Category Archives: Mission Trips

Update on News in Kenya

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By Alfred Groleau OMI     (October 27, 2011)

childreninred web Update on News in KenyaAs I have been able to follow international news since we set up a dish in Meru last month, I see less mention on the famine in Somalia overflowing into the Kenyan refugee camps. Though the summer heat has passed this tragic situation remains. The abduction of two ‘doctors without borders’ this month has received much attention. It is not an isolated event since it was preceded by the similar crime towards in Lamu on the Kenyan coast. This kidnapping was explained seemingly by the Somalian pirates’ shift to softer targets since their business on the waters has become more hazardous.

These events along with the horrible atrocities committed in Mogadishu have lead to the invasion of Kenyan troops into Sudan. Yesterday, the president of the transitional government in Somalia was denying that Kenya’s assistance was requested. There is confusion about how it came to be. But the fact is that the Kenya armed forces have invaded the territory, claiming some victories, and the armed forces defends its right to be there in the light of all of the disturbances overflowing across its borders.

The invasion has been a cause of insecurity in Nairobi with the repeat occurrence of hand grenades thrown into mobs of people. Somalian refugees in Kenya are numerous and they, of course, are the first suspects of these terrorist acts.

I now live a safe distance away from these events. The notorious refugee camp in is on the north-eastern border of the country. My present home in Meru is in the north central part of the country. I am now 120 kilometres from Nairobi, which is four hours drive. I will live here for the coming three weeks while all of the Oblates except two of us attend the convocation of OMI Lacombe Province in New Westminster.

While I live in a quiet haven in the three acres compound of the Oblate Formation House in Meru, there is unrest not far from us. The desert begins just north of Mount Kenya within a half hour drive. I learned about the unrest in this area this week, when I drove some forty minutes directly north of Meru to Isiolo to visit Normand Péladeau and Sheila Sullivan. This couple are Oblate Associate who had offered their services to the Oblates between 2006 and 2010. Normand as a construction contractor and Sheila as a teacher in our formation programs.

After returning to Canada, Normand has come back to Kenya to assist Mater Care Hospitals in the construction of a hospital. He has been back one full years and his commitment has included the building supervision of a clinic in Merti, a small town further north and deeper into the desert and the heat. Sheila has joined him in Isiolo this month and now they both will return to Canada in early November.

They told me of the killings of a half dozen men here and there. The area is under high surveillance with the mobilization of troops that can be afforded given the army’s investment in Sudan. The agenda here appears not to be connected to the Somalian affair. Political ambitions would be the cause for jockeying nomadic populations to gain votes for the 2012 election. Normand is continuing his work but he must exercise caution.

An interesting observation during my visit was the queue lined up for distribution of food in Isiolo by a non-profit organization from Europe that assisted four hundred people one day and another three hundred and fifty the next day (a project of 50,000 KES, I am told, or $5,000.00 CAN). This is a sign that some effort has been made for famine relief.

While pockets of violence are not far from us, the Oblate Formation House lives a quasi-monastic life and our concerns are mainly agrarian, trying to domesticate rambunctious goats while caring for the sheep, the new litter of pigs, a few cows, the chickens and the shamba (garden). The number of our postulants is back to four since a new member has joined us.

“It was what God told me to do”

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By Patria C. Rivera.
Translated by Léonce Paquet, OMI

labat.web It was what God told me to doThis first appeared in Catholic Missions in Canada, November, 2004 (Vol.8,no 2). Reprinted with permission.

As a young man in the 1950’s the just-ordained Father Felicien Labat, OMI, could have chosen to stay and serve in the farming town of Sizun in Brittany, a region on the West coast of France, where he grew up. But he had other dreams. The beauty of ancient churches and imposing cathedrals and fortresses – all the art, history ad architecture of old France, even the rolling hills of his ancient village – could not hold him back.

His dream was many kilometers and an ocean away, on the ice-swept tundra in the northwest corner of Canada: vast, unexplored, rugged.

“I think it was what God told me to do,” he admits in a phone conversation from Eber House, a home for transient staff in Yellowknife, that he runs for the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith.

In 1904, an uncle, Brother Oblate Derrien Kerautret, had gone to the Northwest Territories to serve in Fort Simpson, Fort Good Hope, Aklavik and Fort Resolution.

“I was six years old when my mother’s brother came home in 1934,” recalls Fr. Labat. “He wrote letters home. I also read stories about the North during my seminary days in Solignac. All these stories could have fuelled my dreams.”

After his ordination in February 1953, the young Felicien left the oat and barley fields, the greem meadows, the cattle and pigs of his family farm in Sizun to take on the cold and desolate country across the Atlantic. First stop was Fort Resolution for five to six months of learning English. Then to Deline (which was renamed Fort Franklin and again renamed Deline) for a couple of winters.

