The Most Rev. Michael Smolinski, C.Ss.R.
Michael Smolinski was born on September 10, 1972, in Saskatoon, SK to Morris and Iris Smolinski, being the youngest of three children. He completed his elementary and secondary education in the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division at Bishop Pocock Elementary and Holy Cross High School, graduating in 1990. He received his Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan in 1994. From 1994 to 1996, he worked as a youth pastoral coordinator in the Edmonton Eparchy.
Michael entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) on September 1, 1997. On August 15, 2002, Brother Michael Smolinski, C.Ss.R., took his Perpetual Vows. In 2002, Brother Michael received a Masters of Divinity from the Faculty of Theology of the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto. Deacon Michael completed further education in Eastern Christian Studies at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa in 2003. On July 5, 2003, Deacon Michael was ordained a priest by Bishop Michael Wiwchar, C.Ss.R., at Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Saskatoon.
During his priestly ministry, he first served as Assistant Pastor at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg from 2003 to 2005. Father Michael was then Director of the Welcome Home in Winnipeg (2005-2015); an extraordinary member of the Redemptorist Provincial Council (since 2008); and the Pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Saskatoon (2015-2019). From August 1, 2019, he has served as the Regional Coordinator of the Yorkton Region of the Redemptorists in Canada, while being Assistant Pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Church. On November 17, 2022, Father Michael was elected and appointed as Provincial Superior of the Redemptorists in Canada serving from January 17 until November 30, 2023 when the Holy Father accepted the recommendation of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and appointed him Bishop of Saskatoon. On January 20, 2024, Bishop Michael was consecrated at Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Saskatoon by His Beatitude Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk with co-consecrators Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak, O.S.B.M., and Bishop Bryan Joseph Bayda, C.Ss.R. On January 21, 2024 he was installed at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of St. George in Saskatoon.
Bishop Michael’s episcopal motto is taken from the First Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to Timothy. It was a Scripture passage Bishop Michael had read around the time he received the phone call requesting his acceptance of nomination as Bishop, as well as being read at a Divine Liturgy of Thanksgiving for the priestly ordination of a Redemptorist friend earlier that year. It recalls the themes of Synodality, enlarging the tent of the Church, empowering the laity and openness, all of which the Bishop wishes to bring forward in his episcopal ministry.