Background
Archbishop Plourde was born in Saint-François-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick to Antoine Plourde and Suzanne Albert, the eighth of 11 children.
archbishop bishop priest university professor
Archbishop Plourde was born in Saint-François-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick to Antoine Plourde and Suzanne Albert, the eighth of 11 children.
And attended the Saint Joseph College in Memramcook, New Brunswick and Holy Heart Seminary in Halifax, Nova Scotia before becoming ordained as a priest in 1944.
Besides his priesthood, Plourde was also professor of social studies and philosophy at Saint-Louis College in Edmundston, New Brunswick. In 1964 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Alexandria in Ontario and in 1967, he was made Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa. In 1966 and 1967, Archbishop Plourde, among many other activities during his ministry, was instrumental in chairing a committee that set up the Canadian bishops" international development agency (the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace).
He attended the Second Vatican Council and helped to restructure the Canadian bishops" conferencethe Canadian Catholic Conference, which was renamed the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1977 (he served as President of the Conference from 1969-1971).
Archbishop Plourde retired as Archbishop of Ottawa in 1989, serving as an Archbishop Emeritus until his death in 2013. He was succeeded in 1989 as Archbishop of Ottawa by Archbishop Marcel André J. Gervais, who served until 2007.
Archbishop Plourde died on January 5, 2013, in Ottawa, at the age of 97. Ottawa"s Archbishop Terrence Prendergast was scheduled to celebrate his predecessor"s Funeral Mass on Friday, January 11, 2013, at Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica.
Immediately afterward, Archbishop Plourde"s remains will be entombed in the Archbishop"s Chapel at the Cathedral Basilica.
Archbishop Plourde was also a Vice President and a founding member of the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops, now the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario.