(CCCB) His Holiness Pope Francis today named the Reverend Louis Corriveau and the Reverend Marc Pelchat Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of Québec.

At the time of this appointment, Bishop-elect Corriveau was pastor of Saint-Bernardin-de-Sienne Parish in Rivière-à-Pierre (Quebec), while Bishop-elect Pelchat was Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Québec.

The two newly appointed Auxiliary Bishops will be assisting His Eminence Gérald Cyprien Cardinal Lacroix, Archbishop of Québec and Primate of Canada.

Bishop-elect Louis Corriveau was born March 23, 1964, in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, Quebec. He completed elementary schooling in his home village and secondary school at the Collège de Lévis. In 1983, he entered the Grand Séminaire de Québec in Quebec City and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Québec on June 16, 1990. He engaged in pastoral ministry 1990 to 1996 as an assistant pastor at Saint-Georges and Saint-Jean-de-la-Lande parishes in the Beauce region. He also served as Vocation Director (1994-1995) and as a member of the Formation Committee of the Grand Séminaire (1996-1997). In 1997-1998, he audited courses in spirituality at the Centre Sèvres in Paris and, after returning to the Archdiocese of Québec, was once again assigned to formation work and spiritual direction at the Grand Séminaire until 2011. That year he was named administrator of the parishes of Saint-Léonard, Sainte-Christine and Saint-Raymond in Portneuf. Since 2009 he has been spiritual director for the Teams of Our Lady Canada.

Bishop-elect Marc Pelchat was born May 3, 1950, in Saint-Samuel du Lac Drolet (Gayhurst), in Quebec's Eastern Townships. He completed elementary schooling in his home village, and secondary as well as college-level studies at the Petit Séminaire de l'Immaculée Conception in Saint-Georges de Beauce, obtaininga diploma in human sciences in 1970. He then entered the Grand Séminaire de Québec and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Québec on June 19, 1976. That same year he also obtained a Master's degree in theology from Laval University. He then studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, obtaining a doctorate in theology in 1986. In the first three years of his priestly ministry, he was assistant pastor in the parish of Saint-Edouard and Saint-Louis, Lotbinière (1976-1979). He was then pastoral animator for the pastoral region of Lotbinière and Bois-Franc (1979-1982), parish priest of Sainte-Émilie, Lotbinière (1980-1982), and pastoral animator for the pastoral region of Québec (1986-1981).

Father Pelchat has taught in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of Laval University as a lecturer (1986-1987), assistant professor (1987-1997), as then as full professor when he also held the Monseigneur-de-Laval Chair of Theology (1997-2013). He was dean of the Faculty for three terms (1997-2004; 2004-2007; 2008-2012). In 2013 he became an adjunct professor. From 1986 to 1996, he was a member of the formation group of the Grand Séminaire of Québec. He is the author of numerous publications on ecclesiology, the theology of ministry and pastoral theology.

According to the CCCB 2016 Directory, the Archdiocese of Québec has 201 parishes and missions, with a Catholic population of 917,045 served by 359 diocesan priests, 262 priests who are members of institutes of consecrated life, 89 permanent deacons, 2,596 religious Sisters and Brothers who are also members of religious institutes, as well as 59 lay pastoral workers.