ENGLISH-SPEAKINIG
CANADA FROM 1909 TO 1975
1.
Canada from 1909 to 1948
While
he was studying in Rome, our Founder had the opportunity of meeting
both American and Canadian seminarists. Among them was Louis Nazaire Bégin, the
future Cardinal Archbishop of Quebec, and- another was Emir Legal who became
Bishop of Saint Albert in Alberta in 1902. Father Dehon also made contact with
numerous American seminarists who were the guests of our House of Study in Lille.
From
the correspondence with Cardinal Bégin, we learn that there were about seventy
religious orders in the archdiocese of Quebec. Despite this. Monseigneur Legal
was looking for priests for Alberta, and it was because of this the Father
Founder directed his attention to the west of Canada.
The
establishment in Alberta was occasioned by the presence of the railway. There
had been a continuous flow there of French Canadians and Europeans,who followed
the ckpansion of the area. Villages were springing up everywhere, and they
needed spiritual help. It was for this reason that our fathers received a warm
welcome from the Bishop of Alberta, Monsignor Legal.
Father
Dehon visited the Fathers in Canada
during his journey to take part in the twenty-first Eucharistic Congress in
1910, which opened at Montreal on the 6th September. The fathers had only
been there for a short time. Father Carpentier writes: During the first week... it was essential above all to find furniture
for our little house, (in Wainwright, in West Canada), to visit the catholics of that town, and to
travel around the surrounding countryside to make ourselves known. This first
contact did not show any spectacular results - in the town we had only met four
families and five catholic bachelors; in the country side, in a radius of
twenty miles, we had only found about sixty catholics... Independently of the
immediate numerical result, however, this first apostolic journey served to
make known to those who lived at a distance that a parish was being established
at Wainwright, and the Canadians and Irish welcomed. this news with
indescribable joy (1).[1]
At
the end of the Solemn Mass on the first Sunday, Father Gaborit set up a
committee for the building of the chapel and residence. Even the Protestants
made a generous contribution to this. However, the `town' was very recent, and
only dated back two years, even though there were already 1200 inhabitants. The
Father Founder made his journey in the company of Msgr Tiberghien, a member of
the Committee of the International Eucharistic Congress. At Wainwright, he was
welcomed by Fr. Gaborit and. Fr. Carpentier. The other two - Fr. Steinmets and
Fr. Bousquet - were at Edmonton. The Father Founder mentioned (in September
1910) the fact that On the Sunday the
Mass was celebrated, in the warehouse of Beaudry's Drugstore. The Founder
wished to stay with our Fathers, and so they made up a bed for him in the
dining-room, while Msgr Tiberghien lodged in a modest hotel near the railway
station.
Fr.
Dehon wrote in his Diary: Our Fathers
have made a modest beginning. They have no domestic help - one of them does the
cooking. soups made with milk, omelettes and potatoes - this is the daily menu.
On the next day, however, there was a surprise: A neighbour, who was a protestant, knowing that our Fathers had guests, sent a chicken
and some sweetmeats. He adds: Helping
missionaries brings benefits, I heard later that this good woman and her
children had become converts to Catholicism (N.Q. XXVII 26).
Fr.
Dehon went on to Edmonton on the 21st September - Edmonton is the capital of
Alberta. Here he was welcomed by the Vicar-General (a nephew of the legendary
Fr. Grandin, the Apostle
of the Indians of the West), whom Fr. Dehon had met and got to know in
Rorne at the time of the- First Vatican Council. The next day he left to go on
to Calgary, Bauff and Vancouver. Among the travellers was the illustrious
Father Vaughan, who didn't rest from his apostolic task of preaching even on
the train!
The
Father Founder was deeply affected with the poverty of our first Fathers in
Canada. Msgr. Tiberghien wanted. to
make an offering to them - he offered them a choice: either horses or a new
altar for their chapel. The choice was soon made; the Fathers opted for the
horses which were so necessary for them to get around. The Fathers could not
gather together in a community, because there were so many pastoral demands on
them, and they took into their care the small groups of catholics scattered
around Wainwright and Edmonton.
