Cardinal Edouard Gagnon, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Family, President emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, was born on 15 January 1918 in Port-Daniel, diocese of Gaspé.

In 1936 he began his theological studies at the major seminary of Montréal. In 1940 he received a licentiate in theology and in the following year a doctorate. He was ordained priest on 15 August 1940. In 1944 he earned a doctorate in canon law from Laval University of Québec. Thereafter, he began to teach moral theology and canon law.

In 1954 he was nominated rector of the major seminary of St. Boniface (Manitoba). He also participated as a peritus in the concluding phase of Second Vatican Council. Thereafter, he acted as major superior of the Sulpicians of Canada, Japan and Latin America.

On 19 February 1969 he was elected bishop of St. Paul in Alberta and received episcopal ordination 25 March the same year. On 3 May 1972 he was nominated rector of the Pontifical Canadian College in Rome. Less than one year later, Pope Paul VI called him to guide, as president, the Committee for the Family. In 1974, he was head of the delegation of the Holy See at the International Conference on Population in Bucharest.

With the creation of the Pontifical Council for the Family, he became member in 1981 and then in 1983 he was nominated pro-president of the council and elected on 7 July, titular archbishop of Giustiniana Prima.

27 May 1985 - 8 November 1990, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family

January 1991 - March 2001, President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of 25 May 1985, of the Title of S. Marcello (St. Marcellus).

Cardinal Gagnon died on 25 August 2007.