Communications
(Submitted by Harley Mapes, OMI)

Harley Mapes, OMI

“We need someone to help with the newsletter and maybe establish an internet site, with a few pages on it, for the Province.”

Five years ago that was how, along with the request that I help with Formation, Doug Jeffrey, OMI sold me on the idea of leaving behind teaching in northern Saskatchewan and move to Ottawa. OMI Lacombe was a new province made up of disparate members scattered across the country. We didn’t know one another. We didn’t have a shared history. We used different languages. How were we to constellate into a unified Province? While a number of areas had a newsletter amongst local Oblates and friends, more was needed. Members, separated from one another and leadership in Ottawa, expressed the need for enhanced communications across the entire Province. As an English and computer teacher, it was hoped that I would be able to help meet that need.

Doug Jeffrey, OMI

Producing an eight to twelve-page weekly newsletter in French and English and keeping the website current has been more than a one-man undertaking. Many Oblates and Associates contributed articles, some spontaneously and some in response to a panicked plea, “I don’t have anything for this week’s INFO Lacombe, would you write an article?” Sister Ghislaine Lussier CSC, Nicole Boisvert and Fr. Léonce Paquet, OMI have taken care of translations. Since taking her extended sick leave, Sister Ghislaine has been greatly missed not only for her translations but also her sharp-eyed review of the English version. Brother Louis Andreas OMI, a genius with graphics, designed the layout for the newsletter and the website masthead we have been using since October 2007.

Sr. Ghislaine Lussier, CSC (top) Nicole Boisvert (bottom)

This is our 187^th issue since we started posting it on our website in January 2006 … at an average of eight pages per issue, that totals almost 1500. Our website has grown into a sprawling mass of hundreds of pages with up to 1870 unique visitors and 174,500 hits from over 64 different countries in a month.

This issue of INFO Lacombe is the last for the summer – and for me. While remaining with Formation ministry, in the autumn I will no longer be working with the INFO Lacombe and the website; Nestor Gregoire, OMI will take up the Communications ministry for OMI Lacombe. I wish for him the same level of support from Oblates – Leadership and Members – and Associates I have received during my tenure.

Thank you again to all our contributors, readers and supporters!

We Are in Transition
(Submitted by Nestor Gregoire, OMI)

Let me introduce myself:  I am Nestor Gregoire OMI, the new director of Communications for OMI Lacombe Canada.  I shall be assuming the editorship of INFO Lacombe in the fall.

Nestor Gregoire, OMI

The Communications office and INFO Lacombe will be moving to Saskatoon.  A graphic artist will be hired to take up the position that Harley Mapes, OMI has held for the last number of years.  If all goes well we should be up and running in early September.

Harley will be leaving INFO Lacombe at the end of June in order to focus on his work in formation. Harley a sincere thanks to you from all members of OMI Lacombe Canada, and those who have enjoyed reading INFO Lacombe over the years.

And so you see, a summer of transition.

In today’s world of internet technology the Communications office can be located anywhere in the world. It is possible to imagine a Communications office that is paperless. Everything can and should be done on the internet.

Five days with Harley at the computer stretches one’s awareness that this is a much bigger project than first meets the eye. When you ask Harley, “What are you working on for the newsletter today?” the correct answer should run something as follows. “Are you speaking of the English or French print version (two versions)? Are you speaking of the French or English for the internet version (versions three and four)? Or, are you speaking of the English or French version that only contains the text, no photos or drawings, which accommodates people who can only work with dial-up (such as in Kenya and isolated communities in Canada)?” (These later two would be versions five and six.)

 The high quality of production comes with its costs. Sitting beside Harley through the entire process I could see that each photo takes a lot of work and that each of the six versions requires its own formatting. There can be no simple, “cut and paste” and it is all done!

People knowledgeable about newsletters often comment, “you have the best newsletter in the Congregation.”

Five years ago the Provincial Council threw the baton into Harley’s hands and through hard work, much perseverance and dedication to things Oblate he has brought us to high standards. As we move into this summer of transition the Core Team wants to recognize and thank Harley for hours of painstaking and quiet work to bring INFO Lacombe to all the membership. Once again Harley, our sincere thanks and our prayers for your continued ministry as director of the Pre-Novitiate.


Notices

INFO Lacombe

• This is our last issue until autumn. Enjoy the summer (or winter for those of you reading this in the southern hemisphere)!