Father
Carpentier, who stayed at Wainwright, looked after the welfare of about 250
catholics, scattered over an area of two thousand square miles. On the first
Sunday of the month he celebrated Mass at Wainwright; on the second he went to
Heath, which was twelve miles away, where there were twenty-two catholic
families, making a total of seventy-eight persons, at the end of 1913. At
Heath, Mass was celebrated in a building used both by protestants
and catholics. In this same building a school was also held; local
meetings took place, and there were also dances. The third Sunday was reserved
for the parish of Wainwright. The other `missions' of the parish were Gilt Edge, with thirty catholics,
(visited five or six times a year), Adgerton, with seven catholics which was
visited twice a year. In Paradise Valley, forty Catholics waited patiently for
the months when there was a fifth Sunday.
Father
Carpentier often lamented the dispersion of the confrères, which was a cause of
loneliness. He himself remained at Wainwright until 1918, in which year he left
to join the secular clergy.
The
second place where our Fathers took up their ministry, around Christmastide in
1910, was at Elm Park, which took the name The
Saint Edmund's mission, and was situated in a northern suburb of the City
of Edmonton. In 1911 Father Gaborit wrote: We
have a lovely little church, where we celebrate the Holy Eucharist every
morning, and hold Benediction of the most Blessed Sacrament every evening. On
Sunday there is a Solemn Mass with a sermon in English and, French, and Vespers
and Benediction. Uh to the present, with
the help of Father Huet, I have been running a school for about fifty children.
In a few months a new building will be completed, and it will be entrusted to
four nuns. This mission could become the flower of our work, in Canada. It
consists of an almost unique family of workers - but surely, it must be our
principal aim to dedicate ourselves to the apostolate among the most abandoned
members of society? (1).[2]
In
order to attain this, Father Gaborit suffered. The liturgical services began in
a barn. Then the protestants offered him the use of their
chapel. A proper chapel, built by voluntary labour, was finally opened for
worship on the 19th March 1911, and then a clergybouse of modest dimensions
followed. Until then, our Fathers had enjoyed the hospitality of the homes of
some of the poorer families. Every third Sunday of the month, Fr. Huet went to
To-Field, thirty miles or so from Edmonton. Fr. Gaborit writes: The catholic population consisted of a few
white families and a dozen or so native or half-breed families (2,).[3] Soon the influx of the faithful
made the little wooden church inadequate - it was built of wood because many
carpenters had come to work in the factories which were being built in the
railway centre of Elm Park. Father Gaborit went to work again, organising à
benefit festival, and a new chapel was built in 1°12. A parish centre was also
built and evening activities were organised. there. He himself did the
paintings and sculptures for the church; the attar and pulpit are his work. It is a. pity that he never had the opportunity to
develop his undoubted talents. It is very remarkable that despite all this
work, the parish of S. Edmund had no debts.
On
the 2nd May 1914, a little before the First World War, Fathers Lemaire, Cachet,
Koolen and Berger left Le Havre bound for Montreal and
beyond. This occasion is described in The
Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Louvain: Father
Lemaire, on ex-pupil of Saint Clément, a graduate in literature, and previously
a professor, has already exercised the kind of ministry which now awaits him,
when he was in England Father Cochet, ex-alumnus of the School of
Clairefontaine, who is a devotee of Gregorian plainchant.. will be... the
'Orpheus' of Alberta.. and his music will draw souls to God! Father Koolen who
was formerly priest of Bergen op Zoom, has more than once shown the kind of
talents and the outlook necessary for the many different needs to which a
missionary... must apply himself. Father Berger is an ex-missionary to the
Congo... (1).[4]
Father
Lemaire was assigned to Wainwright (2)[5]
while Father Koolen went to Clyde, to take charge of a parish which extended
over 50 square miles, and where there were 365 Catholics of all nationalities -
Poles, Czechs, Germans, English, Irish, French and Flemish (3).[6] In
1917 he wrote to his confrères in Liesbosch: Here there is that very confusion of tongues that is mentioned in the
Bible! ...
Father
Gaborit thought of his parish as the centre for the expansion of the Order in
Canada. On the 6th March 1919 he opened a provisional novitiate for one novice
- Joseph Saint Pierre.
