For the most part, we can say the Catholic Church has done its share to make this a better world, and done this very well despite a few hiccups here and there.

But for such a large organization, spread over every continent, across vast lands, to do so, it must have strong leadership, led by upstanding people with a strong moral compass. In the Archdiocese of Toronto, we can gladly say this has been the case with our leaders over the years, dating back to our first Bishop Michael Power in the 1840s — a man who gave his life as he ministered to the sick in the fever sheds along the lakeshore — and the men who have taken the bishops’ crosier since.

For most of us, seeing the good these men have done is very subtle, and we often take it for granted. Our Catholic education system, the legacy of our leading hospitals, taking care of the downtrodden and vulnerable, the Church has been at the forefront and much of the credit lies with those who have been at the helm of the Archdiocese.

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It would be hard to know this in today’s world, where secularism is the altar that most worship at. But when you have worked inside the Church structures, it is something you see on a daily basis. I’ve been blessed in my years working with The Catholic Register to work under two Cardinal Archbishops, the late Aloysius Ambrozic and the recently retired Cardinal Thomas Collins, while also seeing the good works done by Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter, whose influence was everywhere even though he may not have been heading the diocese.

Now we have Cardinal Francis Leo stepping into the shoes of these men. He certainly has some big shoes to fill, but I have all the confidence he serves in the same way as his predecessors.

The one thing that all these men shared in common as they ran Canada’s largest archdiocese? Unquestionably, they were all good, moral men.

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Cardinal Carter, for many of my generation, will always be remembered for fighting for fairness for Catholic students when it came to funding. We all remember the uneven playing field between Catholic and public schools, and how even though our parents paid their taxes like everyone else, our schools were underfunded compared to public schools, and when it came to Grade 11 and beyond, tuition was the order of the day for those who wished to carry on with a Catholic education. 

But it was the efforts of Cardinal Carter and many others that brought a change of heart to those in power who finally recognized the system was unfair and needed to be changed. For this, so many are thankful.

Cardinal Ambrozic — then still an archbishop — was the first of these men I worked under. As chair of the Register’s board, the one thing he demanded of us was to stress social justice, and it was something you saw, however subtly, in how he ran the Archdiocese. Naturally shy, he was a man of few words when your paths crossed, but you knew by the works of the clergy, laymen and laywomen of Toronto that looking out for the good of all was instilled from the top.

The good of all was also embedded in how Cardinal Collins perceived the Church’s work in Toronto. Again, not a man you would see around the hallways all that often in a building where his office was only two floors from ours. But that was because you knew he was a busy man. He was everywhere, on the road constantly throughout the Archdiocese and at the Vatican, working for the good of one and all, in Toronto and the world. And he was a man who led by example. While his predecessors lived in homes owned by the Archdiocese, Cardinal Collins chose to humbly lay his head each night at the rectory at St. Michael’s Cathedral, just an ordinary priest sharing life with those who followed the same path.

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Yes, all these men are and were good men, and we can only expect the same of Cardinal Leo. Though he’s only been with us in Toronto a short while, you can see he is made from the same cloth as those who came before him. He’s a shepherd who has been out there, getting to know and serve his flock as best one can in following the path of the true Good Shepherd. 

Congratulations to a good man, and may you embrace the goodness that has been a tradition of our leaders in Toronto and walk with it, for the greater good.