Archbishop Pierre-André Fournier of Rimouski, who is president of the Catholic Bishops Assembly of Quebec, spent a day last week protesting against a cut in unemployment benefits.

He told reporters:

"I spent last Sunday in the Valley of the Matapédia where I shared a meal of soup and bread with 175 people, not even a bit of baloney (sausage)!



"The people unanimously launched a cry of concern concerning the future of their region. On Tuesday, by express delivery letter to Minister Diane Finely with a petition signed by a group of persons on the shared leadership of our diocese expressing a cry for help... and saying that I could not in all justice stay silent about the reform of employment insurance.

"The petition says that this reform is an indisputable danger for the diocese of Rimouski," Archbishop Fournier declared before a crowd of 1500 people who were demonstrating in front of the Center for Employment Insurance in Rimouski.

 Archbishop Fournier was also the president of the fundraising campaign of the Fondation JOC (YCW Foundation) in 2011-12.