Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto took possession of his titular
church Oct. 23, celebrating an evening Mass at St. Patrick's Church in
Rome.
"Now, after 40 years of ordination to the priesthood, I am, in a
certain sense, becoming a parish priest," the cardinal said in his
homily.
Cardinal Collins, who became a cardinal in February, was assigned to
be honorary pastor of the Irish national church in Rome, which is
entrusted to the Augustinian order.
All cardinals are given honorary
title to a church in Rome, as a reminder that the early popes were
elected by the city's pastors.
"Although a cardinal relates to the universal church, he is also a
parish priest, and that's something very, very beautiful," the cardinal
told the congregation, which included pilgrims from Toronto and his
former Archdiocese of Edmonton, Alberta, as well as Anne Leahy, Canada's
ambassador to the Vatican.
"The church is universal and the church is always local, like concave
and convex, the universal and local," he said. "Those two must go
together."
The cardinal concelebrated with about 20 priests, including
Archbishops Gerald Lacroix of Quebec, Gerard Pettipas of
Grouard-McLennan, Alberta, and Richard Smith of Edmonton, president of
the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Bishop Lionel Gendron
of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Quebec.
"As Christians, we need to be solid as a community of faith in
building the temple of the Lord," the cardinal said. "But it's not
enough to be stable, solid, joined together. If we were only to do that,
we would miss the point of who we are."
"We need to have that fire, that zeal for evangelization," he said,
pointing to the example of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland. "We are
called to spread that life, that light, that fire, and kindle fire in
the hearts of others."