Adam Exner

Adam Joseph Exner, OMI (December 24, 1928 – September 5, 2023) was a Canadian bishop of the Catholic Church. He was the Archbishop of Vancouver from 1991 until 2004, having previously served as the Bishop of Kamloops and Archbishop of Winnipeg. Prior to his appointment as bishop, he was a professor at seminaries run by his religious order.

Exner was born and raised in Saskatchewan, where he completed his secondary education. He entered the Oblate novitiate outside Winnipeg, before studying for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1957. Upon returning to Canada, he completed a doctoral degree in moral theology and went on to teach at seminaries in his home province and Alberta. He was appointed Bishop of Kamloops in 1974 and was consecrated that same year. Eight years later, he became Archbishop of Winnipeg, a position he held for nearly a decade before being transferred to Vancouver in 1991. Exner was noted for calling the first diocesan synod in Vancouver that allowed for the laity to participate.