New Bishop for Bathurst, Canada

(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday named the Reverend Daniel Jodoin as Bishop of Bathurst, NB. At the time of his appointment, the Bishop-elect was pastor of Bon-Pasteur Parish in the Archdiocese of Sherbrooke, as well as responsible for the archdiocesan Office for Clergy and also Rector of the Grand séminaire des Saints-Apôtres in the Archdiocese of Sherbrooke. The new Bishop succeeds the Most Reverend Valéry Vienneau who had been appointed Archbishop of Moncton on June 15, 2012. Archbishop Vienneau served as Apostolic Administrator of Bathurst until he was installed as Archbishop of Moncton on August 29, 2012. Since then, the Reverend Wesley Wade has been Diocesan Administrator of Bathurst.

Bishop-elect Daniel Jodoin was born March 2, 1957, in Granby, Quebec. After high school studies at the Verbe Divin minor seminary in Granby and further studies at the Collège Saint-Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montreal, he obtained a BA and a Master’s degree in business administration from the École des Hautes Études commerciales of the University of Montreal. He later entered Saint Paul Seminary in Ottawa where he received his BA in Theology. Bishop-elect Jodoin was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Sherbrooke on October 3, 1992. After studies from 2000 to 2002 at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, he received a licentiate in Dogmatic Theology, specializing in ecclesiology.

Bishop-elect Jodoin has served a number of parishes in the Archdiocese of Sherbrooke, including as associate pastor of Saint-Joseph (1992-1994); pastor of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Saints-Anges and Saint-Fortunat (1994-2000); parish administrator of Saint-Julien (1999-2000); parish administrator and pastor of Saint-François-d’Assise (2002-2009); and pastor of Très-Saint-Sacrement (2005-2006), Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption (2005-2008), Sainte-Famille (2005-2009) and Saint-Philémon (2009). He has been pastor of Bon-Pasteur Parish since 2010, responsible for the Office for Clergy as well as for the Sherbrooke pastoral region since 2009, and Rector of the Grand séminaire des Saints-Apôtres since June 2012.

The Diocese of Bathurst has 57 parishes and missions, with a Catholic population of 107,655, which is served by 44 diocesan priests, as well as five priests and 144 Sisters who are members of religious communities.