Marc Ouellet - Biography

Biography

Born on June 8, 1944 in La Motte near Amos in Abitibi, he is one of eight children born to a headmaster father and a housewife mother. He received his primary education from 1950 to 1956 in his home parish. There he also began his secondary education (1956-1958) in order to finish them at the Berthier College (1958-1959), and did his college education as well as two years of philosophy at the École Normale of Amos (1959-1964), earning there a Bachelor of Pedagogy degree from Laval University in 1964. After his theological studies at the Grand séminaire de Montréal (1964-1968), where in 1968 he received a license in theology from the University of Montreal, he was ordained priest for the Diocese of Amos on May 25, 1968 in his home parish, and appointed curate in the St-Sauveur Parish of Val d'Or (1968-1970).

After a few months of studying the Spanish language at the end of 1970, he taught philosophy at the Major Seminary of Bogotá in Colombia, directed by the Sulpicians, and decided in 1972 to join the Society of St. Sulpice doing the Solitude at the Seminary of Philosophy in Montreal. Then he continued his studies in Rome where he obtained a license in philosophy from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in 1974, while studying German in Innsbruck, Austria during this period. Assigned in 1974 as a member of the formation team and professor at the Major Seminary of Manizales in Colombia, in 1976 he was recalled to Canada to fulfill the same functions at the Major Seminary of Montreal. Returning to studies in 1978, he obtained in 1982 a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, also continuing his studies of German in Passau. Assigned in 1982 as a member of formation team and professor of the Major Seminary of Cali, Colombia, in 1983 he became rector of the Major Seminary of Manizales, and in 1988 first consultor of the Canadian Provincial Council of Sulpicians (a position he held until 1994) as well as a member of the formation team and professor at the Major Seminary of Montreal. He assumed the rectorship there in 1990, to pass, in 1994, to that of St. Joseph's Seminary in Edmonton. He also taught at Newman Theological College in 1996-1997 and was a lecturer at the John Paul II Institute in Rome. From 1995 to 2000 he was consultor of the Congregation for the Clergy, and in 1996 the consultor of the General Council of the Sulpicians. Since 1997 he was Titular Professor of dogmatic theology at the John Paul II Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University.