Most Reverend Michael Miller Becomes Archbishop of Vancouver

Monday, January 05 2009

(CCCB – Ottawa) – On 2 January 2009, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Most Rev. Raymond Roussin, S.M., Archbishop of Vancouver. Archbishop Roussin, who turned 69 in June 2008, is leaving office for reasons of health.  With this announcement, Most Rev. Michael Miller, C.S.B., who has been Coadjutor Archbishop since 1 June 2007, became the new Archbishop of Vancouver.

(CCCB – Ottawa) – On 2 January 2009, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Most Rev. Raymond Roussin, S.M., Archbishop of Vancouver. Archbishop Roussin, who turned 69 in June 2008, is leaving office for reasons of health.  With this announcement, Most Rev. Michael Miller, C.S.B., who has been Coadjutor Archbishop since 1 June 2007, became the new Archbishop of Vancouver.

Archbishop Miller was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on 9 July 1946, and ordained to the priesthood by Pope Paul VI on 29 June 1975.

A member of the Congregation of St. Basil (C.S.B.) since 1965, he received a bachelor’s degree in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, in 1974. Two years later, he received a licentiate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and, in 1979, his doctoral degree.

From 1979 to 1992, he was professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Houston, Texas.  From 1992 to 1997, he worked in the Vatican Secretariat of State before returning to the University of St. Thomas, where he held the position of President.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed him Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, at the same time naming him Archbishop.  The Congregation for Catholic Education oversees norms for seminaries, Catholic universities and colleges, and Catholic schools. On 1 June 2007, he was named Coadjutor Archbishop of Vancouver.

The Archdiocese of Vancouver is served by 189 diocesan and religious priests, 143 religious Brothers and Sisters, and one permanent deacon serving a population of approximately 402,310 Catholics in 90 parishes and missions.