“Reflecting on our Priesthood in the Jubilee Year of Hope” was the theme of the 2025 Clergy Retreat in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon.
Held May 12 to 16 at St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster, with sessions also broadcast via Zoom, the annual retreat was led this year by Most Rev. Emeritus Richard Joseph Gagnon, who recently retired as Archbishop of Winnipeg.
The retreat included daily morning and evening prayer with the Benedictine monks, as well as times of Adoration Eucharist with Bishop Mark Hagemoen presiding at the Eucharist.
Retreat Speaker:
Born in Lethbridge, Alberta on June 17, 1948, to parents Therese Demers Gagnon and George Gagnon, Bishop Richard Gagnon moved to British Columbia with his family while still a child and attended both Catholic and public schools.
He graduated from Saint Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School in North Vancouver before studying philosophy, history and English at Simon Fraser University, completing his Teaching Certification for British Columbia in 1976.
Bishop Gagnon’s seminary studies were at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome from 1978-1983. Vancouver Archbishop James Carney ordained him to the priesthood at Holy Rosary Cathedral on June 24, 1983, the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The following month he became assistant pastor at St. Mary Parish in Vancouver and directed the Religious Studies program at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School until 1991.
Service to the Church
In 1984 Gagnon was appointed Assistant Pastor at Corpus Christi Parish and, two years later, Pastor of St. Jude Parish in Vancouver. In 1987 he became the Chaplain of VANSPEC, which provides a religious education program for handicapped children. The following year he became a member of the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
On January 1, 1986, Msgr. Gagnon was appointed Archdiocesan Spiritual Advisor of the Catholic Women’s League and served until 1992, when he was appointed to the Provincial Council of the Catholic Women’s League.
In 1992 he became Director of the Office of Religious Education, and the next year was appointed founding pastor of St. James Parish in Abbotsford and Dean of the Fraser Valley East Deanery. He became the Archbishop’s representative to St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary School in Abbotsford in 1995, and in 1999 he was appointed Administrator of the new St. Nicholas Parish in Langley.
Gagnon was appointed Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Vancouver in 2002 by Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, after the departure of Msgr. David Monroe, who was appointed Bishop of Kamloops. He also sat on the Boards of the St. Joseph’s Society and St. Mark’s College and served on the Advisory Board for Redeemer Pacific College.
In February 2003, Pope John Paul II named him a Prelate of Honour in recognition of his faithful service to the Church and exemplary performance of his duties. At his investiture ceremony, Archbishop Exner recognized that Msgr. Gagnon had “rendered outstanding distinguished service in the Church in Vancouver as a loving, effective, and dedicated pastor, a man who is ever ready to meet new challenges – a servant ready to go wherever called.”
On May 14, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed Richard Joseph Gagnon as the 16th Bishop of the Diocese of Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC. Bishop Gagnon was formally Consecrated and Installed at St. Andrew Cathedral, Victoria, on July 20, 2004. Bishop Richard Gagnon chose as the motto for his Coat of Arms, “To obey is to serve in love.”
Archbishop Richard Joseph Gagnon was appointed Archbishop-elect of Winnipeg by Pope Francis on Oct. 28,
2013 and installed as bishop Jan. 3, 2014.
In December 2024, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop of Winnipeg, and appointed the Archbishop Murray Chatlain as his successor.
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