(CCN) The Diocese of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, will have a new bishop, and it is the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).
Less than 12 weeks after Trois-Rivières became vacant, Pope Leo XIV named CCCB president Bishop Pierre Goudreault to take over the diocese, midway between Montreal and Quebec City along the St. Lawrence River.
Goudreault’s appointment to Trois-Rivières from Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière comes relatively soon after Bishop Martin Laliberté left for the Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, just outside Montreal. The Diocese of Charlottetown, P.E.I., has been waiting for a new bishop since February, and several Ontario and Quebec dioceses have been vacant since June.
Goudreault’s appointment was announced Sept. 29. His episcopal inauguration will take place Nov. 20 at Cathédrale de l’Assomption de Trois-Rivières.
At a press conference Wednesday, Goudreault said he had learned of his appointment only a few days earlier and that a “profound peace” had risen in him after the initial shock.
“I am sharing that peace with you this morning,” he said, speaking in French.
Acknowledging his sadness over leaving Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, northeast of Quebec City, where he served for nearly nine years, Goudreault said it was there he had learned to become a better missionary and to experience and communicate the joy of the Gospel.
“We are all called to be messengers of the Gospel,” he told gathered media, clergy, and pastoral workers, noting it was the feast of the archangels, “messengers of God.”
The news of his appointment was something he had to keep to himself in the days leading up to the announcement as he attended the Canadian bishops’ plenary in Montreal.
“I was in an unusual situation: Every time I encountered people from Trois-Rivières, I thought to myself, ‘These are the first people I am meeting with whom I will [soon be serving].’”
He said he looked forward to serving his new flock under his episcopal motto, “Proclaim the Gospel everywhere,” continuing along the mission path with them and “seeing how we can become even more a missionary Church, a synodal Church — a Church concerned with walking together through mutual listening and communal discernment.”
He made clear who his missionary focus will be in a society he described as rapidly changing and heavily secularized: “people who are poor; to migrants, whom I care about greatly; and also to people who know little about Jesus Christ, or who do not know him at all.”
Proclaiming the Gospel sometimes “takes us outside our comfort zones and invites us to encounter others,” he said.
Fielding questions from reporters, he spoke of the importance of the permanent diaconate. During his episcopate in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, a formation program was established, and eight permanent deacons now serve there.
“I think the diaconate is part of the richness of Church life, together with the other ministries,” he said. “We will see, with you, what you are already experiencing here and what we need to do together.”
The Diocese of Trois-Rivières has 26 permanent deacons, 17 religious brothers, and 103 sisters, in addition to 48 diocesan priests and 17 religious priests. It has 14 parishes and missions and a Catholic population of 286,742.
Goudreault was born in 1963 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, received his doctorate in theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, and was ordained a priest in 1991.
He served in dioceses throughout Quebec and in 2017 was appointed bishop of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. He was ordained to the episcopate and installed on March 10, 2018. He has served as CCCB president since 2025.
Goudreault has written 12 books and 30 articles on ecclesiology and liturgy, according to the CCCB, and has been a guest speaker in dioceses across Canada. He has lectured at the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick and taught theology at Saint Paul University.
He has served as a francophone delegate to the ecumenical Canadian Council of Churches since 2017 and was Quebec representative on the board of Development and Peace–Caritas Canada from 2020 to 2024.
