Thompsonites and visitors from The Pas and elsewhere in Northern Manitoba packed the parish hall of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church on Cree Road in Thompson Aug. 25 to say farewell and goodbye to Father Eugene Whyte, a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), and one of the area's longest-serving clergy.
A member of the order's Lacombe Province, Father Eugene, 67, had previously served in locales ranging from Nova Scotia to Zimbabwe before arriving in Thompson six years ago in 2005.
As well as serving as pastor of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Thompson, he also travelled, often on at least a monthly basis by road, to outlying mission churches, including St. Michael's in Nelson House; Christ the King in Leaf Rapids, St. Helen's in South Indian Lake; St. Maria Goretti in Lynn Lake, and his farthest destination, Kinoosao, Saskatchewan, about 95 kilometres northwest of Lynn Lake, and just west of the Manitoba border.
In Kinoosao, Father Eugene would say mass on Monday mornings rather than Sunday because of his schedule and the distances involved. Kinoosao is only accessible by Manitoba Provincial Route (PR) 394 and Saskatchewan Highway 994, one of that province's shortest highways at 1.11 kilometres in length, and the only provincial highway in Saskatchewan that requires entering a neighbouring province to travel it. Kinoosao, which means "fish" in Cree, is one of only two communities in Saskatchewan accessible solely by first entering through Manitoba.
He also travelled to Thicket Portage, Gillam and Lac Brochet and Brochet at various times during his tenure here. As of last year, there were only 15 resident Roman Catholic priests to serve all of Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Father Eugene, as he is popularly known by most, left Thompson after the 10 a.m. mass Sunday morning Aug. 28 to begin a year's sabbatical, with the first destination on his journey being Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. That is where Eugene de Mazenod founded the Oblates order. Pope Leo XII approved the new congregation on Feb. 17, 1826. De Mazenod served as Bishop of Marseille and was elected superior general of the Oblates. He was canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II on Dec. 3, 1995.
After his stay in the south of France with the Oblate renewal experience there, Father Eugene is headed later this fall to San Antonio, Texas and the Pat Guidon Center at the Oblate School of Theology, where he has been accepted into the Ministry to Ministers Sabbatical Program, which is four months long and focuses on the renewal of personal and spiritual growth, addressing the needs of body, mind and spirit. The centre was named to honour Father Patrick Guidon, who served as president of the Oblate School of Theology from 1970 until 1995.
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to Texas in 1849, at the request of Texas' first Roman Catholic bishop. The Oblate School of Theology was founded in San Antonio in 1903 as the San Antonio Philosophical and Theological Seminary.
Father Eugene, an avid soccer (football) fan, is an Irishman from a large family of siblings, including a twin brother who lives in Australia, and was raised largely in England, but also in places such as the then British colony of Hong Kong, where his father was stationed with the British army.
For Father Eugene, the sabbatical year marks a pilgrimage of sorts to explore the roots of his own religious order. Since 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Eugene de Mazenod, symposiums and oratorios on the theme of the transmission of faith, exploring the context of his time and to show how preaching and the transmission of the faith through the Oblate charism are related to the founding vision of the Missionaries of Provence, have been taking place throughout the year at the International de Mazenod Centre, along with pilgrimages to Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseille.
Here in Thompson Thursday night, tables of home-cooked food ran from almost the front door to the stage for the event, which included scores of non-Catholics and clergy and lay leaders from the Thompson Christian Council, including Rev. Leslie-Elizabeth King, a United Church minister and pastor of neighbouring St. John's United Church and Advent Lutheran Church; Pastor Ted Goossen, from the Mennonite Christian Centre Fellowship; Pastor Peter Elias from First Baptist Church in Thompson; and Diane Rogers of St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Church on Juniper Drive, across the street.
Among the Catholic contingent on hand were Father Eugene's immediate superior, Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie, from the archdiocesan seat for the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas at the Bishop's House at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in The Pas, and Sister Andrea Dumont, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto Roman Catholic religious order.
She spent 14 years in Guatemala and since returning to Canada has lived in Grand Rapids, Easterville and Thompson. The main focus of her work is adult education, which includes training lay presiders for times when there is no priest available, organizing and instructing in the various ministries, sacramental preparation and RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults).
Also enjoying Thursday night's potluck was Father Prosper Lyimo, a diocesan priest from the diocese of Arusha in Tanzania, who is completing his doctoral degree at the University of Ottawa, and will replace Father Eugene on a temporary basis.
Father Lyimo was available to do some summer replacement ministry and "so came to us to for a month and a half," said Archbishop Lavoie. "At the end of September he will return to Ottawa to defend his thesis."
While he's not assigned to St. Lawrence, the archbishop said, "We are negotiating with his bishop to have him return in the New Year to help us out again for a time as we seek for a more permanent pastor for the parish." If all goes well, Lavoie said, Father Lyimo could be returning in early 2012 for about seven months as the archdiocese's search for "a more permanent priestly presence for St. Lawrence parish in Thompson and also the surrounding missions that Father Eugene was serving" continues. Prior to Father Eugene's arrival in the fall of 2005, Father Martin Bradbury, now in southern Manitoba, served at St. Lawrence for several years.
Lay presiders and extraordinary ministers of communion will lead services in the absence of a priest and mass at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. Sundays during the interregnum. Father Noel Boulanger, an Oblate who normally covers Cross Lake, Norway House, Grand Rapids and Wabowden for the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, will make the drive north to Thompson to St. Lawrence for one weekend between the beginning of October and Christmas to say mass, Lavoie said.
"We will be sure that a priest is available for Christmas," Lavoie added. And who might that be? "Possibly Father Eugene himself," said the archbishop, as Whyte may find himself recalled briefly from the warmth of Texas sunshine mid-sabbatical in late December to help out here again over Christmas.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas takes in some 430,000 square kilometres and comprises the northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. The farthest point west is LaLoche, Saskatchewan, near the Alberta border. The farthest point north is Lac Brochet here in Manitoba and the farthest point east is Sandy Lake in Northwestern Ontario. There are 49 missions in the archdiocese: 27 in Manitoba, 21 in Saskatchewan and one in Ontario. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) established the first mission at Ile-À-la-Crosse, Sask. in 1860.