Those harsh winters were nothing like what he had expected, he says. “I learned everything about fishing, hunting and trapping from the Dene during those years. I was completely ignorant about their way of life but they were patient with me. They taught me how to travel on the ice, how to survive.”

From 1956 to 1961, he took over the missions in Fort Norman now known as Tulita. Fr. Labat later served in Fort Smith where he managed Breynat Hall, a hostel for students. In 1968 he was sent to serve in the mission of Norman Wells, a base for oil explorations. He came back to Tulita briefly in 197, and was again transferred to another assignment – Fort Good Hope – were he served until 1976. He took off the following year to study pastoral care at St. Paul University in Ottawa. In 1978 he became assistant pastor in Yellowknife, and in the early 1980’s served Tulita and Decline as pastor.

In 1989 the bishop of the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, Bishop Denis Croteau, OMI, assigned Fr. Labat and Sister Jackie Keefe to travel around the missions to work with young people. During that year, however, he was stricken ill. When he recovered, he was assigned to work in the Sahtu Region, an area encompassing Deline, Tulita, Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake where he served until his retirement in 2001. He has since served as chaplain at Yellowknife’s Stanton Hospital and still assists Father Joseph Daley, pastor of St. Patrick’s parish in Yellowknife, on the occasional days when they are short of a priest.

“I will nothing behind,’ he says matter-of-factly. “Others would have written poetry or essays or memoirs about their life. I haven’t,” the self-effacing priest offers without regret. “I keep myself busy. I help in the parish.  I try to be a good priest.”

Was there something else he wanted to do in this life?

“I had no other dreams than to walk the month-long journey to Santiago de Compostela [a pilgrimage site on France’s southern border with Spain]. I did it halfway in 2000.”

In 2002 when he was 73, he fulfilled that dream, and completed the pilgrimage.

Summing up his life’s work, Fr. Labat says: “I love Denendeh, the land, and the Dene people I’ve met over the years. This is the place where God is calling me.”

An update (January 2011) to the first article.

Felician was not the first of his family to come to the NWT. His mother’s brother arrived in the NWT in 1904 (died in 1959) and served almost all of his ministry in the Territories.

Felician’s bouts with medical issues have not derailed his life and ministry. He has made the trip for by-pass surgery, developed shingles, broke his collar bone and adds in the same sentence, “It was no big thing!”

When he broke his pelvis and has to be hospitalized for three months the signs indicating retirement could no longer be argued. “I would like to go back to Yellowknife but if doubt it will happen anymore.”

On the window sill, just behind his chair, is a decorative license plate with “Comino de Santigo.” His eyes light up when he describes walking the Comino in Spain. There is a lilt in his voice. “It was wonderful.” On the first attempt he walked sixteen days when his walking partner became ill and the walk had to be discontinued. Two years later (2002) when he was seventy-five years of age, he finished the walk. “This was one of my dreams. Why did I wait so long? I had no problem, not even a blister on my foot.”
Surveying his health record he admits that “I was strong until I came here with surgery.” Much to Felican’s surprise the prisoners in the Yellowknife jail sent a large bouquet of flowers (July, 2009) as a get well card. He searches for a photo of the bouquet, “That famous bouquet!”

In his humble manner he responded to the first request for an interview, “There is nothing to be famous about! I walked with the people.”  The interview came to an end with the good news that his niece and her adult daughters were coming to visit from France, next Saturday (in mid-January).

Adventurous Mission in British Columbia

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What is it like to serve as a missionary in William Lake Ranch? Miles of ranch land and wilderness are punctuated by small Native communities on various reserves: Toosey, Stone,AnahimLake, Redstone,NimpoLake, Nemiah, Kleena Kleene, Bella Coola – the names slip off the tongue like silver. In the face of such vastness, there’s an unconscious desire to draw together around the fireplace. “I know my sheep and they know me.” In a village, that’s both a blessing and a curse.

There’s no anonymity of the city here. A misstep is common knowledge within minutes, but on the other hand it’s only in a small community that Blackey, the Lab who adopted Maynard, would still be alive despite its fondness for chasing horses or cows. Everyone knows it’s “Father’s dog”. Only in a small community would the people know their priest well enough to present him with a cake for his December twenty-fourth birthday and the Christmas present he really wanted – a riding lawn mower, parked in the Church as a surprise. It’s a symbiotic relationship. While making his rounds, it’s necessary, because of distance, to stay overnight at one of the missions. While Maynard gets the wood stove going, someone cooks him a meal, which is later paid back by doing plumbing, carpentry, wiring, and electronics. “I help by installing the occasional satellite dish for the people – so they can get Catholic television – watch mass when they want to.” One hopes the teenagers are also using the satellite dish for devotions and not late night movies!