Before
we continue with our story, let us go back for a moment into the past. Fr.
Steinmetz, formerly a Congo missionary, was at Viking, about fortyfour miles
away from Wainwright. The little community which existed there was made up of
Poles, Irish and Germans. Fr. Steinmetz, who was an Alsatian, saw to the
building of a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Mary (4).[7]
Father
Joseph Albin Huet began to minister in the village of
Chauvin, about forty miles east of Wainwright. Then he settled at Elm Park
where he worked with Fr. Gaborit for seven years. In 1917 he became parish
priest of Tawaninaw, a village to the north of Clyde; he was then recalled, by
a popular demand from the people of Clyde, to that parish, where he built a
church and a school. Until his death in 1934, he gave himself without reserve,
and in the midst of many difficulties caused by the fact that there were
Catholics of so many different nationalities. Father Gaborit wrote in 1914, to
a friend: We didn't come here for
amusement... if you should find... young and fervent aspirants for the mission
to Alberta, tell them clearly that here they can only be happy by being hunters
of souls and fishers of men (5).[8] It seemed that the missionaries
had suffered much from loneliness - especially Father Carpentier, who wanted to
have a confrère with whom he could talk. Fr. Gaborit wrote: The missionary for Alberta must have a
joyful character - even a hilarious one sometimes. He must learn to count every
step he makes as an act of love for God and for his neighbour, because he will
often have to travel over many miles and pass through many places alone and
totally absorbed in his own thoughts before he meets any living soul whom he
can do any good to... In this silent journey, sanctified by prayer and by a
dialogue with God, he will acquire this gift: the knowledge of how to talk
effectively with men, so that his every word, will bring comfort to hearts
which are heavy and discouraged.. And in fact Fr. Gaborit lived what he was
saying. Once, when he met a settler, two months after his previous meeting with
him, he asked him for news of his aged mother: Ah, Father, you really raised her spirits. You did more in an hour than my
wife and I achieved in a year. Come back father - come back soon (1).[9] In 1920 Fr. Gaborit and his
confrères were firmly established at Edmonton, Wainwright, Leduc, Chauvin,
Beaumont, Red Deer, Wetaskiwin and Tofield. After the work of construction was
completed, he could now think, as he himself said, of his parish, and of the
establishment of the Order - a matter for all the Fathers who had come to
Canada. But in the interim period, an important change had been taking place in
the organisation of the Dioceses of the West.
In
1912, Msgr. Legal was transferred from St. Albert to Edmonton, as the first
archbishop of that see. He died in 1920, and was succeeded by Msgr. O'Leary, an
Irishman. He was less favourable to the French Orders, and one of his lines of
policy was to eliminate them from his diocese little by little. Priests of
French origin yore to be substituted by those of English origin as soon as
possible. The bishop soon. saw proof of the value of the great work of Fr.
Gaborit, but he was not content that such activities should remain in French
hands. The fact remains that Mons. O'Leary
transferred Fr. Gaborit to Beaumont, twenty miles from his parish, where there
were only S11 families, and a debt of 74,000 dollars. We can imagine that Fr.
Gaborit found it difficult to leave the place where he had given so much of
himself and where lie had centred his hones for the future of the Order in
Canada. As a compensation, Mons. O' Leary gave him permission to open a
novitiate at Beaumont, and so in J 92A, the whole community of Elm Park
(Fathers Gaborit and Cochet, and Prothers Francis and Joseph) transferred to
Peaumont. An Irish priest was Fr. Gaborit's substitute at Elm Park. At
Beaumont, Father. Gaborit spent himself as he had in other places. He bad
arrived in Canada as a young priest, with rather delicate health, but the dry
climate of the west. of Canada bad been good for him, despite the fact that he
suffered from chronic bronchitis. He was never known to take a holiday, nor
did. he ever return to Europe. He was both an exemplary religious, and a man of
great courage. He succeeded in paying off the debts of his new parish; he
welcomed candidates to the priesthood, teaching them Greek, Latin, French and
Mathematics. He always saw to it that there was a fine kitchen garden, which
provided them with potatoes and other vegetables. In case of need he took the
place of the cook, Brother Joseph, and as one of the then seminarists said - he
knew how to cook very well. Even if the transfer of the novitiate was not done
according to all the canonical rules, it nevertheless owes a great debt to
Father Gaborit. The first postulants entered in 1927 - Rudolphe Hould (an adult
vocation), and a certain Richard. In August Parent and Damase Caron arrived.
