Bishop Lacroix to succeed Cardinal Ouellet in Quebec City

QUEBEC CITY - The search for Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s replacement came to an end on Feb. 22 when the Vatican announced that Bishop Gerald Lacroix will become the new archbishop of Quebec.

Lacroix, 53, had been acting as diocesan administrator to the archdiocese since Pope Benedict XVI named Ouellet the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and transferred the cardinal in August to Rome. Among Ouellet’s duties is to advise the Pope on the appointment of bishops.

Lacroix was ordained as an auxiliary in Quebec by Ouellet in 2009 and the two worked side-by-side until Ouellet’s departure.

As archbishop of Quebec, Canada’s oldest diocese, Lacroix will be called the Primate of the Church of Canada, an honorific title, said a spokesperson from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“It is with great joy and humility that I accept to serve with my whole heart the Church of Quebec in continuing to give my life to proclaiming the Gospel,” said Lacroix, the 15th archbishop of Quebec.  

A member of the Quebec-based Pius X Secular Institute, Lacroix was born in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset, Que., the eldest in a family of seven. After earning a master’s degree in pastoral theology at Laval University, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1988 and spent a decade in Colombia doing missionary work.

The Vatican also announced the appointment of Bishop Gilles Lemay, formerly an auxiliary bishop in Quebec, as bishop of Amos. He succeeds Bishop Eugene Tremblay, who is retiring.