Former Archbishop of Winnipeg Exner dead at 94

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This article was published 07/09/2023 (755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local Roman Catholics are mourning the death of the accordion-playing bishop who played host to the pope and met Mother Teresa during his tenure in Winnipeg.

Archbishop Adam Exner died Tuesday at his home in Grayson, Sask., at age 94.

The Saskatchewan-born Exner served as the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Winnipeg from 1982 to 1991, the fourth archbishop in the role.

Exner spent his first weekend in Manitoba camping at Clear Lake with a youth group who didn’t know who he was, said Rev. Maurice Comeault, recently retired after 14 years at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Winnipeg.

“He was very personable,” Comeault said of the former archbishop, who went by the nickname Archie during the camp out to preserve his anonymity.

A member of the Oblate Fathers, Exner was known for his listening skills, good advice, and modest lifestyle, recalled Rev. Paul Tinguely, who was ordained by the archbishop at St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1985.

Instead of moving into the large house in the Charleswood neighbourhood occupied by previous bishops (which needed a lot of expensive repairs), Exner initiated the sale of the riverfront property and moved into a smaller space for a year or two, said Tinguely, now priest in St. Laurent.

“He found it too opulent. He was an Oblate, so he moved into the St. Mary’s Academy chaplain’s quarters.”

Exner later moved into another house on Bishops Lane, a street built on land once owned by the archdiocese.

During his tenure in Winnipeg, he met the since-sainted Mother Teresa (1910-97) in 1982, when she came to the city to accept a humanitarian award from St. Boniface Research Foundation and played host to Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) at a service at St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1984.

Exner also sat on the board of St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba and as chairman of the Conference of Bishops of Manitoba.

A member of a family polka band in his youth, Exner continued playing the accordion as an adult, hauling the instrument out of his car trunk whenever he visited parishes for confirmations or other functions, said Rev. Wayne Morrissey, also ordained by Exner in 1985.

“He would generally come for a church event, and it would end with a party,” Morrissey, now priest at St. John Brebeuf Church, said of the polkas and folk tunes Exner would play for hours.

Exner believed in meeting people where they were, whether at a mass or a community event, and he was also known for repeating the same phrase in every sermon, said Rev. Sam Argenziano of Holy Rosary Church, who last saw Exner four years ago.

“He would say: ‘The church is not a sinking ship.’”

Exner meant the phrase to encourage Roman Catholics during troubled times, said Rev. Richard Arsenault, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg.

“We still have something to offer,” he said of Exner’s repeated message. “We have a mission as a Christian community here.”

In 1991, Exner moved to British Columbia to serve as Archbishop of Vancouver, a position he held until his retirement in 2004.

His funeral will take place Sept. 20 in Grayson.

brenda.suderman@freepress.mb.ca

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