Pope receives Canadian Bishops in ad limina audience

Pope receives Canadian Bishops in ad limina audience

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met Monday morning with Bishops from western Canada, who are in Rome for their visit ad limina Apostolorum (to the threshold of the [basilicas] of the Apostles).

The Bishops collectively form the Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops (AWCB). Established in 1974, the Assembly gathers the Bishops of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches of the four Western Canadian provinces, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

In total, it serves eighteen Roman Catholic [Latin-rite] dioceses (Calgary, Churchill-Hudson Bay, Edmonton, Grouard-McLennan, Kamloops, Keewatin-Le Pas, MacKenzie-Fort Smith, Nelson, Prince Albert, Prince George, Regina, Saint-Boniface, Saint-Paul, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Victoria, Whitehorse, and Winnipeg) and four Ukrainian Greek Catholic eparchies (Edmonton, New Westminster, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg).

Archbishop Richard Gagnon, the Latin-rite Archbishop of Winnipeg, is the current President of the AWCB.

The Bishops of Canada are making their ad limina visits by region, beginning with the Bishops of the Atlantic Episcopal Assembly; the AWCB is the second regional group to come to Rome. In the course of the upcoming weeks, Pope Francis will receive Bishops from the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, followed by the Bishops of Quebec, members of L’Assemblée des évêques catholiques du Québec.

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