Pope Francis appoints special envoy for Quebec Archdiocese’s 350th anniversary celebrations

Rome Newsroom, Sep 17, 2024 / 14:05 pm

To mark the 350th anniversary of the establishment of the Archdiocese of Quebec in Canada, Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of Marseille, France, as the Holy See’s special envoy for the archdiocese’s jubilee celebrations to take place Sept. 20–22. 

Last year, the Quebec Archdiocese opened a special jubilee year — Dec. 8, 2023, to Dec. 8, 2024 — to mark the historic occasion of the local Church’s founding and growth over the centuries. Throughout the holy year, a variety of events and conferences have been organized by the archdiocese for jubilee pilgrims. 

Over the Sept. 20–22 weekend, Catholics are invited to participate in the celebration of a solemn Mass and other spiritual and cultural programs to celebrate the Church’s historic milestone in the country.

Among the weekend events, family activities at Quebec’s Notre-Dame-de-Québec Cathedral Basilica and in Montreal’s historic square Place d’Youville have been included in the archdiocese’s artistic itinerary. French faith-based music group Glorious will also be performing at the concert hall Le Capitole.

In a letter to Aveline, the pope asked the French prelate to give “words of spiritual encouragement” and impart his papal blessing to the Quebecois Catholic faithful participating in this weekend’s solemn Mass and jubilee festivities in the French Canadian province.

“With the providential grace of God, the archdiocese has welcomed gradual growth, both artistic and spiritual, over the decades,” reads the Sept. 17 letter of the pope. “Due thanks must be paid for the impulse and energy of the faithful with whom it arose and is still thriving.”

In 1674, Quebec became the first Catholic diocese in Canada after it was elevated from an apostolic vicariate of the Church’s missions to New France in the mid-17th century. 

Now, more than three centuries after the founding of the archdiocese, approximately 1 million out of a total population of 1.3 million people in the eastern Canadian province are Catholic. 

In the same letter to Aveline, the Holy Father also encouraged Catholics in Quebec to approach their special jubilee — a holy year of recollection, repentance, indulgence, conversion, and grace — with an attitude of conversion toward God.

“In this year dedicated to the foundation of the remarkable cathedral church, all participants will be exhorted that, just as all created things are directed to their Founder [Jesus Christ], they should of their own accord direct themselves to him, the first truth and the highest good,” the pope said in his letter.

Throughout the special jubilee year, Canadian Catholics have the opportunity to undertake a pilgrimage that begins in La Malbaie and ends at the Holy Door of the basilica in Quebec City.