Not for the faint of heart: Father Subhash Joseph to transfer from St. Lawrence Church to the Church of St. Gertrude in Pelican Narrows and the Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in Sandy Bay, both in remote northeastern Saskatchewan

Days after he began what was originally expected to be a second three-year appointment as co-pastor of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church here in Thompson, Manitoba, Father Subhash Joseph, a missionary priest from India, said July 18 he is being transferred to the repair-challenged Church of St. Gertrude in Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan, located 120 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon; 388 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert and 525 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, and the Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in Sandy Bay, at road’s end for the gravel winding road, 72 kilometres north of Pelican Narrows. The transfer, requested by Father Joseph, as he is known, and approved by Archbishop Murray Chatlain, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, will probably take place in October. He will serve in Pelican Narrows and Sandy Bay by himself, replacing  Father Susai Jesu, an Oblate, also from India.

Father Joseph, along with Father Guna Pothula, his co-pastor at St. Lawrence Church in Thompson, are both from India and members of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, founded by Father Peter Marie Mermier from Vouray in the parish of Chaumont en Genevois and the Diocese of Annecy in the Savoy region of France in October 1838 for parish mission, foreign mission and youth education. They are also known as the Fransalians. Pope Pius XI proclaimed St. Francis de Sales in 1923 as the patron saint of writers and journalists. Francis de Sales was born in France and lived at the time of the Protestant Reformation, becoming Bishop of Geneva. He had lots of exposure to Calvinism and predestination and was noted for his diplomacy in the volatile, heated religious climate of the day in Switzerland. He’s honored as one of the doctors of the Catholic Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The missionary order allows it priests to live abroad for up to 10 years. Father Joseph and Father Guna arrived in Thompson together three years ago in July 2012. Their requests to have their terms extended for a further three years were approved earlier this year by the provincial superior of their missionary order in India and the local archdiocese here. Father Guna, who will be staying on at St. Lawrence in Thompson, will now be joined in due course by another priest, likely from Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India where he is from, and also a member of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales.

In Cree, Pelican Narrows  is called Opawikoscikcan, which means “The Narrows of Fear.” The community consists of the Northern Village of Pelican Narrows and Pelican Narrows 184B Indian Reserve, the administrative centre of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. The combined population is about 2,700, with more than two-thirds of the population – about, 1,900 of the 2,700 residents – living on the reserve. Sandy Bay’s name in Cree is Wapaskokimawn, meaning “okimaw,” which is “boss” in Cree, or “non-native agent.” With a combined population of about 1,200, the community, like Pelican Narrows,  is also split into two parts: the Northern Village of Sandy Bay and  Wapaskokimaw Indian Reserve No. 202, with about one quarter of Sandy Bay’s combined population being members of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation.

Major businesses and industry in Pelican Narrows consist of the Co-op Fisheries and Fish Plant, The Northern Store, Mum’s Restaurant, Charles Confectionery, PBCN Band Store, Pearson Enterprises, Nikatosik Forestry and Pelican Narrows Air Services.

In 1876, Father Étienne Bonnald, a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.), often known simply as Oblates, and also a missionary order, sought to establish a Catholic presence within the Village of Pelican Narrows, which had started out as a Protestant community. St. Gertrude was erected two years later in 1878.

The Church of St. Gertrude in Pelican Narrows, where 90 per cent of the parishioners are Cree, had fallen into such a state of disrepair in recent years, Catholic Missions In Canada identified it as a mission church it was going to help fund repairs for.  St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish Social Justice Committee in Moose Jaw, at the suggestion of Catholic Missions In Canada, began helping with repairs through its “St. Gertrude’s Project” in 2010. You can watch a short YouTube video on the project here at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeLwJCejEJQ

Les Oblats de Marie Immaculée, or The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.), established the first mission at Ile-À-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan in 1860.

Another Oblate priest, Father Ovide Charlebois, arrived as pastor of St. Gertrude in 1900. While in Pelican Narrows, he constructed a new church with a bell, and a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was erected. Ten years later,  on March 4, 1910 when the Vicariate Apostolic of Keewatin, forerunner to today’s Metropolitan Archdiocese of Keewatin Le Pas, was created from territory of the Diocese of Prince Albert, and Charlebois, elevated to bishop, was appointed as its first ordinary on Aug. 8, 1910 and installed as vicar apostolic on March 7, 1911.

The Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas takes in some 430,000 square kilometres and stretches across the northern parts of three provinces – Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small portion of Northwestern Ontario.

