AMERICA/CANADA - Appointment of the Bishop of Whitehorse

Friday, 27 November 2015

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On 27 November 2015 the Holy Father appointed Rev. Héctor Vila, Rector of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Toronto as Bishop of the Diocese of Whitehorse (Canada).
The newly-elected Bishop was born in Lima (Peru) on 17 September 1962. At 17 years of age, in 1979, along with his father he emigrated to Canada, where he completed his secondary education at Emery Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Later he began studying mechanical engineering at the George Brown College in Toronto and graduated in 1986. He was then taken on as an assistant at the Missal Toolimg Ltd. In 1987, he began attending the Neocatechumenal Way and a year later he began studing Philosophy and Theology at the University of Toronto, and then completed his studies at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Rome (1989-1995). He was ordained a priest on May 14, 1995 by Pope John Paul II and incardinated in Rome. Since his ordination he has served the following pastoral and academic roles: 1995-1998: Pastoral ministry at St. Irenaeus and St. Patrick parishes; 1999: for a few months Administrator of St. Norbert parish in Toronto; since 2000: Rector of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Toronto.
The Diocese of Whitehorse, erected in 1967, is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Grouard McLennan. It has an area of 732,515 square kilometers and a population of 43,000 inhabitants, of whom 9,600 are Catholics. There are 22 parishes, 6 Priests (1 Diocesan and 5 Religious), 2 Deacons, 1 Religious brother, 4 Nuns and 1 Seminarian. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 27/11/2015)


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