CCCB Delegation is in Rome for the Conference’s Annual Visit

Monday, November 10 2014

(CCCB-Ottawa)… A delegation from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is currently in Rome, November 10 to 20, 2014, for the annual meetings with the offices of the Holy See. The Most Reverend Paul-André Durocher, Archbishop of Gatineau and CCCB President, is leading the Canadian delegation, which also includes the Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton and CCCB Vice President, and Mr. Bede Hubbard, English-language Assistant General Secretary, representing Msgr. Patrick Powers, P.H., CCCB General Secretary. During their visit, they will be received by Pope Francis in a private audience on November 15.

In light of the past year of the life of the Church in Canada, the 2014 Annual Visit will be a time of thanksgiving for the CCCB and a chance to express to the Holy Father the deep appreciation of the Bishops of the country for recognizing Bishop François de Laval and Mother Marie of the Incarnation as Saints of the Universal Church. Both were important founders of the Church in Canada. The celebrations surrounding the 350th anniversary of the canonical erection of the Parish of Notre Dame de Québec, as well as the opening of the Holy Door, have given the Church in Canada the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the examples of the two new Saints in evangelizing North America.

While in Rome, the CCCB delegation will meet with more than a dozen dicasteries of the Holy See. These include the Secretariat of State, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for Bishops, the Congregation for Clergy, the Congregation of the Oriental Churches, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, and the Pontifical Council for the Family.