Paul-Émile Léger

infobox cardinalbiog
name = Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger, PSS †


See = Montreal (Emeritus)
Title = Archbishop emeritus of Montreal
Period = March 25, 1950—April 20, 1968
cardinal = January 12, 1953
Predecessor = Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau †
Successor = Paul Cardinal Grégoire †
post = Rector of Pontifical Canadian College | date of birth = April 26, 1904
place of birth = Valleyfield, Canada
date of death = November 13, 1991
place of death = Montreal, Canada |

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
relstyle=Cardinal
See=Montreal (emeritus)|

Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger, PSS (April 26, 1904—November 13, 1991) was a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1968, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.

Biography

Paul-Émile Léger was born in Valleyfield. From 1916 to 1925, he attended the Seminary of Sainte-Thérèse, but was forced to interrupt his studies for a period of four years due to illness. Léger entered the Jesuit novitiate at Sault-au-Récollet, but was considered too emotional to continue as in that order.

After attending the Seminary of Montreal (from where he obtained a licentiate in theology in 1929), he was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1929. Léger then joined the Society of Saint-Sulpice, entering its novitiate in Issy-les-Moulineaux. He went on to study at the Catholic Institute of Paris, and received his doctorate in canon law in 1931. He taught theology at Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Paris for a year, and served as assistant Master of Novices from 1932 to 1933, when he was sent to Japan to create a seminary in Fukuoka for the formation of indigenous priests. Léger did pastoral work in Omuta and taught philosophy at his seminary until 1939. Returning to Canada during World War II, he was Professor of Sociology in Montreal and Professor of Apologetics at the Institute Pius XI from 1939 to 1940.

In 1940 he was named Vicar General of Valleyfield, and was raised to the rank of Monsignor on September 29, 1942. Léger had to temporarily leave the Society of Saint-Sulpice upon assuming his diocesan duites, but later entered the Society again in 1947, when he also became rector of the Pontifical Canadian College in Rome.

On March 25, 1950, he was named Archbishop of Montreal by Pope Pius XII [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934890,00.html Change of Command] April 3, 1950] . Léger received his episcopal consecration on the following April 26 from Adeodato Cardinal Piazza, OCD, with Archbishop Maurice Roy and Bishop Jean-Julien Weber, PSS, serving as co-consecrators. He was created Cardinal Priest of "S. Maria degli Angeli" by Pius XII in the consistory of January 12, 1953, and was one of the electors in the 1958 papal conclave, which selected Pope John XXIII. During his tenure in Montreal, he also prohibited his clergy from retaining membership in Rotary clubs [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888919-2,00.html Worldly Rotary] January 22, 1951] .

The Cardinal was a leading liberal force at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), during which he supported religious liberty, permission for birth control [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844105,00.html A Cardinal for a Leper Colony] November 17, 1967] , and the equality of conjugal love and procreation in marriage [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876412,00.html No More Galileos] November 6, 1964] . He believed that the Council Fathers needed to issue a stronger declaration against anti-Semitism as a "necessary act of a renewed Church" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939536,00.html A Test of Good Will] October 9, 1964] . A cardinal elector in the 1963 papal conclave, Léger spoke at a session of the Faith and Order Commission in September 1963 [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870338,00.html Chats Under a Hot Tin Roof] August 2, 1963] . With the assistance of Cardinals Antonio Caggiano and Norman Gilroy, he delivered one of the closing messages of the Council on December 8, 1965 [Christus Rex. [http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/v19.html To Men of Though and Science] ] .

Léger resigned as Montreal's archbishop on April 20, 1968 to perform missionary work in Africa among lepers and handicapped children [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902586,00.html The Cardinal and the Lepers] May 16, 1969] .

In 1968 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the conclaves of August and October 1978, which selected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II respectively.In 1985, he was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He was the 1979 recipient of the first Pearson Medal of Peace for his humanitarian work.From May 2, 1989 until his death, he was the Cardinal Protopriest, or the longest-serving member of the order of Cardinal Priests.

Léger died from pneumonia at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, at age 87. His funeral Mass was celebrated by Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte. He was the last surviving cardinal elevated by Pope Pius XII.

Trivia

*Before becoming a priest, Léger worked as a mechanic, railroad worker, and butcher.
*His father Ernest was a local storekeeper, and his brother Jules was a career diplomat who eventually became Governor General of Canada in 1974.
*Léger sought the enforcement of Canada's laws against liquor, bingo, lotteries, and bachelor parties [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817551-2,00.html 24 Hats] December 8, 1952] .
*He supported Archbishop Roy's banning of Fr. Georges-Henri Lévesque from the Canadian Parliament [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,823735,00.html The Church Said No] February 7, 1955] .
*Many Catholic schools at the elementary and secondary level in Canada are named for him.

References

External links

* [http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/pearson/1979.asp Pearson Medal of Peace - Cardinal Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger]

s-ttl|title=Archbishop of Montreal
years=1950–1968