Bishop Richard Gagnon of the Diocese of Victoria has been appointed archbishop-elect of Winnipeg, the Roman Catholic Church announced Monday.
No date for the changeover was announced.
Until then, Gagnon will continue in his role as administrator for the Diocese of Victoria and its 95,000 members in nearly 40 parishes on Vancouver Island.
“It was a great privilege for me to serve as your bishop in spite of my many shortcomings,” Gagnon said in a letter posted on the diocese’s website Monday.
“As a community of faith, we have lived through many joys and challenges together and we can be certain that the Lord will help us to look to the future with hope.”
Gagnon was appointed to the Victoria post in 2004. He arrived from the archdiocese of Vancouver, where he was a monsignor.
He took over from Archbishop Raymond Roussin, who moved to Vancouver after serving five years as the bishop of Victoria. Roussin came to Victoria in 1998 as a replacement for Bishop Remi de Roo, who stepped down at the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Gagnon was born in Lethbridge, Alta., in 1948 and grew up in Vancouver. He studied philosophy and religion at Simon Fraser University and at Beda College in Rome. He was ordained in 1983.
In 2007, Gagnon oversaw the financial and legal wrap-up of an $8.5-million land deal and horse investment gone bad dating to the 1980s. To get clear, the church was forced to sell bonds and land on Vancouver Island, while battling lawsuits in the state of Washington.
Gagnon’s service time also saw controversy erupt that year over the dismissal of a gay church employee at Holy Cross Church in Gordon Head and the subsequent resignation of the parish priest who had refused to do the firing. The priest later took responsibility for not honouring confidentiality and misrepresenting events.
Also in 2010, Gagnon was on board when it was announced St. Andrew’s Elementary School in downtown Victoria was for sale, part of a $20-million plan to upgrade and consolidate Catholic schools.
