The Pope cannot be too polite or vague, the funnyman said. It won’t work for Ouellet as pope to say: “Sorry, but I think: ‘God might not want you to use a condom, eh.’” But, really, how nice is Ouellet? I found him friendly and genteel in 2003 when I interviewed him in Rome for a profile. He smiles easily when he’s in the media spotlight, which he seems to accept reluctantly. As the third of eight children born to a middle-class family in rural Quebec, he is no stranger to family dramas. Two of his sisters have divorced and one brother was convicted of sexual assault involving a minor. When I asked him about the divorces, he seemed to show a pastoral side. Despite his agreeable image, Ouellet is no pushover. As a youth, he played hockey and fought forest fires. He is smart, highly educated and canny enough to prosper at the highest levels in the labyrinthine corridors of the Vatican. Ouellet also has convictions of steel. And he’s willing to calmly but firmly share the Vatican’s conservative positions against homosexuality, female priests, married priests, divorce, abortion and contraception. He knows most Canadians disagree with him. He’s used to a country where most residents no longer stand in awe of Catholic authority. And where many, especially in Quebec, mock it. Since the church in La Motte became a community centre, only 25 people show up in the building on Sunday for a makeshift mass. Most of his siblings aren’t practising the faith. One of Ouellet’s brothers, Roch, was recently quoted saying the Catholic Church must learn not to try to impose itself on people who seek freedom. So, other than a public outcry in Quebec over Ouellet’s declaration that abortion is a moral crime even in the case of rape, he has generally learned to avoid heavy-handed pronouncements. GENTLER APPROACH The head of the history department at Simon Fraser University, Hilmar Pabel, says Ouellet reflects “a very Canadian church, especially when compared with the U.S. “The stereotype of the Canadian church is that it’s always nice. It doesn’t rock the boat so much. It doesn’t blow its own horn like the American church,” says Pabel, a practising Catholic. Canadian bishops tend to avoid in-your-face conservative stands like those taken by the New York cardinal, Timothy Dolan, said Pabel. Before the 2012 presidential elections, Dolan led an aggressive national campaign against a new regulation stipulating employees of religious institutions receive contraceptive health coverage. Canada’s bishops, working in part through the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, often highlight a different approach – and different issues. “They have a pretty high profile in social justice around the world,” including for poverty reduction and against oppression, Pabel said. “The church does this in a very modest and respectful way.” UNEASE IN THE CHURCH It’s far too strong to say the Catholic Church is in crisis in Canada. But there is unease and unpredictable change. Most of it has to do with sexual scandal, views on sex and gender that offend liberals and secularists, and homegrown Canadians turning their back on the Catholic fold. The flip side is that Canadian-born Catholics are being replaced by immigrants, typically from Asia. So are most Canadian-born priests. Imported clergy, hailing from places as different as Poland and Vietnam, are commonplace throughout the country. Does that make the Canadian Catholic Church “cosmopolitan?” It’s one of the words experts are using to describe Ouellet’s strengths. It’s a quality Ouellet has no doubt gained in part by his roots in multicultural Canada. As pope, a Canadian cardinal has a better chance than most cardinals of understanding the world’s far-flung Catholics, because the world, through increased immigration, has already arrived in this country.
Contact: dtodd@vancouversun.com
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