After the postulate, they entered the novitiate on the 21st November, the Feast
of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. To them we should add the names of
Gerard Noel and Charles Tremblay, who were already students at Beaumont. Three
of these - Hould, Caron and Tremblay, took their first vows in 1928.
In
the novitiate, despite the lack of comfort from which it suffered, there was a
good religious atmosphere. A novice, recording his memories of those days,
mentions how one day Father Huet and Brother Joseph came to Beaumont -
something in the nature of a diversion for the novices. Fr. Huet, bubbling with
joy at being in community, began to sing certain songs. Father Gaborit raised
his eyebrows a little, but one had the impression, nevertheless, that he was
delighted, too, that his cheerful friend should show his good humour.
On
the 22nd September 1931, Father Philippe, the Superior General, came to visit
the Religious of the Canadian West. A photograph is still extant as a reminder
of that visit. The Father General, seeing the surroundings in which they were
living, realised that it would be really difficult to set up the Order there.
Subsequently, Father Govaart made a great effort to find a solution to this
problem. While the novitiate at Beaumont, under Father Gaborit's guidance, was
going well, there were difficulties over the studies in philosophy and
theology. There was an absolute lack of both facilities and personnel for these
studies. So the three newly professed - Hould, Caron and Tremblay - were sent
to the Scholasticate in Louvain, in the Franco-Belgian province.
Father
Huet, and Brother Joseph as driver, accompanied them to Montreal; they made a
brief stop at Saint-Bénoit-de-Beauce where Fr. Caron visited his parents. They
finally arrived in New York, where they embarked on the transatlantic liner 'Ile de France'. At Brussels they visited the Provincial,
Fr. Devrainne, and then at last they arrived at Louvain. Here there was a small
surprise awaiting them - Father N. Gengler an able canonist, had discovered
that there was one day lacking for their canonical vows to be valid, since
their profession had been made on the day of the anniversary of their entry to
the novitiate. It must be said that the new Canon Law was little known then -
either among religious or among non-canonist clergy. It was possible, by a
'Sanatio in Radice' to remedy 'canonically'
their anticipated offering of themselves to the Lord. But there was also
another obstacle - canonical, of course - to their move from the novitiate at
Edmonton to that at Beaumont. What impression did all this make on the Father
Provincial? The fact is, in any case, that the novices of Brugelette were
delighted to make the acquaintance of their very friendly 'professed' Canadian
confr6res, who went to Brugelette during the holidays to make a small
supplement to their novitiate.. Father Mahiat welcomed them openheartedly. The
newly professed found that their novitiate at Beaumont was just as valid as
that at Brugelette, and, later, that at Amiens. During their stay in Europe, at
the time of the dividing up of the Franco-Belgian province, the three Canadian
Scholastics followed their French confr6res to Lille. Father
Caron, for health reasons, ended his own studies in Canada, in the Major
Seminary at Montreal directed by the Sulpician Fathers (1).[10]
We
should note the arrival in Canada in 1931 of Father Paul Delplanque, an
ex-Trappist, who came from our school in Tervuren. After a brief stay in the
West, he went to Montreal, and was then entrusted with the parish of St.James,
which was run by the Sulpicians. Father Caron took up his ministry in the
parish of Saint Edward - also in Montreal. In the meantime, things were going
badly for us in the west. Fathers Lemaire, Carpentier and Koolen, being too
isolated, went over to the secular clergy (2).[11]
For
the rest - every time that a priest died, he was replaced by a priest or a
religious who was English. This is the reason that the greater part of the
parishes which were founded by our Fathers are now run by the Oblates. Brother
Francis Berger died on 29th December 1930. Father Huet continued to look after
the parish of Chauvin. He had wanted to join his confr6res in Montreal, but
there were no available places. He died on January 21st 1934. As for Father
Cochet, the Father Founder asked him to seek offerings for the Church of Christ
the King in Rome (1921). He wrote to him to try and go to the United States to
preach on the Sacred Heart of Christ - His
promises, His Kingdom, and the opportunity to build a votive church to witness
to his universal royalty_.. (in) a
huge new district where there are 30,000 souls without a church (16th
October 1921). He asked him to be constantly
prudent, humble and pious. With this in mind, the Father Founder wrote to
Mgr. O'Leary, Bishop of Edmonton, to obtain permission from him for a few weeks of leave for Fr. Cochet, so that
he can find some means of advancing this fine,work which the Pope has entrusted
to us in Rome - the building of a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart (16th
October 1921).
