Marc Ouellet

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Cardinal Ouellet.

Marc Cardinal Ouellet (born June 8, 1944) is a Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Quebec City and Primate of Canada. He became a cardinal on October 21, 2003.

He was born on June 8, 1944 in La Motte, a small village near the city of Amos in northern Quebec (Canada). After spending most of his priestly career as a professor and rector in seminaries, he entered the Roman Curia as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity in 2001, Pope John Paul II personally consecrating him a bishop. On November 15, 2002 he became Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada, and has been one of the most faithful defenders of the Catholic faith in the Canadian hierarchy. He has suggested that changes around the Quiet Revolution in Quebec in the 1960s went too far.

Ouellet is associated with Communio, a journal of theology established by moderate-to-conservative Catholics after the Second Vatican Council, and with Hans Urs von Balthasar, a renowned twentieth century Swiss theologian. Ouellet has supported a return to Eucharistic adoration and Gregorian chant.

Ouellet is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. He is known for his missionary work in South America.

He was eligible to vote (a cardinal elector) in the 2005 papal conclave. Numerous observers had said Ouellet was papabile himself. A report from the National Catholic Reporter, anticipating the 2005 papal election, placed Ouellet among twenty papal possibilities ."[P]eople who have worked with Ouellet," said the report, "describe him as friendly, humble and flexible, and a man not so captive to his own intellectual system as to make him incapable of listening to others." A report said that Ouellet had supported Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI.

A Eucharistic Congress will take place in 2008 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City. Pope Benedikt XVI is scheduled to take part in the festivities.