Royal Canadian Mounted Police have charged two men in connection with the fire: High Prairie, Alberta, residents Kenneth Ferguson, 56, and Gerald Capot, 50, are both charged with break and enter to commit theft as well as arson.
The two will appear in court in High Prairie on May 29.
In his statement, the archbishop said St. Bernard was “a place of immense historical significance.”
“It was not only a monument to the past but [also] a vital part of the present and a building our diocese has been trying to restore, little by little, to its original beauty,” he said.
Saying he greatly mourned the loss of the church and regretted “the incident that led to its destruction,” the archbishop said: “I am not overcome by this loss. Nobody lost their life in this fire.”