In
1927 Father Cochet finally left Beaumont. As well as his work of collecting
offerings, he exercised his priestly ministry in Woodsocket, Rhode Island,
U.S.A. He came back to Canada permanently and settled in Cornwall, Ontario,
where he was assistant to a community of Brothers, and where he looked after
the parish. He died in Cornwall, on 25th February in 1949. At Beaumont, in the
west, the good Father Gaborit remained - the only priest of the Sacred Heart,
devoted in his apostolic labours. He never went to Montreal where, from 1937
onwards, there was one of our houses. He took care of one of his own students,
Arthur Houle, who had undertaken his novitiate and his studies in our province
in the U.S.A.. where he was ordained priest on 30th June 1940. Father Gaborit
entered his Father's mansion on 27th March 1940. The new priest departed
immediately for Montreal.
Humanly
speaking, our efforts to establish the Order in Canada were not crowned with
success - despite the apostolic work which was priceless in the Lord's eyes.
Undoubtedly the general situation of the Order had its own consequences. There
were missions in Africa - in the Congo above all - which needed reinforcements.
Then there was - as far as France was concerned - the expulsion of 1903, and
finally there was the War of 1914-1918. In addition, there was, as has already
been mentioned, some hostility in the Canadian West, towards French-speaking
priests and religious. Since these latter formed two thirds of the clergy,
pressure was put on them to move over to the secular clergy. Out of ten priests
who were sent to Canada, four became seculars and three more returned to
France. On the death of Fr. Huet, there remained only one Father in the West -
(Father Gaborit), three in Montreal and its surrounding area (Fathers Cochet,
Delplanque and Caron), one in France (Father Hould), and one scholastic in the
United States (Fr. Houle). Father Cochet was much occupied with the attempt to
find a residence which could serve as a house for both the ministry and the
novitiate. In 1935 he entered into negotiations with Monseigneur Cauthier, the
auxiliary bishop of Montreal since 1934. At last he suceeded in acquiring a
house which was sold to him at a good price (6,000 dollars), belonging to the
Sisters of Reparation of the Holy Face. Fathers Cochet and Delplanque took
possession of the house (No 2830, Boulevard Gouin) on the 8th July 1936, in
their own name because the Order in the Province of Quebec only became a legal
entity in 1947. Father Caron was the first Superior of the Community of the
House of the Sacred Heart, canonically established on the 12th May 1937. The
American Province, founded only in 1934, was little able to assist in
developments in Canada. But the community managed to hold fast until the
arrival of reinforcements coming from Holland in 1948. They arrived just in
time to assist in the burial of the last of the survivors of the first pioneers
- Father Cochet.
1.
