Terrence Thomas Prendergast (born 19 February 1944) is a Canadian member of the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

who is also a

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the Roman Catholic Church and the Archbishop Emeritus of Ottawa-Cornwall. He was formerly an

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the Archdiocese of Toronto and the Archbishop of Halifax. On 6 May 2020,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

merged the Archdiocese of Ottawa and the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, naming Prendergast as archbishop of the newly formed Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall. He formally retired on 4 December 2020 and was succeeded by Marcel Damphousse, the coadjutor archbishop.

Early life

A native of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Prendergast was born in 1944, one of five children. He entered the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

in 1961 and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a priest in 1972. He holds a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

, as well as

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

and

Doctor of Theology Doctor of Theology (, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equivalent to the Doctor o ...

degrees from Saint Mary's University, Halifax, through its earlier affiliation with Regis College, now part of the

Toronto School of Theology Affiliated with the University of Toronto, the Toronto School of Theology (TST) is an Ecumenism, ecumenical consortium of seven Seminary, theological colleges. Its seven member schools are Emmanuel College, Toronto, Emmanuel College, Knox College, ...

. For his

regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

, Prendergast taught Latin and Greek at Loyola High School in Montreal from 1967-1969 and, after ordination and graduate studies in theology, taught in Halifax at the

Atlantic School of Theology Atlantic School of Theology (AST) is a Canadian public ecumenical university that provides graduate level theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taug ...

from 1975–1981, then was rector of Toronto's Regis College from 1981–87, and its dean of

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

from 1991-1994. From 1992-94 he assisted Frederick Henry, then the Auxiliary Bishop of London (Ontario), later Bishop of Thunder Bay and Bishop of Calgary, in conducting an

apostolic visitation In the Catholic Church, a canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view to maintaining faith and discipline and of correcting abuses. A person delegated to car ...

of the English-language seminaries in Canada for the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

. In 1995, he was a visiting

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the Ecole Biblique in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Bishop

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

named Prendergast the

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Slebte and an

of the Archdiocese of Toronto on 22 February 1995. He was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

at St. Michael's Cathedral on 25 April 1995. In Toronto, his duties as auxiliary included responsibility for the Western Pastoral Region (

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

, part of

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

and the region of Peel-Dufferin), liaison with the theological faculties and planning for the Great Jubilee. In 1998, Prendergast was appointed the Archbishop of Halifax and installed on 14 September 1998. He served ''ex officio'' as the chancellor of Saint Mary's University, Halifax, a position granted to the Archbishop of Halifax until 2007, when the archdiocese and the university agreed to bestow the title of visitor instead. Prendergast was named the ninth Archbishop of Ottawa by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

on 14 May 2007 and was installed on 26 June 2007. In this office, he also serves ''ex officio'' as Chancellor of

Saint Paul University Saint Paul University () is a bilingual Catholic university federated with the University of Ottawa since 1965. It is located on Main Street in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. Fully bilingual, it offers instruction in both of the countr ...

. In 2012, Prendergast welcomed a number of members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Prendergast is a known supporter of the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or ''usus antiquior'' (), Vetus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in ...

and has collaborated on numerous occasions with the traditionalist group the

Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (; FSSP) is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians. It is in communion with the Holy See. It was founded in 1988 by 12 former members of the Society of Saint Pius ...

(FSSP). In 2015 Prendergast ordained 2 members of the society in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. In 2017 Prendergast ordained 7 members of the society to the priesthood at the North American Martyrs Church in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

. On May 31, 2019, Prendergast ordained Luc Poirier as a priest of the society in the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica. On May 29, 2024 Prendergast ordained 11 new priests for the FSSP at the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha. He was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Alexandria-Cornwall on January 13, 2016, and became bishop there on April 27, 2018, while remaining Archbishop of Ottawa. The two dioceses were united ''in persona episcopi'' ("in the person of the bishop"). They were then united on May 6, 2020, to form the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall, under him as archbishop. On 30 November 2020, he was appointed apostolic administrator of Diocese of Hearst–Moosonee after the resignation of its bishop, Robert Ovide Bourgon. On the following 4 December, he formally retired as archbishop and was succeeded by Marcel Damphousse, the coadjutor archbishop who was appointed when the new Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall was formed.

Other episcopal roles

After serving on the Canadian Bishops' Commission for Relations with Associations of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Laity, as a member of the CCCB Theology Commission ow known as the Doctrine Commission its Commission on Social Communications, several terms on the Permanent Council (including since 2015 as representative of the bishops of Ontario) and earlier as co-chair of the national Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, Prendergast is, since October 2014, a member of the CCCB's Episcopal Liaison Committee to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. His other responsibilities include president of National Evangelization Teams Canada (NET Canada) and chair of CNEWA (Catholic Near East Welfare Association) Canada, both of which are based in Ottawa. Prendergast is a teacher, writer and retreat master. From 1994 to 2005, he wrote a weekly column in the ''Catholic Register''. A collection of his essays was published as ''Living God's Word: Reflections on the Sunday Readings for Year A, B, C''. Reprinted Mumbai: St Paul Publications, 2013. He has been a writer or editor for several journals, and lectured and given retreats across Canada, in the United States and Rome. Prendergast was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (now part of the Halifax-Yarmouth Archdiocese), from January 2002 to May 2007, and took part in the Apostolic visitation to Ireland which began in 2010 and was completed in 2011.

References

External links

The Journey of a Bishop - Terrence Prendergast's Blog

Canadian Catholic News

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Press Release
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prendergast, Terrence 1944 births Living people Clergy from Montreal 20th-century Canadian Jesuits 21st-century Canadian Jesuits Fordham University alumni Saint Mary's University (Halifax) alumni University of Toronto alumni Chancellors by university and college in Canada Jesuit archbishops 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Canada 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Canada Roman Catholic archbishops of Halifax Roman Catholic archbishops of Ottawa–Cornwall