Pope Benedict XVI has appointed the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet to represent him in Dublin, Ireland, at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress this June.Before taking up his post in Rome, Card. Ouellet was Archbishop of Quebec, Canada, which hosted the last Congress in 2008.
In fact, Pope Benedict announced his choice of Dublin for the 50th edition in a live video message broadcast at the closing mass or Statio orbis, on the Plains of Abraham just outside the capital.
Welcoming the Pope’s appointment of Card. Ouellet, Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said it coincides with the launch of a new stage in the preparation for the Congress which runs from June 10th to 17th.
The final 50 days before the Congress will be celebrated as “The Archdiocese of Dublin in Mission”, an intense moment of renewal of every aspect of Church life. The Archbishop said “he hopes “the Congress will be an occasion to show-case what is happening pastorally in the Archdiocese and to give a warm welcome to the thousands of guests coming from overseas. My hope is that anyone in Dublin during the week of the Congress will be taken up by the signs of renewal that are visible in the Irish Church”.
Archbishop Martin added that the Congress should not be seen as an isolated event but as an important moment in the renewal of the Church which is taking place now and will continue after the Congress.
Archbishop Martin said he was particularly pleased at the nomination of Cardinal Ouellet: “As Archbishop of Quebec, Cardinal Ouellet had to face a very similar social and pastoral context to that which we have in Dublin, where traditional Catholicism was challenged by a rapid secularisation. He was a strong voice for the Church in that changing situation. The Quebec Eucharistic Congress, though low key, impacted on Church and society, fostering unity of purpose and renewing evangelisation. One legacy of the Quebec Congress is that fact the over 1000 Canadian pilgrims will be coming to Dublin in June.”
Ireland and Papal Legates:
The Papal Legate to the 31st International Eucharistic Congress, which was celebrated in Dublin in 1932, was the Roman-born Cardinal Lorenzo Lauri, who arrived in Dun Laoghaire by mail boat after the long overland journey from Rome.
Cardinal Lauri was awarded the freedom of Dublin City during the Congress. No details of Cardinal Ouellet’s arrival have been announced to date.
The Patrician Congress which was celebrated in 1961 to mark the 1,500th anniversary of the death of St Patrick, was not a major international event like the Eucharistic Congress, but it did attract the appointment of a Papal Legate for the Patrician Congress, Cardinal Grégoire-Pierre Agagianian, a native of Georgia on the eastern frontier of Europe.
Agagianian was one of those most closely involved at that time in the management of the Second Vatican Council.
In mediaeval times papal legates were occasionally appointed to settle disputes about authority and diocesan boundaries.
The best known of these was St Malachy, the first canonised Irish Saint, who was appointed Papal Legate in 1139 and sent back to Ireland to finalise agreement on diocesan boundaries and ecclesiastical provinces.
The structures which he established then have been substantially maintained up to the present day.