Christmas ministry this year began at 9:00 a.m. with the first of four masses; there was no sleeping in for the pastor. Eventually he was off to Nemiah Valley near Chilko Lake for 2:00 p.m. liturgy. Unusual for the time of the year was the lack of snow; however, as he climbed on up into the mountains, he ran into plenty of it … and ice which necessitated stopping to put on tire chains. He arrived twenty minutes late for mass but the people were unperturbed. “A man with a cat entertained them while they waited” was Maynard’s cryptic comment. At Redstone, liturgy was celebrated in the new church, featured in the Missions Canada magazine, rebuilt after a devastating fire. The day drew to a close with prayer on the Stoney Reserve followed by sleigh rides, music and everybody invited to various homes for turkey supper.

alex creek british columbia 300x210 Adventurous Mission in British ColumbiaWith three Sisters of Christ the King ministering in the area, one of whom teaches on a reserve school, Maynard doesn’t work entirely alone. “They have a really good influence and are a major help…wouldn’t be able to do things without them. But I have to admit Sunday is a long day; I do over 400 kilometers on these mountain roads. I could really use some help in trying to take care of these ten different missions which include Alkali Lake, Dog Creek, and Canoe Creek.”

There are opportunities for relaxation. “It’s a great place. The people are easy going; they don’t get too excited about much. I enjoy trout fishing when I find a chance, and the Native People dip-net for salmon, here. For the summer I like to use my canoe if the kids are not using it, and there’s horseback riding too. During the winter it’s usually colder than it has been so far; so it’s great for cross-country skiing.”

Long roads can also mean a long time between visits with Oblate confreres. It’s five hours down the highway to visit Al Noonan OMI in Kamloops or four hours to Anahim Lake where Brother Jerry Prazma OMI occupies a cabin. Speaking of him, Maynard said offhand, “Think he’s expecting a long winter…got a lot of firewood there.” A tiny cabin cowering under a monstrous cache of kindling springs to mind! The very absence of a larger Oblate community makes gatherings, such as the one in New Westminster not long ago, more meaningful. It’s an opportunity to spend time with brothers sharing laughter, stories of the missions and the bonds of friendship.

Have a sense of adventure and a yearning for the missions? Follow the Chilcotin Highway! (Submitted by Harley Mapes, OMI)

OMI Travels to Nunavut

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Bishop Rouleau called together the seven priests of his diocese – all of whom are Oblates – in Rankin Inlet,Nunavuton the north western side ofHudson’s Bay.

Stereotypes cannot help but colour our perception of life and ministry in the North; even those of us who have grown up in Canada often have but hazy ideas based on school lessons from long ago or from reading Midst Ice and Snow. The Arctic has changed. Vast distances, isolation, high cost of living, intense cold (despite global warming!), language and closeness to the land remain … but the North is a living culture, not a static museum.

Alcohol and drugs such as crystal meth, marijuana and even heroin, have become a growing problem; sometimes people in the community who should be part of the solution are in fact part of the problem. Flowing from this is an increase in violence and accidents – often with tragic results. Break-ins and vandalism, almost unheard of in the past, are becoming more commonplace. Problems difficult enough to deal with in a southern community, where resources are more readily available, can be overwhelming in an isolated village, lacking social services, where something as basic as going for a drive is not an option and ‘getting away for awhile’ is prohibitively expensive. Television, via satellite dish, is a constant in every home, indoctrinating the children with foreign values incomprehensible to the community elders and subtly teaching the young that traditional culture cannot possibly compete with the excitement of life ‘down south’.

Added to this pot of social disintegration, and souring the relationship between the Oblates and the people to whom they were sent, are the offences committed by missionaries in the past. While abuse in its various forms was perpetrated by a few, it is all the Oblates who pay the price. When children coming running up and want to hug Father, what do you do? You are faced with the unpalatable choice of turning children away or leaving yourself open to accusations.  Missionaries can no longer assume they are welcome in every home; anger has been openly expressed and threats of violence made.

Recent history has seen evangelical churches moving into communities that were once largely Catholic or Anglican. These churches are often well funded and come with ready-made resources and a well-honed plan of proselytization, which capitalizes on missionary’s past mistakes. As confusion and discord grow in people’s minds, church attendance and participation in the sacraments fall off.

Despite difficulties, hope flourishes. For daily Eucharist a large group gathered and afterwards people stayed to visit. They were evidently happy to have the northern Oblate missionaries gather in their community and they celebrated joyfully, especially true when the Bishop had a mass honouring his anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Inuit liturgies are not staid affairs but filled with lively singing and movement. Present were an Inuit couple whose names have been forwarded to Rome with the request that they be named Honourary Oblates.  Mass was followed by a special meal and people lingered late into the night sharing stories.

