[Sundaycommunity] Czerny on De Roo

[Arthur Blomme]

Roo – Victoria, Feb 12, 2022

I speak to you today as one who was fortunate to get to know Bishop Remi 
De Roo and be inspired and challenged by him. We knew each other through 
the second half of his long life. So, I am speaking to you now about an 
admired friend. I also bring you the warm greetings of Pope Francis, who 
joins us in mourning and thanksgiving, and who sends his blessing.


Remi De Roo was 38 when Pope John XXIII made him a bishop in October 
1962 – thus, the youngest bishop in the world, and the first sent to the 
Victoria diocese who was born in Western Canada. He attended all four 
sessions of Vatican II.

Remi came across as decisive, frank and even abrasive at times. He was 
also complex, controversial, and faithful to his convictions until the 
end. Above all he was a Council Father who dedicated his subsequent 55 
years to continually rediscovering what it means to live as a Council 
Christian and as a Council Church ... and now indeed as a Synodal Church.


Bishop Remi called himself "a pilgrim of the Second Vatican Council".


  It decisively shaped both his unwavering vision and his lifelong 
mission. His conciliar conscience found expression in various 
directions, but above all it became concrete in his constant habits of 
proximity and closeness, encounter and engagement. He believed that the 
Church in Canada should divest itself of its instinctual suspicion of 
the modern world, and instead always seek to dialogue with contemporary 
culture, to accompany the path of ongoing cultural and social 
transformation, and to enlighten society with the "living substance" of 
the Gospel.


I believe that the following elements were key to Bishop Remi’s pastoral 
choices:


● The decision to visit the indigenous communities of his diocese, with 
whom he maintained a sincere bond of friendship throughout his life.
● His commitment to the promotion of social justice, which led him - as 
chairman of the Canadian bishops' social justice committee - to question 
the political world about its social policies and the business community 
about its responsibilities.
● Encouraging lay people to become aware of their dignity as baptized 
persons and of the responsibilities they were called to play in the 
Church as protagonists of the apostolate, not merely as recipients of 
the proclamation.
● Promoting the role of women; rejecting the patriarchal models that 
confine them to subordinate positions and offend their human 
and baptismal dignity.
● Finally, the care given to ordained ministers who had chosen to leave 
the ministry. Against the stigmatization that made them reprobates and 
outcasts, Bishop Remi manifested a Church that knows how to be "mother" 
to all.

Bishop De Roo’s progressive stances and apostolic service were greatly 
appreciated by some and greatly disparaged by others. He remained 
constant in spite of a degree of marginalization and hostility, even 
within the Church. Difficulties of a different order arose in the 
administration of the goods of the diocese of Victoria. In response to 
the criticisms, a friend of his wrote a whole book about his 
“Vindication” with the sub-title “Political Sea-change in the Catholic 
Church”.

What of us here, now? When confronted with the death of a life-long 
brother, let alone one of our senior elders, our faith in the Risen Lord 
spurs us to reflect on ourselves and to remember that Divine Judgment 
takes place in the here and now, in our daily decisions about Christ, 
with or without him, for or against him.


Our farewell for Bishop De Roo questions us about our adherence to the 
Lord Jesus who said “When I was hungry you gave me to eat". We mustn’t 
just sit here. Let us review our lives on both the individual and 
ecclesial levels. Let us give thanks for Vatican II and align with its 
mission of evangelization. Let us recall


● that above all, collegiality is made up of closeness, openness to 
dialogue, patience, and a cordial welcome that does not condemn.
● that belonging to the Church today is based more than ever on fidelity 
to the Council and on attention to the human heart, to community, to the 
common home, with ears and eyes attentive to the "signs of the times" 
that continually reveal the presence of the One to Come.
● that the rediscovery of synodality must inject new energy into every 
area of pastoral response: catechetics, liturgy, family, employment, 
justice, culture, social life, charity, ...

Let us recall too that if we affiliate with elites instead of trusting 
in the Lord and opting for the poor; if we huddle for assurance within 
our own closed groups instead of going out to the existential 
peripheries; then we end up far from the people of God and outside of 
real communion with the Catholic Church.

The time is now to reflect, meditate and pray on all these things, 
whether we are young in the Church or approaching 98 years of vigorous 
age. The words of Pope Francis two Sundays ago, to a group of lay people 
engaged in catechesis, are an excellent guide to this moment, this time:


● “This is the time to be the artisans of open communities that know how 
to value the talents of each person.
● It is a time for free and disinterested missionary communities, which 
do not seek prominence and advantage, but rather walk the paths of the 
people of our time, stooping to tend to those on the margins.
● It is a time for communities that look disappointed young people in 
the eye, that welcome strangers and give hope to the disheartened.
● It is a time for communities that fearlessly engage in dialogue with 
those with different ideas.
● It is a time for communities that, like the Good Samaritan, know how 
to approach those wounded by life, to bind their wounds with compassion.”

The Holy Father could easily have had our beloved Bishop Remi in mind 
when, with a certain tough love, he spelled out these challenges. With 
the intercession of our beloved ancestor, let us – even with the risk of 
being, once in a while, just a little bit irritating – embrace them with 
firm resolve and inextinguishable hope! Amen.


Sent from my iPhone
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