Oscar Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, a leading Church prelate, came to Montreal last month as a gesture of gratitude to the Canadian Church for supporting the development of the Church in his native Honduras.
In the 1950s, the Canadian bishops funded the construction of the Central American country¹s major seminary and staffed it with diocesan priests, many of them from Quebec. In 1955, the Vatican assigned the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec, commonly known as the PME, to a region of the large Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa. The Quebec bishops founded the PME in 1921 to serve as missionaries in the developing world. The PME worked in an area of Tegucigalpa called Choluteca, which eventually became its own diocese in 1979. Since then, Choluteca has been headed by Quebec-born bishops belonging to the PME.
While in Montreal, the cardinal-archbishop of Tegucigalpa gave a two-day evangelization conference on the theme of the laity in the Church. About 600 people attended the Spanish sessions Nov. 3-4 at the Latin-American Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.
The 63-year-old cardinal explained in an interview how the laity must be encouraged to live their faith more actively outside their parishes. "They need to fulfil their role in a world that is becoming more and more secularized. The disciples of Christ must become missionaries," he said in fluent English, one of his eight languages.
Christians today must imitate the first Christians, he continued. "When Peter was in Rome, it was pagan. But Christians witnessed to a different life and they were able to change the culture into something different.
"Some voices say the time of Christianity is over and now it is the time of man. This has been the temptation since the opening pages of Genesis, and it will continue to be until Christians are convinced of their faith."
The cardinal underlined the importance of ongoing faith formation among the laity. He also spoke of the urgent need to present young people with ideals. Many young people are asking questions and seeking the meaning of life, he said, and it is important to offer discipleship as an answer.
The cardinal proposed a new pastoral model for youth, based on Lectio Divina (prayer with Scripture).
Parishes throughout Honduras have organized weekly Lectio Divina gatherings for young people, and the turnout has been "marvelous," he recounted. A similar initiative in Milan has even drawn young people who do not attend church regularly. There is a desire among youth to know the Word of God, he said.
A Salesian, the cardinal visited with the local Salesian priests at Maria Ausiliatrice Mission in Riviere-des-Prairies and dropped into the Faith Enrichment Conference, organized by the archdiocese¹s Office for English Pastoral Services.

‹ Report by Laura Ieraci, taken from December Catholic Times