A Catholic archbishop who served parishes in Vancouver and Victoria, and who made news when he retired early because of depression, has died at age 75.
“Archbishop Emeritus Raymond Roussin … passed away [Friday] morning in Winnipeg,” said Archbishop Michael Miller of the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver in a statement.
Roussin served as bishop in Victoria from 1998 to 2004, and reorganized that diocese’s finances, which had been left in trouble after earlier questionable investments.
He then led the Vancouver archdiocese of a half-million Catholics, the largest in Western Canada, from 2004 to 2009, when he was forced to retire because he suffered from depression.
He stepped down five years earlier than the normal retirement age, with the permission of then pope Benedict.
Miller called Roussin a “mentor who taught me profound lessons of gentleness and simplicity, while exhibiting patience in suffering.”
He said he admired Roussin’s faith and spirituality, as well as his “courage in the public forum,” referring to Roussin’s willingness to talk publicly about depression as well as his leading a public challenge against a mobile phone carrier’s plans to make downloadable pornography easily available.
Roussin will be remembered as “a great teacher who will leave a lasting impression as a gentle pastor of souls,” Miller said.
Roussin at his retirement said his depression prevented him from continuing as archbishop.
“I believe my call is from God and to be a bishop, to be a pastor. I was unable to do it. It was a time that I just couldn’t see clearly what I had done that was good, and I could not see anything clearly possible for the future,” he said.
“[I went public with the illness] to show it was not the destruction of my life, although it could have been,” Roussin wrote in a letter to parishioners that said he wanted to remove any stigma “wrongly” associated with the disease.
The community responded to his letter with support.
His first position as bishop was in the diocese of Gravelbourg, Sask..
In 1995, Roussin was responsible for dissolving the diocese and reverting parishes to the archdiocese of Regina and the diocese of Saskatoon.
In 2007, Roussin attracted worldwide media attention after he called on Catholics and non-Catholics to drop Telus Mobility and complain to the federal telecommunications regulator after Telus announced it would allow pornography to be downloaded on to its cellphones. Telus reversed its decision.
And in 2008, Roussin, along with Ontario Bishop James Wingle, called for the federal government to revoke the Order of Canada it had granted to pioneering abortion provider Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
A funeral mass is scheduled for May 2 at St. Boniface Cathedral in Winnipeg, where he was born.