When asked what struck him most during his visit, Andy replied,
“I was impressed by the sincerity of the missionaries working in Nunavut – the depth of their faith and courage – their patience to work in what is sometimes a very difficult situation. Despite the difficulties they wouldn’t want to move. It’s home for them. They’ve learned the language, Inuktitut, and always spoke it with the people. Mass was in Inuktitut and all the visiting that happened afterwards was in the local language.

They have a wonderful community there. They rely on one another and the young missionaries listened attentively to the older ones; you could see that they really wanted to learn from their experiences! They have a true missionary spirit. You can see that they are alive and excited about what they are doing. At the liturgies even the older missionaries would be clapping and kind of dancing as they sang the Inuktitut hymns.”

Andy also spoke of how all the Oblates contributed to the building up of community. Proving once again that missionaries make excellent cooks, they prepared their own meals and at various times feasted on caribou, Arctic char and a dish special to Polish culture (Bigos) – a mixture of sauerkraut, mushrooms and various meats including chicken gizzards. For men a long way from the country of their birth, it was a nostalgic taste of home!

To be a northerner is to be a storyteller and Andy brought back a number to share on his return. Fr. Szwarc OMI, based in Kugaaruk, was happy to share pictures of his hunting trip. In his words:

“It happened on Friday, January 27th in the afternoon around 3.00 P.M. I was in my house and the phone rang. It was my neighbour Bernadette. She speaks only Inuktitut so it was hard to understand what she wanted to tell me … but I got at least one word, nanuk, which means polar bear; I still didn’t know what about it. Then I caught another word that means “see” and I looked through the window. A few meters from the church there was a polar bear.

It was dark but right when I was watching two Inuit came on snowmobiles to hunt it, so I could see it clearly in the light from their machines. I dressed up and went out. There was no danger because polar bears are afraid of the snowmobiles. When I came out from my house three young Inuit came to me from the house of Bernadette, Jackie, Henry and Chester. While we were watching, the bear began running towards the bay. They said that they were untying a dog when suddenly Henry saw a bear just few meters behind them. He said only “Nanuk!” The other two looked behind and started the fastest run of their lives. Bernadette’s house was very close and the bear was young and not too big so nothing bad happened. We heard two shouts but it was too far to see anything. Anyway, we were sure that they shot it. Polar bears are too dangerous and should never be allowed to enter the town.

It was Henry Totalik, son of our church’s leader, who shot it. So right after I went to help them to skin it and cut it, and of course take some pictures.

The next day I was going by taxi to the airport and the taxi driver said that thanks to this bear his business is running better; because people are afraid to walk alone, they call taxi more often! It was the second polar bear that came close to the town this year.”

Fr. Krotki OMI, from Igloolik, recounted how he and a traveling partner, on their way to a far off mission, were caught in a blizzard. With conditions steadily worsening, they had to make a decision – do they go on, stay or turn back? When in a near whiteout you have to, at all cost, stay on the trail; wander off and the likelihood of anyone finding you is nil!  To test the conditions, they drove in a large circle; coming back to their starting point they could no longer see the track so knew it wasn’t safe to go on. They quickly set up their tent and not knowing how long the blizzard would last, took stock of their food supplies. That didn’t take long. Two fish! By cutting up the frozen, raw fish into pieces and eating only when necessary, they calculated they would be able to survive several days. Things turned out for the best. When the storm ended and they had not arrived at their destination, people came looking for them. The distant roar of a search party on snowmobiles was welcome indeed. In Fr. Krotki’s words, “Thank God we stayed on the trail or we wouldn’t be here today!”

What does the future hold for our northern missions? Andy, Tom and the Bishop were asked about the possibility of one or two more men being made available – it would help alleviate the pressure on the present personnel as they try to meet the needs of their many, isolated missions. It was questioned why there were no young Canadian missionaries in the North but only themselves from Poland. They explained that it was the allure of the Arctic, the chance to go to a difficult mission that had drawn them. Would OMI Lacombe be open to them traveling to southern parishes and talking to young people about vocations, especially about missionary life in northern Canada?

Oblates have a long, proud history of missionary work in the Arctic. Saints have been produced in its icy crucible. As with most of our ministries, its future is unclear. However, should any area of evangelization in Canada offer both challenge and hope, the Arctic community certainly does. Young missionaries and old, bonded in Oblate community continue to be inspired by the vision of De Mazenod as they work to establish the Kingdom of God.

(Submitted by Harley Mapes, OMI)
Feb 2006