NORTHWEST TERRITORIES (CANADA)
CBC
October 14, 2017
Bishop Mark Hagemoen has been appointed the Bishop of the Saskatoon diocese
After four years of service, the head of the Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese in the Northwest Territories, Bishop Mark Hagemoen, is moving on.
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Mark Hagemoen to serve the diocese of Saskatoon beginning at the end of November.
“I was very surprised,” Hagemoen said about the news of the move, which he called bittersweet.
Hagemoen, who was born and raised in Vancouver, serves on several committees of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, including the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council and the Northern Bishops Council.
Hagemoen dealt with many sensitive issues during his four-year tenure in the North, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report on Canada’s residential school system, assisted death legislation, and the onset of an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Hagemoen calls the aftermath of the TRC’s report a “time of challenge and blessing.”
“My hopes for the diocese is that we can continue to realize many of the calls to action that focus on raising up Indigenous leadership,” he said.
Among its calls to action, the TRC called on the Roman Catholic Church to apologize for the abuse students suffered at church-run schools, as well as educate new clergy and congregations about the role it played in colonizing First Nations, Inuit and Métis children
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