Canadian Council of Churches: Bishop André Vallée of Hearst Elected President

Friday, May 05 2000

(CCCB- Ottawa) — Most Rev. André Vallée, PME, Bishop of Hearst, has been elected to serve a three-year term as the President of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC). Bishop Vallée succeeds Anglican Archbishop Barry Curtis, recently retired from the Diocese of Calgary and Rupertsland.

Bishop Vallée was elected to the post at the CCC Governing Board’s Triennial Assembly that took place this past week in Edmonton. He is the first Catholic and first Francophone President of the CCC in its 56-year history. The CCCB became a full member of the CCC in 1997.

Bishop Vallée has long been involved at the national and ecumenical levels. Before being named Bishop of Hearst in 1996, he had served as Military Ordinary for 9 years and prior to that as French-language General Secretary at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Other Catholics on the CCC Governing Board include: Bishop Gilles Cazabon, OMI, St. Jerome; Msgr. Peter Schonenbach, CCCB General Secretary; Sister Donna Geernaert, SC, CCCB Director of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations; and André Lalach, Youth and Vocations Ministry, Redemptorists, Winnipeg.