Pastoral Appointments - September 1, 2025

Bishop Guy Desrochers, C.Ss.R., announces the following pastoral appointments, as well as certain pastoral changes or initiatives that will take effect on September 1, 2025:

1. Appointment of Fr. Mikely Simon, C.S.C., as administrator of the parishes of Rogersville, Acadieville, and Collette in the pastoral unit of Saint-Benoît.

Since the beginning of February 2025, Fr. Mikely Simon has volunteered to take charge of the administration and pastoral care of the three parishes of the Saint-Benoît Pastoral Unit, given the vacancy caused by the departure of Fr. Charles Lokoka, who left to study in Rome at the beginning of January 2025. As Fr. Simon has not yet received a canonical mandate from me to carry out these pastoral and administrative tasks in the Saint-Benoît Unit, by this pastoral appointment and in accordance with the norms of Canon Law, I officially appoint Fr. Mikely Jn Simon, C.S.C., as administrator of the parishes of Rogersville, Acadieville, and Collette.

2. Appointment of Fr. Guerlin Bazile, C.S.C., to the Providence Unit (Shediac, Scoudouc, and Grande-Digue)

The Most Reverend Provincial Father Rosemond Marcelin of the Religious Province of Sainte-Croix in Haiti has generously agreed to send us a fourth religious brother who will come to assist us in our parish ministry and who will arrive among us in September 2025. He is Fr. Guerlin Bazile, CSC, aged 37. He made his temporary religious profession in 2010, his perpetual profession in 2017, and was ordained a priest on June 24, 2018. Father Guerlin Bazile is hereby appointed assistant vicar to Father Arthur Bourgeois, current administrator and moderator of the Providence Unit (Shediac, Scoudouc, and Grande-Digue). Father Bourgeois will be responsible for gradually training Father Bazile in the administrative and pastoral management of the parishes of the Providence Unit. We extend a warm welcome to Fr. Guerlin Bazile, C.S.C., to our archdiocese and assure him of our prayers and fraternal support, so that he may feel welcome and happy to live among us!

3. Retirement of Fr. Stanislas Grébélé Oyourou

Unfortunately, Fr. Stanislas' health has not improved since early January 2025, and for this reason, he is now officially retired from pastoral ministry. Let us remember that Fr. Stanislas arrived here in 2017 as a “fidei donum” missionary priest. Since then, he has devoted himself faithfully and generously to serving the people of God according to his abilities and physical capabilities. On behalf of all of you, I would like to sincerely thank him for his years of service and dedication to the Acadian people and to the many immigrants he has welcomed, supported, and nourished spiritually since his arrival. Let us pray that he may quickly recover his health and vigor, if that is God's will for him. Fr. Stanislas will return to his country in early December 2025 and plans to visit us again later, possibly to live with his brother who currently resides in Moncton.

4. Retirement of Fr. Jean-Bernard Mallais

In early July 2025, I officially accepted Fr. Mallais' letter of resignation, in which he asked to be removed from hospital ministry in the two Moncton hospitals for reasons of age, health, and other reasons related to the work of a chaplain. As of September 1, 2025, like all priests whose request for retirement has been officially accepted by the bishop, Fr. Mallais will retire and will now be available to replace confreres who must be absent from ministry for various reasons. Thank you, Fr. Jean-Bernard, for your dedication, your faithfulness, and all the pastoral tasks you have so generously accepted to carry out over the years since your ordination to the priesthood in 1994. We wish you a very pleasant and restful retirement, which you so richly deserve!

5. New project for chaplaincy at the two Moncton hospitals

Given the departure of Fr. Mallais as chaplain for the two hospitals in Moncton, the Presbytery Council has taken note of a new hospital chaplaincy project that was recently presented to it and which requires the participation of several active and retired priests who currently work or live in the Greater Moncton area. This new project is expected to begin on September 1, once all those involved have been consulted and have agreed to participate. I would like to sincerely thank all those involved in this project who have generously agreed to participate. Special thanks to Deacon Jules Dupuis (who has been organizing the distribution of priests' hours of presence in the region's two hospitals on a monthly basis for many years) who will use all his expertise to organize this new hospital chaplaincy project program for the Greater Moncton area.

6. New employees who recently arrived and were hired by the archdiocese

Mr. François Siewe, accountant (still on probation since August 25, 2024), Ms. Lynn LeClair, project manager (on a one-year contract since February 14, 2025), and Mr. Julien Okou, manager of the N-D-du-Calvaire cemetery (hired since June 23, 2025) replacing Ms. Rachel Vienneau who resigned at the beginning of June 2025. I would like to thank Ms. Rachel for her years of service and dedication to the archdiocese, and I welcome all the new employees who are now part of our big family. Best of luck to each and every one of you!

7. Date to be set for the next French-language priest retreat scheduled for May 2026 in Bathurst and organized by the Archdiocese of Moncton.

• Monday, May 4 to Friday, May 8, 2025.

• Retreat led by Bishop Guy Desrochers, C.Ss.R.

• Theme to be announced.