Upon his return to Detroit, Vigneron was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Detroit by Cardinal John Dearden on July 26, 1975, at St. Clement of Rome Church in Romeo, Michigan.[1][3]
After his 1975 ordination, the archdiocese assigned Vigneron as an associate pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Harper Woods, Michigan. He returned to Rome, obtaining his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University in 1977. After returning to Michigan, he resumed his pastoral work in suburban Detroit.
From 1991 to 1994, Vigneron served in Rome as an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State and as adjunct instructor at the Gregorian University. He then returned to Sacred Heart Seminary as its rector. While at Sacred Heart, Vigneron removed several teachers that he perceived as straying from church dogma. Vigneron was raised by Pope John Paul II to the rank of monsignor in 1994.[1][4]
Vigneron was named coadjutor bishop of Oakland on January 10, 2003. He automatically succeeded Bishop John Cummins as the third bishop of Oakland on October 1, 2003.[1][3]
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Vigneron as archbishop of Detroit on January 5, 2009, replacing Cardinal Maida.[1] Installed on January 28, 2009, Vigneron was the first Detroit native named archbishop of Detroit.[1][failed verification]
On May 15, 2019, Vigneron published the pastoral note "The Day of the Lord". This note ended required Sunday sports practices and games in Catholic schools to refocus that day on prayer, family and rest.[7][8]
On November 12, 2019, Vigneron was elected vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).[9] At the end of the November 2020 USCCB meeting, Bishop José Gómez, USCCB president, created a bishops' working group headed by Vigneron to formulate a strategy for dealing with newly elected President Joe Biden.[10] According to the Washington Post, the group's work led to an unsuccessful effort by conservative bishops to approve a document at the June 2021 USCCB meeting to penalized Catholic politicians who support abortion rights for women.[11]
Vigneron announced in June 2020 that the archdiocese was restructuring 200 parishes into 60 to 80 parish groups to deal with the shortage of priests.[12]
On December 14, 2020, a lawsuit accused Vigernon of failing to investigate complaints of sexual abuse at Orchard Lake Schools, an educational center in the archdiocese. Several male employees had accused Reverend Miroslaw Krol. chancellor of Orchard Lakes, of making sexual advances on them. A school board member who ultimately resigned said that he tried to bring the allegations to Vigneron, also a board member. However, Vigneron allegedly refused to listen to the allegations because he said they were second-hand.[13] Ned McGrath, the archdiocese spokesman, said the archdiocese did not run Orchard Lakes and that Krol was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Newark.[13] By February 2021, the group had finished its work, but there was uncertainty about its final report.
On March 15, 2021, a Michigan man filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against Vigneron and the archdiocese. The plaintiff claimed to have been raped in 2010 when he was eight years old by Aloysius Volskis, then a teacher at Bishop Kelly Catholic School in Lapeer, Michigan. Volskis allegedly told the boy that he had power with the devil and would kill his mother if he revealed anything. After a female student reported an assault by Volskis to police, he fled the country. The suit claimed that Vigneron and the archdiocese were negligent in their oversight of the school. Volkis had been assigned to Bishop Kelly after he was accused of sexual misconduct at Divine Providence Parish in Southfield, Michigan.[14][15]
Viewpoints
LGBT rights
In 2013, Vigneron stated that Catholics who supported same sex-marriage should not accept communion at mass.[16] However, in 2015, he stated that the church did not want to drive any Catholics away from receiving communion,. However, as per Catholic doctrine, any Catholic conscious of serious sin (such as supporting same-sex unions) should not receive communion without prior sacramental confession.[17]
Immigration
In December 2015, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said that, if elected, he would restrict Muslim immigration into the United States. In response, Vigneron wrote a letter to priests in the archdiocese condemning the Trump proposals:
While the Catholic Church refrains from weighing in for or against individual candidates for a particular political office, the Church does and should speak to the morality of this important and far-reaching issue of religious liberty. Especially as our political discourse addresses the very real concerns about the security of our country, our families, and our values, we need to remember that religious rights are a cornerstone of these values. Restricting or sacrificing these religious rights and liberties out of fear – instead of defending them and protecting them in the name of mutual respect and justice – is a rationalization which fractures the very foundation of morality on which we stand. "[18]
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