VILLENEUVE, JEAN-MARIE-RODRIGUE. — Cardinal, born in Montréal (Canada) on 2 November 1883, died in Alhambra (California) on 17 January 1947.
He joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (1901) and taught at the Catholic University of Ottawa until 1930, when he was elected bishop of Gravelbourg; he was then transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Québec on 11 December 1931, where he remained until his death. Pius XI created him cardinal on 13 March 1933. He served as legate three times: at Québec (1938), Domrémy (1939), and Mexico City (1945). In 1946, Pius XII appointed him a member of the Congregations of the Sacraments, Propaganda, and the Consistorial Congregation.
Villeneuve was one of the most illustrious ecclesiastics Canada had produced. A profound theologian and convinced Thomist, he influenced the development of higher studies in the country and in the Congregation. He took an interest in missionary apostolate and social questions, particularly the labor problem, contributing to the advancement of the Church’s social doctrine, to such an extent that he acquired widespread popularity not only among his fellow countrymen but also in the United States and Europe. Of his many writings, the following should be mentioned: Entretiens liturgiques (1937); Petite année liturgique (2 vols., 1944); Pages d'introduction à l'étude du droit canonique (1944); one volume of pastoral letters to Gravelbourg (1932); three volumes (1936–44) of pastoral letters and directives as archbishop of Québec; a new edition of the Discipline diocésaine du diocèse de Québec (1937); Acta et decreta Synodi diocesanae Quebecensis; and finally L'un des vôtres. Paul-Emile Lavallée (1928, 2nd ed. 1945).