The appointments made Oct. 25 fill vacancies left in Quebec due to the appointment of
former auxiliary bishops to other Apostolic Sees in Canada. The new bishops
will assist Cardinal Gerald Lacroix, Primate of Canada, who greeted the
announcement with joy on social media.
Pelchat was serving as the Quebec archdiocese's vicar general and moderator of the curia at the time of his election. Corriveau was pastor of Saint-Bernardin-de-Sienne Parish in Rivière-à-Pierre.
Born on May 3, 1950 in Saint-Samuel du Lac Drolet (Gayhurst), in Quebec's Eastern Townships, Pelchat was ordained as a priest for the Quebec archdiocese on June 19, 1976. That same year he obtained a Master's degree in theology from Laval University.
After his ordination, he served in several parishes, becoming pastoral animator for the pastoral region of Quebec. He then went on to study at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he received a doctorate in theology in 1986.
Pelchat then taught at Laval University as part of the theology and religious studies faculty, becoming a full professor in 1997.
Until 2013, he held the Monseigneur-de-Laval Chair of Theology and served
three terms as dean of the faculty before becoming an adjunct professor.
Author of numerous publications on ecclesiology, the theology of ministry
and pastoral theology, Pelchat also served from 1986 to 1996 as a member of the formation group for the Grand Séminaire de Québec in Quebec City.
Corriveau was born on March 23, 1964 in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, Que., and ordained a priest for the archdiocese on June 16, 1990 after attending the Grand Séminaire de Québec.
From 1990 to 1996, he served as assistant pastor at parishes in the Beauce region. He also served as vocations director for the archdiocese from 1994 to 1995 and a member of the Grand Séminaire's formation committee from 1996-1997.
In 1997, Bishop-elect Corriveau left for France to audit courses on spirituality at the Centre Sèvres in Paris. Upon returning to Quebec in 1998, he returned to the Grand Séminaire were he resumed formation work and spiritual direction until 2011 when he was named administrator of the parishes of Saint-Léonard, Sainte-Christine and Saint-Raymond in Portneuf.
Since 2009, he has also been spiritual director for the Teams of Our Lady
Canada that focuses on strengthening the sacrament of marriage.
The two bishop-elects will be consecrated to the episcopacy on Dec. 8 on the Immaculate Conception, the Quebec archdiocesan feast at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré basilica.
The Archdiocese of Quebec has 201 parishes and missions serving a Catholic population of 917,045 with 359 diocesan priests; 262 priests who are members of institutes of consecrated life; 89 permanent deacons, 2,596 religious sisters and brothers and 59 lay pastoral workers.