Le chapelet en famille

One of the Archbishop's first moves was to give a unique impulse to Marian worship in our milieu. He created "Le chapelet en famille", a 15-minute family prayer on the radio every evening that began in the fall of 1950. A moment of prayer to the Virgin Mary and a meditation on the Christian life, which brought together an immense invisible audience to which the Archbishop addressed himself after the family supper. The experience of reciting the Rosary on the airwaves still lasts: it has entered its fifty-first year.

Social commitments

From the very beginning of his episcopate, Msgr. Léger's social preoccupations were affirmed in public interventions, in bold personal commitments, in interventions, and in commitments that took the form of concrete ecclesial initiatives before the era of socialization.

The list of his initiatives includes the Foyer de Charité founded in 1951 and entrusted to the direction of Father Ovila Bélanger of the Hôpital Saint-Charles-Borromée, the object of the “Grande Corvée” of 1955, which since then has welcomed thousands of chronically ill people.

Cardinalate and legacies

On November 29, 1952, Msgr. Paul-Émile Léger was appointed Cardinal by Pope Pius XII. This was a first in the history of the diocese. The faithful were in joy, especially during the Consistory held in Rome on January 12, 1953, and throughout the religious and civic receptions organized on the return to Montreal of the new “Prince of the Church”.

Founding of organizations

Cardinal Léger worked to renew or set up diocesan organizations needed in those times. Thus was born the Service diocésain des cours sur la Bible in May 1951 as a response to the growing desire of the faithful to know the Scripture better.

In January 1952, he opened the Inquiry Forum, an information centre on the Church, with Fr. Irénée Beaubien, S.J., which gave birth to a Diocesan Commission for Ecumenism (1962) and then later the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism (1963).

The diocesan Synod, promulgated (according to the expression of the time) on December 9, 1953, put new mechanisms in place for the diocesan curia. It featured the creation of the Offices which, since then, under often modified names, have become important bodies in the Church of Montreal: Office of the clergy, Office of the religious, Office of education, Office of works... A new method of remunerating priests was introduced: salaried employment for all, including parish priests.