Delaware (in the Diocese of London, Ontario)
Father
Jan Van Buuren joined the little community of Montreal in August 1948. In the
first year, he undertook the construction of a proper installation (par-ish and
novitiate) at Brookline, in the Province of Quebec, on the outskirts of
Montreal. In 1949, he visited the immigrants of the diocese of Pembroke, then
those of the diocese of London, where he met the priest whose concern was with
emigration in these dioceses - Father White, the parish priest of Aylmer. They
found out that a property belonging to the widow of Senator Little had been
offered at Delaware, to found there a village for children - but the proposal
had never been followed up. After advising the Superiors of the American
Province, the Provincial Father Richard Kiefer, and the Provincial Bursar
Father Merz, got in contact with Mrs Little. Father White and Father Van
Buuren, together with the two above-named Superiors, examined the Property
offered, and the American Province, which could not provide any personnel,
offered a loan for the purchase, which was subsequently repaid. The property was
purchased, with the assistance of Mr Verhoeven, and Father Van Buuren accepted
the responsibility of Superior - a little reluctantly - of the new Seminary of
the Sacred Heart, in January 1950. In the surrounding neighbourhood, it was
learnt with astonishment that Catholic Priests were setting up house in Mrs
Little's property. A local newspaper announced the news: The
Holy Father is already here! . The Belvoir Estate (such was
its name) had origins as far back as 1794, when a certain Ebenezer Allan was given
a
large grant of land. Someone named Tiffany later built. there a large and
beautiful house in the Georgian style. In 1918 ownership passed to the Pelvoir
Stock Farms, Ltd., of London (Ont.) - exporters of livestock in Canada. Hence
the name - Belvoir Estate. As well as a large mansion, there were numerous
smaller houses, and also a huge farm built by the Little family in 1924.
The
first students - eighteen in all - arrived on the 8th September 1950. The
courses were given by Fr. Everit Raay and Fr. Adrian Marynen, and the Superior,
Fr. Jan Van Buuren, also did some teaching. The European Fathers had some
difficulty in adapting themselves to the Canadian climate, and the style of
life in the new Minor Seminary was also completely new to the students.
In
March 1950, Father Jan Van Wezel was nominated as Associate Director for
immigration in the Diocese of London, where Simon White
was director. In November 1950 he founded the 'Credit Union of Saint
Willibrord' (1),[12] and
established the offices in one of the small houses in Delaware. In 1951 he
moved to the Chancery of the Diocese, and took up residence in Saint Mary's
clergy house. Father Karskens dealt with immigration in 1952. Father
Grootscholten then made a big extension to the premises, which were transferred
to No. 150 Kent Street, in London, Ont. Here,
Father Renders settled, when he was named Regional Superior, and he dealt with
immigration. Other changes of title, in connection with pastoral work among
immigrants, took place over the next years. Father Grootscholten preferred to
limit his pastoral work to Dutch immigrants only. In 1965, a Family Apostolate
began, based on the pattern of the Foyers Notre Dame.
2.
Ottawa
In
1952, Mons. Vachon, the Archbishop of Ottawa, named Father
P. Van Wezel parish priest of Packenham, with pastoral responsibility for all
the immigrants in the archdiocese. After several years of work, he decided to
organise à headquarters for all .the catholic immigrants of Canada. With the
encouragement of the Father-General, Fr. Govaart, and of the Father Provincial,
Fr. Kiefer, he was able to make a tour of Holland with the aim of collecting
funds. He hoped by this means to expand the 'Credit Union of S. Willibrord'.
He
received help by the arrival of Fr. G. Wubbels. Then, in 1954, he acquired a
house - at No 192, Daly Avenue, where he founded an Institution known by the
name of Saint Willibrord Hall. Some furnishings were given by the Grey Sisters
of the major Hospital. To the right of the principal entry a small chapel was built,
and blessed in November 1954 by Monsignor Panica,
the Apostolic Delegate in Canada.
On
the request of the French-speaking Canadian bishops, the Central Office for
Immigration was transferred to Montreal in 1958, while the Ottawa centre
continued to function for that diocese, and also as a house of welcome for
immigrants.
It
should be added that from 1954 to 1969 our Fathers took over the periodical
'Compas-Onder ons’, which the Capuchin Fathers had given up. Father Wubbels
wrote in it, under the pseudonym `Ping-pong'. Fathers Eliens and Grootscholten
were also involved in it, and this publication did a lot of good among the
Dutch and Flemish immigrant families.
In
September 1960, the 192 Daly Avenue House welcomed seven scholastics - two
coming from French Canada, three from English Canada, and two from Holland.
In
1968 Father A. Visscher transferred the Provincial Curia to this house. As well
as the 'Opus pro immigrantibus' which was already there, he also organised the
'Family Apostolate' there. In addition those who ministered in the parishes of
Cantley and Osgoode met there.
