Canada gets new bishops for dioceses in Alberta, Quebec

OTTAWA, Ontario (OSV News) -- With two recent episcopal appointments for Canada made by Pope Francis, the Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan in the province of Alberta is getting a coadjutor archbishop, and the Diocese of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, is getting a new bishop.

Redemptorist Father Charles Duval, 60, who is currently pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Grande Prairie, Alberta, has been named coadjutor archbishop for the Grouard-McLennan Archdiocese. He will assist Archbishop Gerard Pettipas, a fellow Redemptorist, and automatically succeed him when the pope accepts his resignation.

Archbishop Pettipas will turn 75 on Sept. 6, the age at which canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope. He has headed the archdiocese in northwest Canada since 2006.

In Quebec, the pope has accepted the resignation of Bishop Jean-Pierre Blais, 75, who has headed the Baie-Comeau Diocese since his installation on March 11, 2009. The Holy Father appointed as Bishop Blais' successor Franciscan Father Pierre Charland, 62, currently minister provincial of the Franciscan Province of the Holy Spirit, based in Montreal.

The appointment for the Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan was made public Feb. 14 by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has its headquarters in Ottawa. The conference made the resignation and appointment for the Baie-Comeau Diocese public Feb. 18.

Archbishop-designate Duval's episcopal ordination has not yet been announced. The date for Bishop-designate Charland's episcopal ordination and installation also has not been announced.

Archbishop-designate Duval, who was born in Hull (now Gatineau), Quebec, has been St. Joseph's pastor since 2023. That same year he completed a four-year term as provincial superior of the newly unified Redemptorist Province of Canada, overseeing the order's operations across the country. He was elected to that post in 2019.

Since his ordination in 1993 at Notre-Dame-du-Perpétuel-Secours in Sherbrooke, Quebec, he has held various leadership and pastoral roles across Canada. He has been parish vicar at Notre-Dame-of-Perpétual-Help in Hamilton, Ontario (1993-1998); director of the Redemptorist Mission in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec (1998-2000); and pastoral animator for the South Central District School Board in Toronto (2000-2002).

He also spent several years as vocations director for the Redemptorists (2002-2008) and led the parish of Marie-Étoile-de-la-Mer Parish in Bathurst, New Brunswick (2008-2011).

Fluent in both French and English, he also was a vice rector of the renowned Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (2011-2015), which is in the Côte-de-Beaupré region of Quebec, along the St. Lawrence River, before serving as provincial superior of the Redemptorists' Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Province (2015-2019).

The Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan has 22 diocesan priests, 18 priests who are members of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, three women in consecrated life, three permanent deacons and three pastoral ministers serving a Catholic population of 49,424 in 57 parishes and missions.

In Quebec, the Franciscan friar appointed as the Baie-Comeau Diocese's new shepherd has held various positions of leadership and service within the church, including as a member of the Franciscan Provincial Council since 2001 and as general visitator to the Franciscan provinces of Christ the King (Western Canada) and Blessed John Duns Scotus (France and Belgium).

From 2012 to 2017, Bishop-designate Charland was pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Montreal. In 2017, he was elected minister provincial of the Franciscan Province of St. Joseph (Eastern Canada). In 2018, he was appointed the first minister provincial of the newly established Holy Spirit Province in Canada and was reappointed to the same post in 2022.

Since 2018, he has been a member of the Administration Council of the Service Intercommunautaire d'Animation Franciscaine. Franciscan "animation" is a leadership style that encourages others to live out their values through service, prayer, and advocacy. He has also been a member of the executive committee of the Canadian Religious Conference since 2018, and vice president since 2023.

Born Dec. 20, 1962, in North Bay, Ontario, Bishop-designate Charland made his first profession of vows within the Order of Friars Minor in 1991, in Lachute, Quebec, and his perpetual profession in 1996. He was ordained a priest June 22, 2012.

The Diocese of Baie-Comeau has 22 diocesan priests, eight priests who are members of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, five women who are members of institutes of consecrated life, six permanent deacons, and four lay pastoral ministers serving a Catholic population of 85,189 in 55 parishes and missions.

Some news reports about Bishop Blais' resignation claimed the pope had removed him because he is named in a class-action lawsuit filed by sex abuse victims against the Archdiocese of Quebec. But at 75, he is at the normal retirement age for bishops, per canon law.

"The nomination of a new bishop ... is not linked to the allegations against Bishop Blais," the Diocese of Baie-Comeau told the Reuters news agency in an emailed statement.

In December 2022, when his name appeared on a list of alleged abusers released as part of the lawsuit, Bishop Blais formally denied any inappropriate conduct and said he would collaborate with the legal proceedings but would not give any interviews or provide comments.

The incident reportedly occurred between 1973 and 1975 when the alleged victim was 12.

"Having been made aware of the allegations concerning me in the class action against the Archdiocese of Quebec, and which would have occurred between 1973 and 1975 in Charny, I would like to formally deny having made any inappropriate gesture on the presumed victim," he stated.