Adam Joseph Exner OMI (December 24, 1928 – September 5, 2023) was a Canadian bishop of the Catholic Church. He was the Archbishop of Vancouver from 1991 until 2004, having previously served as the Bishop of Kamloops and Archbishop of Winnipeg. Prior to his appointment as bishop, he was a professor at seminaries run by his religious order.
Exner was born and raised in Saskatchewan, where he completed his secondary education. He entered the Oblate novitiate outside Winnipeg, before studying for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1957. Upon returning to Canada, he completed a doctoral degree in moral theology and went on to teach at seminaries in his home province and Alberta. He was appointed Bishop of Kamloops in 1974 and was consecrated that same year. Eight years later, he became Archbishop of Winnipeg, a position he held for nearly a decade before being transferred to Vancouver in 1991. Exner was noted for calling the first diocesan synod in Vancouver that allowed for the laity to participate.
Early life Adam Joseph Exner was born in Killaly, Saskatchewan, on Christmas Eve of 1928. He was the youngest of eight children of Joseph and Frances (Gelowitz). His parents were Bukovina Germans who moved to Canada as children. His father was originally from Molodiia, while his mother came from Derelui. Both families lived on a homestead in Mariahilf, outside Killaly, having emigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. This was the result of a population boom combined with a scarcity of land in the area.
Exner grew up in a humble farming household that lacked electricity, tap water, and central heating. Although his mother was illiterate, she made sure Exner and his siblings received comprehensive instruction on the Baltimore Catechism. Mass was not celebrated every Sunday at the local church, so the family gathered around the kitchen table for what he called a "para-liturgy" when it was not held. This entailed singing hymns, going through the readings and Gospel of the day, talking about the texts and its relevance to their everyday lives, and concluded with praying the Rosary. Exner completed his primary education at Flegel School, a single-room rural school located away from where he lived. There, he was instructed by only one teacher through the whole of his elementary years. He started learning the accordion without the help of a teacher before enrolling in kindergarten. He continued to play polkas and waltzes on the instrument well after he became bishop. Exner left school temporarily after eighth grade, in order to work on the family farm. As the youngest child, he was in line to inherit the property, in keeping with the tradition in his family. Consequently, he intended to become a farmer had he not joined the priesthood.
Exner felt a calling to the priesthood in the summer of 1946. He resumed his studies that September, first at St. Joseph's College in Yorkton before transferring to St. Thomas College in Battleford one year later. After graduating from the latter institute, he went on to study one year of arts and subsequently joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate novitiate at St. Norbert in August 1950. Starting in 1951, he attended seminary at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He obtained two master's degrees from that institution (one in philosophy and the other in theology). On July 7, 1957, Exner was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in Roviano, on the outskirts of Rome, by Luigi Faveri, the Bishop of Tivoli at the time.
Presbyteral ministry Exner went back to Canada in 1958. He proceeded to complete a Doctorate of Theology at the University of Ottawa within two years. Because of the accelerated pace, he described this time as "probably the hardest two years of my life". He subsequently taught at the Oblate seminary of St. Charles Scholasticate in Battleford as professor of moral theology from 1960 to 1972 and served as its rector for six of those years. This is in spite of the fact that he did not envisage himself teaching and had expressed his preference to be assigned to a foreign mission instead. After the Oblate seminary was relocated to Edmonton in 1972, Exner followed along and taught at the Newman Theological College up until his appointment as bishop. He also led several retreats during this time, primarily for his fellow clergymen and religious.
Episcopal ministry
Bishop of Kamloops (1974–1982) Exner was appointed the third Bishop of Kamloops on January 18, 1974, by Pope Paul VI. The see had been vacant since August 1 of the previous year, when Michael Harrington died in office after more than two decades at the helm. Exner later recounted how he had no intention of becoming a bishop. He cited his lack of pastoral and administrative experience as reasons why he would be unsuitable for the position. He remonstrated with Joseph MacNeil, the Archbishop of Edmonton who had informed him of the Holy See's decision, but to no avail. Exner ultimately acquiesced to the appointment only out of obedience to the church. He was consecrated bishop on March 12, 1974, at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts in Regina. Henri Légaré, the Archbishop of Grouard–McLennan and his close friend who taught Exner catechism as a child, served as the principal consecrator, with Exner's siblings and their 80-year-old mother in attendance. He was installed in Kamloops sixteen days later on March 28 by Guido del Mestri, the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Canada.
Exner stated that he did not want anyone to behave differently towards him after his elevation to the episcopacy. He added how his "ideal of a bishop is someone who is close to his people. I want to be a father and a father is close to his people". His sojourn in Kamloops was the first time in his life that he lived by himself. He had previously always resided in a community, either with his fellow Oblates or in the seminaries where he taught. He remarked that this change was "not easy", but he eventually "got used to it". Having adapted to living in a new province, he was prepared to stay in Kamloops indefinitely.
