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Biography
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Paul-André Durocher was born in Windsor, Ontario on May 28, 1954, the eldest of the seven children of Maurice Durocher and Lucille Duplantie. His family moved to Timmins in 1963 where he completed his primary and secondary studies. He went on to study music at the University of Western Ontario graduating with a Bachelor of Musical Arts in 1977. He then entered seminary at Saint Paul's University in Ottawa where he earned degrees in theology (a Bachelor in 1981 and a Master of Arts in 1985). He also completed his Bachelor of Education at the University of Ottawa in 1980. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Timmins on July 2, 1982. In 1992, he completed a civil license in Canon Law at the University of Strasbourg in France. A sabbatical year in 1996 allowed him to complete the License in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. During his years of service in the Diocese of Timmins, he taught high school, developed religious education curriculum, pastored and administered various parishes, coordinated the chancery and the pastoral offices of the diocese and directed diocesan youth ministry and liturgical offices.
He was ordained to the episcopacy on March 14, 1997, as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. Residing in Sudbury, he was mostly involved with the pastoral care of the French sector of the diocese as well as the Native communities of Manitoulin Island and the north shore of Georgian Bay. He was a member of the Education and Social Commissions of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario and liaison bishop for their French-language catechetical office, OPECO. He was also a member of the French-sector Liturgy Commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
On April 26, 2002, he was appointed Bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall and was installed in the Diocese on June 17, 2002. He chaired the Education Commission of the ACBO for six years, as well as the Theology Commission of the CCCB for two. He was delegated by the CCCB to attend the Synod on the Eucharist in 2005.
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