OTTAWA, May 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “I am committed to work with everyone who wants to work so that we can protect life from conception to natural death,” said Canadian Primate, Quebec City Archbishop Gerald Lacroix, to 840 youth at the sold-out Youth Rose Dinner following the March for Life last week. Thanks to the efforts of Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast a dozen Canadian bishops attended the 2011 National March for Life, joining more than 15,000 Canadians.
The pope’s representative in Canada, the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, celebrated one of the opening Masses for the March for Life and several other bishops led services at overflow churches.
Archbishop Lacroix celebrated the French-language Mass. At the youth Rose dinner, Lacroix was jubilant and said he was “very moved” addressing the crowd of youth. He confessed that it was his first March for Life, pointing out that he had only been Archbishop in Quebec for less than two month and a bishop for less than two years, and to the cheers of the youth said he was the youngest bishop in the province of Quebec.
“What a crowd of people in love with life we saw today,” he said. “I want to congratulate you and I want to tell you how your Church is proud of you we count on you people to work with us to continue to make life be every day more respected in our great country.”
He added: “In Quebec, the French-speaking province, we have a lot of homework to do to step up the pace and work for the respect of life in our good province.”
In addition to Archbishops Prendergast, Lopez, and Lacroix, the following bishops also took part in the March for Life:
Archbishop Brendan O’Brien, Archdiocese of Kingston
Archbishop Thomas Collins, Toronto
Bishop Nicola De Angelis, C.F.I.C., Diocese of Peterborough
Bishop Noël Simard, Diocese of Sault-Ste-Marie
Bishop Michael Mulhall, Diocese of Pembroke
Bishop Paul-André Durocher, Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall
Eparch Stephen Chmilar, Toronto and Eastern Canada Ukrainian Eparchy
Eparch John Pazak, C.Ss.R., Eparch of the Byzantine Slovak Church
Bishop Bryan Bayda, CSsR, Ukrainian Eparchy of Saskatoon
Concluding his remarks to the youth, Archbishop Lacroix left them a challenge: “Please accept not only my congratulations but accept also to be ambassadors of life every day of this upcoming year.”
See a video of Archbishop LaCroix’s talk