Personnel Updates

Obediences:

• Brian Jayawardhana, OMI has been assigned as the Oblate Director of Foyer Lacombe, St. Albert, AB, for a three-year term starting September 1, 2010. He will replace Gerard LeStrat, OMI.
• Gerard LeStrat, OMI has been assigned to minister to the Siksika Nation and the two attached missions of St. Mary’s, Cluny, AB and St. Columba, Bassano, AB, for a three-year term starting September 1, 2010. He will be living and working with Garry LaBoucane, OMI.
• William Stang, OMI has been renewed for a three-year assignment at the Keewatin-The Pas Chancery, The Pas, MB, starting August 1, 2010.

Appointments:

• Robert Smith, OMI has been named Councillor on the Ontario District Council to replace Richard C. Kelly, OMI, as of June 23, 2010.
• François Paradis, OMI has been appointed as the Treasurer for the Taché District Council to replace Armand Le Gal, OMI, as of June 23, 2010.

Updates:

• Joseph Guilbaud, OMI
  • It is with regret that I inform you of the death of Joseph Guilbaud, OMI, on June 21, 2010 at 4:20 p.m. in Whitehorse General Hospital, YT.
  • Services for Fr. Joe will be as follows:
    • Vigil with reception - Sunday, June 27 at 7:00 p.m. at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Whitehorse, YT.
    • Funeral Mass – Monday, June 28 at 10:30 a.m.
  • Fr. Joe was born on March 13, 1915 in Chauché-Vendée, France. He was ordained on July 6, 1947 in Solignac, France.
  • We extend our condolences to the Basic Oblate Community of Whitehorse, Yukon. 


    
    Tom Cavanaugh, OMI

    BC/Yukon District Superior
    
    
• Oliver P (OP) Mohan, OMI is back at St. Timothy’s (Mesa, Arizona) … thanks to a very successful hip replacement surgery and rehabilitation program.

• Gerard Conlan, OMI

  Gerald Conlan OMI, from the Australian Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is now in Kenya. He will begin his ministry with time in Tanzania studying Kiswahili
• In the section of the website reserved for members, changes have been made to the following: Nicholas Forde, OMI; Gerard Conlan, OMI; Robert Smith, OMI; Richard C. Kelly, OMI; François Paradis, OMI; Armand Le Gal, OMI.

Lac Saint Anne Pilgrimage

• The Lac Saint Anne Pilgrimage, which runs from July 17-22, has the pilgrimage schedule on their website at: www.lsap.ca

Garry Byrne

• The date for Garry Byrne’s reception as an honorary Oblate is set for August 8 at 3:00 p.m. at St Joseph's Parish, Ottawa, Ontario.

Witnesses to the Faith in Spain: Martyred Missionary Oblates

Religious persecution in Spain during the 1930s reached its high point at the outbreak of the civil war, 1936-1939.

Most numerous amongst the victims were members of religious communities: 2,365 altogether. Among them are numbered twenty-two Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate: Fr. Francisco Esteban, Provincial, Fr. Vicente Blanco, Superior of the Scholasticate and most of the young Oblate students, whose ages ranged from 18 to 26.

“What a joy to die as a martyr!”  wrote one of them shortly before being ordained priest.

“We know that you killing us because we are Catholics and Religious. That we are. My companions and I forgive you from the bottom of our hearts. Long live Christ the King!” (Fr. Provincial).

Murdered along with them was a committed layman, the father of a family.

The Spanish Oblate Martyrs

We have requested the Congregation of the Cause of the Saints that our Spanish Martyrs be beatified during the 150^th anniversary of the death of our founder St. Eugene de Mazenod. It appears that the most probable date of the beatification would be in the year 2011 in Madrid.

June 2010 there is a “Congress of the Consultants” to examine (and approve) the Cause. Therefore it is a very important moment for us all.

Please pray and let others pray for this intention. Thank you very much.

Joaquín Martínez Vega, o.m.i.


Prayer

To ask for graces and favours through the intercession of these Servants of God:

Jesus, our Saviour, you said that whoever loses his life for your sake will save it. We ask you today through the Oblate Martyrs of Spain to whom you gave the strength to die to profess their faith in you. Demonstrate their heroic witness even more clearly. Grant that the Church may recognize them as true Christian martyrs.

And grant to us the particular grace which we ask of you through their intercession, if it is for the greater glory of God, the unity of the Church and for our own sanctification.

Mary Immaculate, Mother of Mercy, intercede for us with your Son, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

(Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be)

For more information, write to:
OMI Postulation, Via Aurelia 290 / 00165 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 06398 771. 
Email: martinez@omigen.org

To learn more about this and other Oblate causes, click here.