Quick Facts
Biography
Christian Lépine (born 18 September 1951) has been Archbishop of Montreal since 20 March 2012.
Before entering the seminary, Lépine studied at the Collège Militaire Royal de St-Jean and Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal. He was ordained a priest on 7 September 1983. He studied theology at the University of Montreal and from 1986 to 1998 in Rome, where he was awarded a licentiate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He served as secretary to Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte from 1996 until going in 1998 to work at the Secretariat of State and later at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. From 2001 to 2006 he was a member of the formation staff of the major seminary in Montreal, before becoming pastor of Notre-Dame-des-Champs and Purification-de-la-Vierge-Marie-Bienheureuse.
In the autumn of 2009, his parish of Notre-Dame-des-Champs became the centre of a media controversy after they hosted a session for parents on how to instill an integrated sexual identity in their children. The then-Fr. Lepine had to cancel the last two sessions of the series after homosexual activists threatened to protest.
On 11 July 2011, he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal and Titular Bishop of Zabi, and on 10 September he was consecrated by Cardinal Turcotte.
On 20 March 2012, less than a year later, he was appointed to succeed Cardinal Turcotte, who had reached the age of retirement the previous year, and at an 8 a.m. meeting of the College of Consultors on the same day he took canonical possession of the see. A public installation took place on 27 April 2012.