Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe talks Catholic church history in new book

A new book about the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie features churches throughout the region and previous bishops.

The book features the history of the diocese, profiles about previous bishops and the current bishop, Jean-Louis Plouffe.

Profiles are also featured about the different churches throughout the diocese, which spans from the Nipissing District, across through Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie and around Lake Superior to Thunder Bay.

​Plouffe recently spoke on CBC's Morning North about the book, the chapter in the book about him and the current state of the Catholic Church in northern Ontario.

He said when it comes to the future of the church, there are two difficult topics to address, including closing churches.

“Closing churches is not easy,” he said.

Plouffe said the other difficult topic is sexual abuse.

“I must admit that I found closing the churches harder to deal with than the sexual abuse,” he said.

“The closing of churches … personally, I initiate. Sexual abuse, I dealt with, I had to deal with. But it came from outside.”

He said the church is still dealing with ways to compensate the victims and said the whole church still hurts from this issue.

He said the history of sexual abuse in the church is totally unacceptable.

“It’s hard to deal with,” he said. “You know … that it’s not easy to make up for the damage. It stays with people.”

As for the future of the religion, Plouffe said the church needs to work to get closer to people.

“It’s very challenging to be a bishop today or to be a minister,” he said.

“We have to learn to sort of try as much as we can, asking God to help us live up to the spirit that we find in the gospel, which I think would help the world in general … to really help … find some other way of looking at some of our challenges today.”