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Update Sept. 23, 2016: Read follow-up report: Canadian archbishop defends award from heretical FutureChurch: I was ‘building bridges’

CLEVELAND, Ohio, September 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian archbishop has agreed to accept an award from a dissident U.S. Catholic group tonight for his work in promoting female deacons within the Catholic Church during the 2015 Family Synod in Rome.

Archbishop Paul-André Durocher of the Gatineau diocese in Quebec will receive the award from FutureChurch for what the group called his “visionary proposal during the 2015 Family Synod in Rome calling on bishops to discuss women deacons and expand leadership for women in the Church including greater opportunities for preaching.”

“Archbishop Durocher's leadership deserves recognition because he calls the Church to fully recognize and engage women's gifts, ministries and leadership, a key component of FutureChurch’s mission,” stated FutureChurch executive director Deborah Rose-Milavec in a press release.

The Archbishop is set to join the FutureChurch ceremony via Skype to accept the “Father Louis J. Trivison Award” and to share with the group his ongoing efforts to make his synod proposals a reality.

Durocher confirmed to the dissident National Catholic Reporter (NCR) yesterday that he will be accepting the award.

“I know that I am being given this award because of my intervention at the Synod last October inviting my brother bishops to study the question of women being ordained to the permanent diaconate,” Durocher told the NCR yesterday.

“This was one of a few proposals I made to recognize the gifts that women can bring to leadership and teaching functions within the Church. The heart of my intervention considered the ongoing violence perpetrated by men against their spouses in a conjugal relationship,” he added.

FutureChurch, founded in Ohio in the early 1990s, aims to “reinvent” the Church from the ground up by “re-convert[ing]” people to what the group’s vision for the “future of the Catholic Church.” FutureChurch and its leaders have advanced views that contradict basic teachings of the Catholic Church on various issues:

LifeSiteNews called and e-mailed Archbishop Durocher to ask why he thinks it important to be honored by a group at odds with Church teaching, but did not receive a response.

Following the Archbishop’s reception of the award, the event will feature a keynote address by Father Charles Curran, who famously joined a revolt among U.S. theologians against Humanae Vitae in 1968. Curran has been investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for his public condemnations of the Church’s teachings on matters such as abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. This month Fr. Curran signed his name to a statement demanding that the Church reverse its teaching against contraception found in Humanae Vitae.  

The conference promotional materials say Curran will reflect on Amoris Laetitia and the role of conscience for Catholics today.

Archbishop Durocher is scheduled to receive the award at 7:00 PM.