VATICAN - His Excellency Monsignor Michel Gagnon, Bishop of Laghouat, unexpectedly passed away.

Vatican City (Fides Agency) - The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples has learnt with grief of the death of His Excellency Monsignor Michel Gagnon, Bishop of Laghouat, a diocese in the south of Algeria. The bishop had just paid a visit to the parish of El-Abiodh, accompanied by a trainee seminarist, he was on his way back when he was struck by a sudden heart attack.
Monsignor Gagnon was 71 years old at the time of his death, and he had spent 48 years in missionary activity.
After having joined the White Fathers in 1951, he received his formation in Carthago; after having taught in Tunisia for a few years, he carried out several social works in Yemen. Bishop of Djibouti from 1980 to 1987, he was later nominated rector of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic Studies and in 1991 he became bishop of Laghouat.
(P.L.R.) (Fides Agency 2/6/2004 - lines 10; words 129)