Canadian bishops in for a scolding during their Ad Limina visits?

LifeSiteNews reports:

All is Not Ok With Canadian Church

TORONTO, August 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation daily newspaper, published an Aug. 3 story, “Bishops expect papal scolding”, that has been receiving international attention. The article implies that Canada’s Catholic bishops are seen by the Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI as having been negligent in their duty to evangelize in an increasingly secular Canada.

The Ontario Catholic bishops are expected in Rome for their “ad limina” visit, the meetings with the pope made every five years by bishops from around the world. The Star’s Stuart Laidlaw says the bishops are expecting to be pushed for greater evangelization by Benedict and scolded for the growing secularism within the Church and the nation.

The star quotes Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops (OCCB) president Bishop Richard Smith who states he “wouldn’t be surprised,” if the Pope were to touch upon the secularism theme. Smith, however, takes the usual tack of Canada’s Catholic bishops in brushing over any suggestion of serious problems within the Church itself.

“It is something that is part of our reality in Ontario as well," Smith told the Star. “In the church there are many people of faith who love the church and are deeply committed. But it is a society as a whole that is tending toward a secularist outlook.”

The Star cited Pope Benedict’s admonition to the Atlantic bishops in the spring during their ad limina, about the need to evangelize and the dangers of rampant Canadian secularism, a statement which was taken in the press as a public dressing down.

Despite Bishop Smith’s bland assertion that all is well within Canadian Catholicism, however, recent events indicate a very different conclusion. In statements, actions and inactions, the Canadian Catholic institution has shown itself to be among the most secularized in the world. The indifference or even hostility of Catholic officials to Catholic teaching, particularly on life and family issues, is axiomatic among faithful Catholics in Canada.

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Ultimately, the solution to the severe problems in the Catholic Church in Canada may be from the faithful laity. They have so far been far too timid about their Catholic right to insist that abuses be corrected, to appeal to their bishops to do the job for which they have been consecrated, and to withhold donations until needed changes are made. Most wrongly think they are not supposed to do such things. Church history, however, is full of examples where lay Catholics have prayerfully acted and turned wayward bishops back in the right direction.

[full article.]