Archbishop Richard W. Smith

Archbishop Richard W. Smith joined the Providence Health Care Society in 2025.

He has been shepherd of Vancouver’s 420,000 Catholics since May 2025. Ordained a priest in 1987 for the Archdiocese of Halifax, Archbishop Smith served in various capacities in Nova Scotia, including responsibility for pastoral ministry for French-speaking Catholics in Halifax, and chaplain to Halifax’s deaf community. The Archbishop has a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and was a professor of theology at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ontario. He was ordained to the episcopate in 2002 when Pope St. John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Pembroke. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to the Metropolitan See of Edmonton in 2007, where he served as Archbishop until Pope Francis appointed him to Vancouver in 2025.

Archbishop Smith is currently a member of the Board of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute. A past president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2011-2013, he currently serves as a member of the Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council, and as chair of the CCCB’s Ad hoc committee on Indigenous Issues. Archbishop Smith was the General Coordinator of Pope Francis’ historic visit to Canada, July 24 – 29, 2022.