Apostolic Administrator Appointed for the Dioceses of Halifax and Yarmouth

Friday, July 13 2007

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI recently appointed Most Reverend Claude Champagne, O.M.I., as Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Halifax and of the Diocese of Yarmouth. This nomination fills the void left by the departure of Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J., who earlier this year had been appointed by the Holy Father as Archbishop of Ottawa and was installed on 26 June 2007.

Bishop Champagne has been Auxiliary Bishop of Halifax for the last four years. As Apostolic Administrator, he will have all the faculties of a diocesan Bishop until a new Bishop is appointed for the Archdiocese of Halifax and the Diocese of Yarmouth.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI recently appointed Most Reverend Claude Champagne, O.M.I., as Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Halifax and of the Diocese of Yarmouth. This nomination fills the void left by the departure of Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J., who earlier this year had been appointed by the Holy Father as Archbishop of Ottawa, and was installed on 26 June 2007.

Bishop Champagne has been Auxiliary Bishop of Halifax for the last four years. As Apostolic Administrator, he will have all the faculties of a diocesan Bishop until a new Bishop is appointed for the Archdiocese of Halifax and the Diocese of Yarmouth.

Born 22 July 1947 at Lachine, Quebec, Bishop Champagne studied philosophy and theology in Ottawa before earning a doctorate in mission studies at the Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1975.

After his ordination in 1975 as a member of the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.), he was a professor at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, and was involved in pastoral and vocational work, especially with youth. He was also closely associated with the Cursillo movement in the French sector of the Archdiocese of Ottawa, and worked in two parishes in Eastern Ontario.

The Archdiocese of Halifax has 63 diocesan priests, 12 priests, 244 Brothers and Sisters who are members of religious orders, 29 permanent deacons and 24 lay pastoral ministers serving a Catholic population of 161,000 in 74 parishes and missions. The Diocese of Yarmouth has 37,000 Catholics in 39 parishes and missions, served by 28 diocesan priests, 16 women religious, three permanent deacons and four lay pastoral ministers.