Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, the Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada, is a trusted member of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinal advisers known for his dedication to evangelization. He was recently cleared of allegations of sexual abuse.

Born on July 27, 1957, in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset in the archdiocese of Quebec, Lacroix has had a distinguished career in the Catholic Church.

In 1982, he professed his perpetual vows in the Institut Séculier Pie X, and Lacroix’s commitment to missionary work was evident early in his career when he traveled to Colombia as a missionary in 1981.

When he returned home, he decided to become a priest and in 1982 professed his perpetual vows and completed a bachelor’s in theology and a master’s degree at the University of Laval. He was immediately appointed general secretary of the Pius X Secular Institute, an office he held until 1987. At the same time, he also served as director of the Centre for Christian Formation and Renewal in Quebec.

Ordained as a priest on October 8, 1988, Lacroix served in various capacities within the Church. He returned to work as a missionary in Colombia from 1990 to 1998, where he was a pastor in a parish and a professor at the major seminary of San José and held several important positions in the archdiocese of Popayán, including director of the commission on the liturgy and communications and consecrated life.

In 2001, he was elected as director general of the Pius X Secular Institute where he served for two consecutive terms. He also served as president of the secretariat of the Saint-André School of Evangelization in Canada and as a member of the executive council of the Worldwide Conference of Secular Institutes.

In 2009, he was consecrated bishop and appointed titular Bishop of Ilta and auxiliary of Quebec. His ascent in the Church hierarchy continued when Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Quebec on February 22, 2011, succedent to Cardinal Marc Ouellet who had been appointed prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Pope Francis elevated Lacroix to the College of Cardinals on February 22, 2014. Since then, Lacroix has been appointed to several significant positions within the Church, including being a member of the Council of Cardinals, member of the Council for the Economy, member of the Ordinary Council for the Synod of Bishops, and a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Live, the Dicastery of Culture and Education and the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Lacroix participated in the 2015 Synod on the Family and was selected to be on the Ordinary Council of the Synod on Synodality. He said he considered the Synod to be “an extraordinary place of listening and meeting.” He also underlined what he saw as the importance of this approach by declaring that the Synod as not a parliamentary place, but rather a space where “we are brothers and sisters who seek together what the Spirit says to our Church today.”

He has also been recognized for his work, receiving an honorary doctorate in divinity from Saint Anselm College in 2011 and one from Saint Paul University in Ottawa.

In January 2024, Lacroix was named in a class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec, alleging he had inappropriately touched a 17-year-old female in 1987 and 1988. Lacroix categorically denied the allegations. Following a Vatican-commissioned investigation by André Denis, a retired Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, the Holy See Press Office dismissed the anonymous complaint in May 2024. Lacroix resumed his duties on July 22, 2024, after a voluntary six-month withdrawal.

The cardinal drew headlines in 2021 by controversially closing all churches in Quebec and suspending collective celebrations over Christmas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The suspension of liturgical celebrations was comprehensive, affecting both Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. However, funerals were still permitted to take place.

During Cardinal Lacroix’s tenure, vocations have significantly fallen in Quebec which has suffered from profound secularization. In 2010, the total number of priests in the archdiocese was 701 but by 2022 the number had almost halved to 410. Male religious numbers over halved from 629 in 2010 to 310 in 2022, and the number of female religious declined from 2,729 to 1,498 over the same period

Cardinal Lacroix speaks French, English and Spanish.