In a festive setting for the city and the diocese near the eparchial center of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada on Friday, January 10th, the ceremony of the enthronement for the new Roman - Catholic Bishop of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu-Longueil - Mgr Claude Hamelin was held. About 25 bishops attended the event. Among them were counted the apostolic nuncio Mgr. Luigi Bonazzi, Mgr. Christian Lepine - Archbishop of Montreal, Mgr. Thomas Dowd - auxiliary-bishop, Mgr. Lionel Gendron - bishop emeritus, Andre Laberge - the superior of the Benedictine monastery St-Benoit-du-Lac etc.

HG Bishop Ioan Casian attended the event as a special guest. Also present were representatives of the Coptic Church and the Anglican Church.

On this occasion the Romanian hierarch in addition to the words of greeting addressed, gave the new bishop a cross painted with iconographic images and the book of Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae - Spirituality and Communion in the Orthodox Liturgy in French translation.