Two Auxiliary Bishops Named for Quebec City

Tuesday, April 07 2009

(CCCB – Ottawa) His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI today named two Auxiliary Bishops to the Archdiocese of Quebec City — Rev. Paul Lortie and Rev. Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, I.S.P.X. – to assist His Eminence Marc Cardinal Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City.  Their appointments bring the number of Quebec City Auxiliary Bishops to three, joining Bishop Gilles Lemay who has served in this capacity since 2005.

Born 17 March 1944 in Beauport, Quebec, Father Paul Lortie studied at the Grand Séminaire of Quebec City where he obtained a licentiate in theology. Ordained 16 May 1970, he was named to the Séminaire du Sacré-Coeur in Saint-Victor de Beauce, Quebec, where he served until 1972 when he left to pursue studies at the Institut de catéchèse de Paris and at Laval University, Quebec City. From 1976 on, he worked mainly in education, first in the Archdiocese of Quebec City, then for the Quebec Assembly of Catholic Bishops from 1983 to 1989.  He has held many responsibilities with the Quebec City archdiocesan offices, including the directorship of its offices for vocations, religious, and parishes. From 1995 to 2008 he served as pastor for a number of parishes in the regions of Portneuf and Deschambault as well as in Quebec City. Since March 2008 he has been Episcopal Vicar for the four pastoral regions south of the Saint Lawrence River.

 

Father Gérald Cyprien Lacroix was born 27 July 1957 in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset, Quebec. He attended Laval University where he earned a master’s degree in pastoral theology. A member of the Pius X Secular Institute (I.S.P.X.), he was ordained a priest on 8 October 1988. In 1990, he began missionary work in Colombia, where he assisted in establishing his secular institute there as well as working in a parish and teaching in a seminary.  On returning to Canada in 1998, he became the head of the Pius X Secular Institute, a position he held until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop. Since 2008 Father Lacroix has been on the Executive Council of the World Conference of Secular Institutes.

The Archdiocese of Quebec City has a Catholic population of 917,000 in 223 parishes and missions, served by 432 diocesan priests, 283 religious order priests, 90 permanent deacons, 3,393 religious Sisters and Brothers, and 80 lay pastoral workers.