In the Avant Garde: The Prophetic Catholicism of Remi De Roo by Patrick Jamieson and published by Samarhan Press

This is an extensive collection of information, testimonies, and insights not only about Bishop Remi De Roo but about the Roman Catholic Church in Canada in the second half of the 20th century. The Times Colonist (Jan. 27,’02) for whatever reason headlined it  “Book chronicles bishop’s fall”, but it is much more than that. This book will be consulted by serious researchers when Remi De Roo and Patrick Jamieson are long gone. However, when the reader finds an item of interest, it should be bookmarked because it is hard to find it again amid the wealth of material that Jamieson has included.

The information about the life of Remi De Roo details his youth and family background. Jamieson tells the reader about Remi’s birth and growing up on the farm in Swan Lake, Manitoba. Remi, the second of eight children, was born in 1924. His mother, Josephine, died in 1939 while he was away at college in Saint Boniface. Of his life on the farm, Remi says ”Everybody was busy because there was so much to do. We were a very disciplined family.”

Jamieson recounts the successes of Fr. De Roo in pastoral work, post graduate studies, and teaching. His abilities also brought him into contact with “three giants: Archbishop Hermaniuk, the Ukrainian Eparch; Archbishop Philip Pocock, who later went to Toronto; and Archbishop Baudoux of St. Boniface... the most Christian bishop I’d ever known.” De Roo says “Working with them broadened my mind.”

Pope John XXXlll appointed 38 year old Fr. De Roo Bishop of Victoria,BC. Jamieson comments “Popes pick new bishops to reflect their values, priorities and attitudes; so that their programs will be fully implemented at least during their lifetime... To display his special approval he called him their Benjamin during an audience with the Canadian Bishops... This special anointing near the end time reflected the repetition of a time cycle where the intent of the noble program of the old man was laid on the willing shoulders of the young and able enthusiast.”

Bishop De Roo became part of the Second Vatican Council. He says that his first encounter of the Council sessions “was a little overwhelming (because) there was a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit. You could feel it in the worship.” Because of his nature and style, De Roo was chosen as a spokesperson for the Canadian Bishops’ Team and “He made four oral and thirteen written submissions which effected permanent change in the church’s policy toward conjugal love, hermit life, the role of the priest and the responsibilities of the laity. The rest of his episcopacy would entail the unpacking the implications of these interventions. It is one thing to get ideas on paper, quite another to oversee their successful implementation over decades.”

Jamieson documents De Roo’s impact on the Canadian Church after the Vatican Council. The social affairs policy statements issued by the Canadian Bishops were shaped by him. These policies reflected the social teachings of the universal church, but they often angered national and provincial politicians as well as those who opposed the direction that the Church had taken at the Council.  

In the Diocese of Victoria, De Roo never faltered in his conviction that the future of the Church lay in the directions taken at the Vatican Council. His record is well documented in this book showing that in his vision of the Church he was not the radical liberal that some well meaning people claim but a moderate conservative pursuing the direction that he firmly believed was the work of the Holy Spirit. History is on his side in spite of the “containment period” that was started in the mid-eighties from the centre of the Church.

De Roo put into action the synodal nature of the Church. His major achievement in the diocese was the synod which he called. The whole diocese was heard from and engaged in the process of deciding by discernment and consensus the means of making the Kingdom of God work on Vancouver Island. Not everyone was enthusiastic about his programme and some did their best (out of conviction that it was not Catholic) to thwart his efforts. There are those who believe that “the real problem in the Church is the legacy of the Second Vatican Council...by ditching the ancient Latin Mass...Rome committed an act of vandalism...” (Stuart Reid in The Daily Telegraph) De Roo was patient with everyone. He had confidence in the ordinary catholic people and he listened carefully to their voices. He ratified the 400 decisions made by the whole diocese.

This book is replete with testimonies to the qualities of Bishop De Roo. His attraction to the work of John Henry Cardinal Newman is evidence enough of his intellectual ability, but the list of people who are quoted is long: Gregory Baum, Doug Roche, Mary Jo Leddy, Fr. Bob Ogle, priests of the Diocese of Victoria, media personnel, clergy and members of other denominations, his being chosen as the first chairperson of the BC Human Rights Commission, and so on. Jamieson also reports the words of those such as Larry Henderson who did not like what they saw in De Roo.

Jamieson knows both Bishop De Roo and the Canadian Catholic Church very well. he also knows what the record shows about both in the last 40 years. While I had trouble with his style of writing- That’s the English teacher in me.- In the Avant Garde is a book I will keep to consult. It will be read by many in the future when those who want to consult the history of the Canadian Catholic Church and the way that one of its major figures forged strategies to implement the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.

“The problem of Remi De Roo is the problem of a post-modernist figure in a barely post-medieval institution and one that is doing its best to head back that way. The tension is inexorable yet delicious in its drama. His eventual crucifixion by the very institution that created him was all but inevitable.”