“If things created are so full of loveliness, how resplendent with beauty must be the One who made them!” ~ St. Anthony of Padua 172 Belmont St, Manchester NH 03103
Cardinal Gerald Lacroix was born in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset, Quebec, July 27, 1957, the eldest son in a family of seven children. At the age of 8, his family settled in Manchester, N.H., where he attended the parochial elementary school of St. Anthony of Padua and Trinity High School. His parents, Raymond & Brigitte, are still parishioners at St. Anthony Church. He studied one year at St. Anselm College in Manchester. He joined the Pius X Secular Institute as a consecrated lay member in 1975, and made perpetual vows in 1982. The same year, he was named secretary-general of the Institute. He earned a master's degree in pastoral theology at Laval University, and from 1985 to 1987 directed the La Maison du Renouveau, a formation and Christian renewal center. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. From 1990 to 2000, he served as a missionary in Colombia, where he established several houses for the Institute. After his return to Canada, he became director general of the Institute in 2001. In 2009, he was named a bishop and served as auxiliary bishop of Quebec until his promotion to archbishop in 2011. He was elevated to the rank of Cardinal in February of 2014!
In late March of 2014, he presided at a special Sunday afternoon Mass in his honor at St. Anthony Church, followed by a reception that took place at Trinity High School (click here to view photos of both events....be sure to scroll down). Many dignitaries from the Diocese of Manchester as well as political figures from the City of Manchester attended. Since that time, his scarlet biretta sits in it's place of honor, in a case beside the altar of St. Anthony, on the right side of our church. When Cardinal Lacroix comes to visit his parents in Manchester, he always presides at the French Mass at 8am on Sunday mornings, his biretta waiting for him in the sacristy.
With the merger of St. Anthony School and St. Casimir School in September of 2018, St. Anthony School became, "Cardinal Lacroix Academy", in honor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish's own Cardinal.