3.
Toronto
At
the invitation of Mons. Marrocco, the Priests of the
Sacred Heart entered his diocese to develop social work there. Three Fathers
initially took charge of the Neil MacNeil Boys' Residence, a catholic
undertaking for helping boys (C.C.A. S.). But these had first to follow courses
at the Universities of Detroit and Windsor, because greater qualification was
demanded in Canada than in Europe. Soon the archbishop entrusted to our Fathers
the parish of Saint Joan of Arc, and the first two pastors were Father Renders
and Father J. Coppens. Subsequently the building was expropriated, and the
place where in 1919 a small French community had built a place of worship
dedicated to Saint Joan of Arc is today occupied by the Bloor-Dundas Subway
Station. A centre for worship was permanently set up, after numerous moves, in
the new building designed in the grand style, after a competition, by the
architect W. Saccoccio. The church of Saint Joan of Arc enjoys well-deserved
fame in Toronto, thanks to the excellence of its liturgical worship and of its
youth organisations. Much of this is owed to the zeal of Father Coppens.
In
1950 the parish of the Sacred Heart in Uxbridge (diocese of Toronto in Ontario)
was entrusted to our Fathers, together with the Mission in Port Perry. Little
by little all the existing buildings, left by the Dominican Missionary Sisters
of the Countryside (who had gone back to the French-speaking areas),and also
the church itself, made way for new buildings, thanks above all to the work of
Father Marynen.
At
Port Perry, in 1975, a new parish was established under the charge of Father P.
Botman. There is co-operation between the two parishes.
In
1952, an assistance centre was set up in Antigonish in Nova Scotia, for the
immigrants of the maritime regions.
In
1962 Canada was divided into two sub-provinces, the first Provincial Superior
for the English-speaking province was Father Leo Hermans.
In
1963, our first priest of Canadian origin was ordained - Father John Van Damme,
who had formerly been a student at Delaware.
In
1964, a parish in Osgoode was entrusted to our Fathers, together with the
Mission at Monotick.
The
seminary of Delaware was closed in 1969, and transformed into the Belvoir
Conference Centre.
English-speaking
Canada was raised to the status of a Province on the 2nd May 1974, and Father
James J. Casper became the first Provincial.
In
June 1974 Father John Van Damme was put in charge of the Work of Vocations,
which was recovering some of its strength. The centre for this work was moved
to Toronto in May 1976.
In
1975, No 58 High Park Boulevard in Toronto was acquired, in order to establish
a study centre there. The Provincial Curia was subsequently installed there.
[1] 1) Letters of Father Carpentier,
published by Kingdom of the Sacred Heart, Louvain, 1912, p. 57.
[2] 1) The Kingdom of the Sacred
Heart, Louvain 1912 pages 92-93.
[3] 2) Ibid. p. 92. In this period the whole province of Alberta had only 15
French-Canadian, 3 Irish Secular Priests.
[4] 1) The Kingdom of the
Sacred Heart, Louvain 1914, pp. 194-195.
[5] 2) Fr. Lemaire joined Fr. Carpentier and succeeded him. In 1935 he joined the secular clergy.
[6] 3) Fr. Koolen stayed
at Clyde until 1924. He became a secular in Edmonton, and retired there, dying
in 1956.
[7] 4) Fr. Steinmetz
returned to Europe in 1922. He resided for a while at Clairefontaine, then took
charge of the parish of Chef-Boutonne, where he died in 1940.
[8] 5) The Kingdom of the
Sacred Heart, Louvain 1914, p. 236.
[9] 1) The Kingdom of the
Sacred Heart, Louvain 1914, p. 316.
[10] 1) Father Dehon
writes, oddly, in his Diary for 1910: 'Just as the Sulpicians are the real
feudal barons of old Canada, so the Oblates are very powerful throughout the
West'.
[11] 2) In his small
‘Directive’ for missionaries, the Father Founder wrote of Canada: `The danger
for you is that you will become used, little by little, to the secular life. It
is essential for you to be together, at least in threes, in each place' (Arch.
D. B. 38/6).
[12] 1) A sort of Credit
Bank for immigrants in Canada.