Maurice Roy

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Styles of Maurice Cardinal Roy
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Quebec

Maurice Cardinal Roy (January 25, 1905—October 24, 1985) was a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Quebec from 1947 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

[edit] Biography

Maurice Roy was born in Quebec City as one of three children. Initially homsechooled, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Joseph Brunault on June 12, 1927 after attending the Seminary of Quebec from 1915 to 1923. He obtained his doctorate in theology from the University of Laval in 1927, and then studied at the Angelicum in Rome, receiving a doctorate in philosophy in 1929. From 1929 to 1930, he attended the Sorbonne and the Catholic Institute in Paris. Roy then taught dogmatic and sacramental theology and apologetics at Quebec's Grand Seminary until 1939. He worked as a chaplain to the University of Laval (1935-1937) and to the Canadian Army during World War II. Resuming his teaching posts upon his return to Canada in 1945, Roy was named its superior in December of that same year.

On February 22, 1946, he was appointed Bishop of Trois Rivières by Pope Pius XII. Roy received his episcopal consecration on the following May 1 from Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Cardinal Villeneuve, OMI, with Bishops Albini Lafortune and Arthur Douville serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame. Roy became Bishop of the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada on June 8 of the same year, later resigning from the post on March 12, 1982, after thirty-five years of service.

A little over a year after Roy's first episcopal appointment, Pope Pius raised him to Archbishop of Quebec on June 2, 1947. He was made Primate of the Canadian Church upon Quebec's elevation to that ecclesiastical rank on January 24, 1956. Roy condemned the supposed miracles of Saint-Sylvestre in 1949,^[1] and prohibited Fr. Georges-Henri Lévesque from sitting on Parliament in 1955, fearing that a priest with such a postiton would bring embarrassment to the Church.^[2] Participating in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Roy was created Cardinal Priest of Nostra Signora del Ss. Sacramento e Santi Martiri Canadesi by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of February 22, 1965. He was named the first President of the Laity and of Justice and Peace on January 6, 1967, and then first President of Family on January 11, 1973. He stepped down as Quebec's archbishop on March 20, 1981, after a period of thirty-three years.

In 1971 Roy was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, and he later resigned all three of his Curial posts on December 16, 1976. He was a cardinal elector in the conclaves of August and October 1978, and stepped down as Quebec's archbishop on March 20, 1981, after a period of thirty-three years.

He died in his sleep at a hospital in Quebec, at age 80. He is buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

[edit] Trivia

• The Cardinal's father was a judge, dean of the faculty of law at the University of Laval, and a friend of Maurice Duplessis.
• He is a descendant of the poet Napoléon Legendre on his mother's side.
• Roy was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his "extremely courageous conduct" as a chaplain in the war.^[3]
• His baptism, confirmation, priestly ordination, episcopal consecration, installment as Archbishop of Quebec, and burial all took place at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ TIME Magazine. Miracle Business October 3, 1949
2. ^ TIME Magazine. The Church Said No February 7, 1955
3. ^ TIME Magazine. Youth in the Archbishopric June 16, 1947
4. ^ TIME Magazine. Enthronement August 4, 1947

[edit] External links

• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
• Catholic-Hierarchy
• Find-A-Grave