” “Concern for the decrease in the number of priests in Canada, which "makes it impossible sometimes to celebrate Sunday Mass in some areas" of the country. This was personally expressed by Pope Benedict XVI, as he met this morning in the Vatican the bishops of the ecclesiastic region of Quebec on their visit ad limina, accompanied by the president of the Bishops Assembly, mgr. Gilles Cazabon. The Pope spoke of the mission of the Church in "Canadian society, marked by pluralism, individualism and growing secularism". This resulted in a decrease in the number of calls to priesthood, but the Pope appealed to the Bishops that this decrease and the organisational problems it may cause in the pastoral must not impair "the authenticity of ecclesiology". The key role of the priest said Benedict XVI "must not be played down" and "the importance of the role of laymen" must "never conceal priesthood, which is absolutely irreplaceable for the life of the Church. So, priesthood cannot be trusted to anyone else without impairing the authenticity of the very existence of the Church". (segue)” “
