CANADA
Vancouver Sun

A Vancouver priest who heads the Catholic colleges at the University of B.C. has been appointed by Pope Francis to be bishop of Canada’s largest diocese.

Monsignor Mark Hagemoen will become Bishop of the diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, based in Yellowknife.

Mackenzie-Fort Smith includes most of the Northwest Territories and parts of Nunavut and Saskatchewan, covering 1.5 million square kilometres. It has a population of 49,150 and a Catholic population of about 27,000, according to Paul Schratz, communications director for the Archdiocese of Vancouver at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre.

Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller called the appointment “valued recognition of a very gifted administrator who has taken in hand the stewardship of our two Catholic colleges at UBC in a very able way.”