In 1977, parishioners in Kamloops reported their parish priest, Erlindo Molon, to Exner, alleging that Molon was sexually and physically abusing others. One parishioner told Exner that she received a marriage proposal from Molon; Exner encouraged her to attend a different church. After months of hearing these accusations, Exner asked Molon to transfer parishes, which Molon refused. A civil judgment in 2020 determined that church leadership, including Exner, failed to take appropriate steps to prevent Molon's abuse of a parishioner.
Archbishop of Winnipeg (1982–1991)
The Holy See's selection of Exner as the fourth Archbishop of Winnipeg was announced on April 8, 1982. He was installed at St. Mary's Cathedral on June 23 of that same year. His predecessor, Cardinal George Flahiff, perceived Exner to be "well experienced" and a "man of good judgment" and predicted a promising future for the archdiocese with him in charge. Exner saw his transfer to Winnipeg as a homecoming of sorts. Even though he barely knew anyone there, he sensed that the local Catholic community were delighted to have a "home-grown prairie boy" as their new archbishop. He sold the large Charleswood house on the riverfront where his predecessors resided – which he regarded as too lavish and which would have required a costly renovation – and initially moved into the chaplain's quarters at St. Mary's Academy, before settling into a residence on Bishops Lane.
Exner welcomed Pope John Paul II to Winnipeg in September 1984, as part of the latter's first visit to Canada. During his tenure as ordinary of that archdiocese, the cathedral underwent large-scale restoration work. These repairs – which were intended to be finished by September 1987 in order to coincide with the centenary of the cathedral's consecration – were only completed in early 1988. He also directed the cessation of a monthly Tridentine Mass in late 1986, pointing to declining attendance as the reason for abandoning the 22-month long trial run within the archdiocese.
In 1990, Exner established a church committee with the archbishop of Saint Boniface Antoine Hacault and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to respond to complaints about the treatment of Indigenous children in the Canadian Indian residential school system.
Archbishop of Vancouver (1991–2004) Exner was appointed the Archbishop of Vancouver on May 25, 1991, and installed at Holy Rosary Cathedral on August 15 of that year. Although he was billed as "Canada's most outspoken conservative prelate" by Joel Connelly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Exner eschewed the use of such categorizations, considering himself as "middle-of-the-road". He found that he was sometimes "labelled as too conservative, and sometimes as too liberal" and that his goal was simply to "combat the idea that Catholics can pick and choose which dogma to accept". In contrast to his immediate predecessor, James Carney, Exner was perceived as being comfortable speaking to the media, having personally responded to a phone call by the Vancouver Sun shortly after his appointment without having to go through a secretary.
Exner acted as principal consecrator at the episcopal ordination of Gerald Wiesner, held in Prince George, British Columbia, on February 22, 1993. On June 16, 1996, he wrote a letter that described contreception as repressing sexuality and "bogus freedom"; this letter was read to all the congregations in his archdiocese. After Wiesner's predecessor, Hubert O'Connor, was convicted in July 1996 of the rape and indecent assault of two Indigenous women at a residential school where he was principal, Exner offered assistance to the victims in their healing process and asked that O'Connor be forgiven. He emphasized that he was not asking for anyone to condone what O'Connor did, adding that "there's a big difference between condoning and forgiveness". However, Exner's observation that O'Connor had "already suffered enough, to the point where his health has suffered and deteriorated" drew the ire of some members of the public. Exner admitted that he "made a real mistake in speaking of the pain of the women and that of Bishop O'Connor in the same breath". He also made a formal apology for O'Connor's actions. O'Connor's convictions were later quashed by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in March 1998.
Exner was a delegate at the Synod of Bishops for Asia, held in Rome from April to May 1998. He was the only bishop from Canada to be invited to that meeting. Exner reckoned that this was in recognition of Vancouver's sizable immigrant population from Asia that is apparent in its parishes. In October of that same year, he called a local diocesan synod. It was the first to be held in nearly four decades and the first synod in the history of the Archdiocese to allow the lay faithful to participate in the process.
Less than one month after the September 11 attacks, Exner hosted a gathering of religious leaders at the cathedral's church hall. They issued a collective statement denouncing violence committed in the name of religion, and underlining their dedication to work together for the public good in "brave new works of peace". The statement was ultimately read out in the House of Commons and the Senate. Exner served as the principal consecrator at the episcopal ordination of David Monroe on March 12, 2002, exactly 28 years to the date of Exner's own consecration as bishop.
Later life