The Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) elected Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., of Hamilton, as its next President, and Bishop Lionel Gendron, P.S.S., of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, as its next Vice President.
The incoming Executive also includes two Co-Treasurers: from the French Sector, for a first term, Archbishop Luc Cyr of Sherbrooke, and from the English Sector, for his second term, Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax-Yarmouth.
Bishop Crosby will succeed Archbishop Paul-André Durocher of Gatineau, who ends his term as President at the end of the 2015 Plenary Assembly.
Born in Marathon, Ontario, Crosby was ordained to the priesthood in 1975 as a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He served as CCCB General Secretary from 1996 to 1997, before being appointed Bishop of the then Diocese of Labrador City-Schefferville in 1998. In 2007, he was named Bishop of the newly established Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador, and became Bishop of Hamilton in 2010. Bishop Crosby has been CCCB Vice President since 2013.
The newly elected Vice President was born in Saint-Quentin, New Brunswick, on June 12, 1944. After studying theology at the Grand Séminaire de Montréal, he was ordained to the priesthood on May 31, 1969. He joined the Priests of Saint-Sulpice (Sulpicians), and was later elected Superior of the Canadian Province of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice in 1994, a position he held until his nomination as Auxiliary Bishop of Montréal in 2006. He was named Bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil on October 28, 2010. He has served two terms on the Executive as the French Sector Co-Treasurer, beginning in 2011.
