Archbishop-designate Stephen Hero said he is not coming to Edmonton “with an agenda in my pocket.”

The 55-year-old, who has been shepherding the Diocese of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan since 2021, shared from the archdiocesan pastoral administration office chapel that his main objective in the lead-up to his formal installation on Jan. 23, and for a period following the sacred ceremony, is listening and discerning.

“I’ve been meeting with staff, clergy and many people involved in ministry, and I could see all the good things that are happening,” said Hero. “I think the first thing I want to do is listen well to people and to God and discern how we can continue to work on those good initiatives.”

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Hero was born in Lachine, Que., the youngest of four children born to Louis Stephen and Kathleen Hero, but has a longstanding connection to the city and archdiocese. The family moved to Edmonton when he was 10 years old. He discerned a call to the clergy as an adolescent growing up in Alberta's capital city.

Following studies at the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, B.C., Edmonton’s St. Joseph Seminary and the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Edmonton on June 29, 2000.

Hero began his work in parish ministry and served as the archdiocese’s director of vocations. Then he transitioned to teaching at St. Joseph Seminary and Newman Theological College. In 2012, he began a nine-year tenure as rector of St. Joseph Seminary before being asked by Pope Francis to serve in the neighbouring province.

Reuniting with the priests and deacons who helped shape him and the younger ones he nurtured in St. Joseph’s Seminary on Nov. 26 for a liturgical celebration and meal was poignant for Hero. He said the work done in theological institutes “is just initial formation — it’s just the beginning.”

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Learning is lifelong, he said, and he looks forward to he and the archdiocesan clergy flourishing alongside each other within this new context.

“It is a different role now as a bishop to keep working with the clergy and help them to keep growing, and they help me to keep growing too in different ways,” said Hero.

Upon Archbishop Richard Smith’s departure in May to become the new Vancouver prelate, Hero did not believe he was a contender to become Edmonton's seventh archbishop.

“Normally, a bishop is not chosen from the clergy of that diocese unless the diocese is really big,” said Hero. “I wasn’t really expecting it myself. My eye was looking at some of my other brothers around me, or in Canada. I was a little surprised. There is a whole range of emotions, surprise, but at a certain point joy to come home to my friends, family and a lot of people who I’ve spent the last 40 years with.”

Hero acknowledged that his bishopric “is a very important archdiocese in the west.” He noted that there are 10 Catholic school divisions and major institutions, including the seminary, St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta and Newman Theological College. He will also oversee 97 churches with resident priests and 19 parishes and missions without full-time pastors.

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Deus Solus, Latin for “God Alone,” has been selected by Hero as his episcopal motto. His coat of arms includes elements symbolizing the “finite nature of the created universe and the mystery and mortality inherent to human life (black shield),” the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (X-shaped Cross), the patronage of St. Joseph (turtledoves) and 12 gold stars (the Virgin Mary).

Strikingly, the presence of gold and silver on the black shield backdrop “signifies that the glory of God and the life of grace are the true riches of Christians,” echoing St. Peter’s words in Acts 3:6: “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you.”