New Archbishop of Ottawa

The Holy Father has accepted the retirement of the Most Reverend Marcel André Gervais as Archbishop of Ottawa (Canada) and has named as the new Archbishop Terrence Thomas Prendergast, S.J., up to now Archbishop of Halifax.

Archbishop Prendergast was born in Montreal in 1944, entered the Jesuits in 1961, and did his novitiate and juniorate in Guelph, Ontario, his philosophical studies at Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak, New York, and his theological studies at Fordham University in New York where he obtained his license.

He was ordained a priest in 1972. He then taught theology at Halifax’s Atlantic School of Theology while working on a doctorate in Sacred Scripture, receiving the degree from Halifax’s St. Mary’s University in 1978. He made his solemn profession the following year. From 1980 to 1987 he was Professor of Sacred Scripture at Toronto’s Regis College (where he received a second doctorate in theology in 1982) and the Toronto School of Theology. During this period he was also made Rector of Regis College.

After a sabbatical year in Rome and another in Regina as visiting professor at Camion College, he returned to Toronto in 1989 as Professor of New Testament Theology at Regis College. He was named to a four year term as Dean of Theology beginning in 1991.

In 1995 he was named and consecrated Auxiliary Bishop for Toronto. He was transferred to become Archbishop of Halifax in 1998.

He is the Canadian member of Vox Clara, an advisory commission to the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments on the English translation of the Roman Missal.

In the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, he has served on its Permanent Council, been a member of the Commission for Relations with Associations of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Laity, co-chair of the national Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue, a director of the Catholic Office for Life and the Family, and is now serving a second time on the Theology Commission.

(Source: Vatican and Halifax Archdiocesan websites)