Yukon's new Catholic bishop to be installed this weekend

Hector Vila, a Peruvian-born former engineer, will be ordained and installed this weekend as the new bishop of the Catholic diocese of Whitehorse.

As bishop he'll oversee one of the church's largest dioceses in Canada, covering all of Yukon and as far south as Fort Nelson, B.C. He replaces former bishop Gary Gordon, who was named bishop of Victoria, B.C. in 2014.

"I'm not here to do what I think should be done. I am only a servant," Vila said, referring to his role as a representative of God and the church.

"I think the first thing for me is to meet the people, to get to know them, to listen to them to care for them. Later on, I am sure I will get the proper insight in order to carry out the work that I need to do here."

Born in Peru, studied in Rome

Vila was 17 years old when he first immigrated to Canada with his father. He studied and worked as a mechanical engineer before turning to the church as a young man. 

"I started to ask about the sense and meaning of life. What am I living for? Where do I really want to go? And it's at that particular moment, I came to terms with my faith," he said.

Vila studied in Toronto and Rome before being ordained a priest. He returned to Canada in the late 1990s and was most recently Rector of the Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary of Toronto.

He shares Pope Francis' concern for the poor, saying the church has a strong reputation for caring for those in need, especially in the North.

"I think that the poor have always been at the heart of every man who came here to preach the gospel," he said.

But Vila says his greater concern is "spiritual poverty".

"Sometimes we are dead inside, there is no life. And I think that this is the main message that we need to carry, and with that, everything else follows."

Vila's ordination and installation as bishop will be on Sunday at 10 a.m., at Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Whitehorse.