Father Poirier was born in Scotstown, in the Eastern Townships, on October 3, 1941. He was the second of seven children. His father, Dorès, was a carpenter, and his mother, Lucienne, was a homemaker. He attended the Brothers of the Christian Schools school and then entered the Collège d’Alzon of the Assumptionist Fathers in Bury with the first group of students in 1955. After completing his classical studies, he entered the novitiate in Saugerties, New York, where he made his religious profession on August 28, 1962.
He then undertook university studies, first in philosophy at Layrac in the south of France, then in theology at Rome. He returned to Canada to be ordained a priest by Bishop Jean-Marie Fortier in his native village on July 13, 1968. Appointed to St. Augustine Seminary in Cap-Rouge, he enrolled at Laval University where he earned a Master’s degree in sociology and taught social sciences until 1981.
He then became the first Vice-Provincial of Canada, a leadership and governance position he held for nine years. In 1985, he became parish priest at our shrine in Beauvoir, near Sherbrooke, a new pastoral experience that deeply affected him. He was called to Rome in 1993 to serve as Bursar General of the Congregation for twelve years, before returning to Quebec as Provincial of North America for six years and then Superior of the Montmartre community for two terms.
A significant part of his responsibilities was serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bayard Canada for over 20 years, which had acquired Novalis. The world of press and publishing is complex, and Marcel navigated these challenging and unforeseen circumstances with the support of a competent team.
Illness had been blocking his path since last Christmas, but in early June, the fatal outcome quickly became apparent. He was transferred to the palliative care unit of the Centre hospitalier de l’Enfant-Jésus, where he joined the Father in trust and surrender on Sunday, July 19, surrounded by his family and his Assumptionist community.
Everyone will remember him as a discreet brother, a hard worker, a man of great faith, of great intellectual stature… and of small stature.
P. Gilles Blouin aa
