New Bishop in Honduras originally from Canada

Monday, January 28 2013

(CCCB – Ottawa)… His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI named the Reverend Father Guy Charbonneau, P.M.E., as Bishop of Choluteca, Honduras, on January 26, 2013. At the time of his appointment, the Bishop-elect was the Superior General of the Quebec Society of Foreign Missions. The new Bishop succeeds the Most Reverend Guy Plante, P.M.E, whose resignation had been accepted by the Holy Father in July 2012 because of health problems. Since Choluteca became a diocese in 1979, each of its preceding three Bishops was also Canadian and a member of the Quebec Foreign Missions Society.

Bishop-elect Charbonneau was born in 1946 in Montreal and ordained a priest in 1970. After studies in theology and Scripture, he served various pastoral and administrative roles at the parish and diocesan level in Honduras, as well as nationally, until 2003. These included spiritual director of the Minor Seminary of the Diocese of Choluteca, director of youth ministry, diocesan coordinator for vocations, teacher and Rector of the Minor Seminary and then of the Major Seminary of Tegucigalpa, National Director for mission formation and National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. He has served the Society of Foreign Missions as Regional Assistant, Vicar General and, since 2008, Superior General.

The Diocese of Choluteca has a Catholic population of 103,700, which is served by 47 diocesan priests, as well by 166 members of religious communities for women.