Friday, February 15, 2013

Most Reverend Arthé Guimond, Emeritus Archbishop of Grouard-McLennan, passed away in Edmonton last week at the age of 81.

His funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Joseph Basilica, Edmonton, today, February 15, at 10:30 am, with the Most Reverend Richard Smith, Archbishop of Edmonton and President of the CCCB, presiding.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. John the Baptist Cathedral, McLennan, on Friday, February 22, at 7:30 pm, with Archbishop Gerard Pettipas, C.Ss.R., presiding.

I did not know Archbishop Guimond very well, though I always found him a gentle personality whenever we met at the annual Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, first when he was the diocesan administrator of Grouard-McLennan, and then as the eighth bishop of Grouard and fourth archbishopof the Peace River archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan.

Glen Argan did a story on his episcopal ministry as an "unfinished sympathy" because of the illness that cut short even what would have been a short episcopal service (in the January 29, 2007 edition of the Western Catholic Reporter) reprinted below:

He has slowed down a lot since he became archbishop of Grouard-McLennan in August 2000. But the mind of Archbishop Arthé Guimond is as sharp as ever.

Guimond now lives at Foyer Lacombe, the Oblate retirement home in St. Albert, and gets around in a wheelchair. He was felled by a ruptured abdominal aneurysm in August 2005 and a diocesan administrator was appointed the following month.

"I thank God everyday that I'm still alive," Guimond said in an interview.

"Right now I've taken the