The farthest point west is La Loche, Saskatchewan., near the Alberta border. The farthest point north is Lac Brochet here in Manitoba. The distance from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in The Pas, which serves as the archdiocesan seat, to La Loche by car, is 850 kilometres – an 8 1/2 -hour drive – and the archbishop, as shepherd of the flock, has to travel through the Diocese of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan to reach La Loche in his own archdiocese on travelling pastoral visits.

The farthest point east travelled is Sandy Lake, Ont., a fly-in and Northern Ontario Winter Road Network-only remote Oji-Cree First Nations community in Northwestern Ontario, 450 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and 600 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

The distance from The Pas to Sandy Lake is a combined six-hour drive to Winnipeg, followed by a one-hour plane ride.

Lac Brochet is reached by a four-hour drive from The Pas to Thompson and then an hour flight from Thompson to Lac Brochet. En route to Lac Brochet, the archbishop sometimes stays at the rectory at St. Lawrence Church on Cree Road in Thompson overnight waiting to catch a flight.

The Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales has long had a presence in India, dating back to 1846.  The Visakhapatnam Province of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales in India also has missions in Trinidad and Papua New Guinea, as well as the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas here in Canada.

Father Joseph joined the seminary at the age of 16 in 1998 and was ordained a priest in 2010. He is from Therthally in Kerala on the Malabar Coast in southwestern India, which dates back  some 20 centuries to the Christians of St. Thomas, named for Saint Thomas the Apostle, also known as “Doubting Thomas,” who is believed in apocryphal literature to have arrived in India around 52AD, seeking converts to Christianity. He was martyred, it is believed, about 20 year later in 72AD, near Mylapore, India, lanced by a spear as he prayed kneeling on a stone.

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Father Prosper Balthazar Lyimo, a member of Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 and temporary visiting priest at St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in 2011-12, appointed by Pope Francis as auxiliary bishop-elect of the Archdiocese of Arusha in Tanzania

Left, Father Prosper Balthazar Lyimo, in the rectory at St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Thompson, Manitoba in August 2011, trying on the fur hat passed onto him by his predecessor, Father Eugene Whyte, and right, receiving his doctorate in canon law from Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa in June 2012.

Photos courtesy of Archbishop Emeritus of Keewatin-Le Pas Sylvain Lavoie and University of Ottawa

Downtown Arusha, Tanzania.

The Holy Father has appointed Father Prosper Balthazar Lyimo as auxiliary bishop-elect of the Archdiocese of Arusha in northern Tanzania in East Africa, the number two post in the archdiocese, where he will serve under the ordinary, Archbishop Josaphat Louis Lebulu. Father Prosper’s episcopal ordination is to take place Feb. 15. He is currently chancellor and judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Arusha.

Pope Francis made the appointment at the Vatican Nov. 11, also appointing Father Prosper as the bishop-elect of the Titular Episcopal See of Vanariona in what was Mauretania Caesariensis, a Roman Empire province located in northwestern Africa in what is now present day Algeria, and the Henchir Debik ancient ruin near Ksar Tyr, in neighbouring Tunisia, adjacent east of Algeria.

The Archdiocese of Arusha is an area of 67,340 square kilometres with a population of  2.364 million people, of which 512,073 are Catholics. It has 128 priests. There are 59 diocesan priests, including Father Prosper, and 69 religious from priestly congregations, including the Holy Ghost Fathers, whose presence in the archdiocese dates back to founding a mission station in Mesopotamia in 1926.

The archdiocese is named after the town of Arusha that lays at the foot of Mount Merit, one of the peaks of the Kilimanjaro Mountain Range to the west of Kibo, the highest peak of the range.
Arusha is the largest of all the archdioceses and dioceses in Tanzania, stretching some 400 kilometres southwards over the Maasai Steppes to Kiteto, bordering Morogoro and Dodoma  dioceses; 200 kilometres to the west through  Monduli over the  Ngorongoro Crater along the famous Olduvai Gorge, over the Serengeti Plains and bordering Musoma and Shinyanga dioceses; 400 kilometres northwest to Loliondo bordering Ngong Diocese in Kenya; and  300 kilometres southeastwards, bordering Moshi, Same and Tanga dioceses.

Father Prosper, 50, was born in Kyou-Kilema, Tanzania in 1964 in the Diocese of Moshi and was ordained a priest on July 4, 1997. After his primary school studies in Maua and at the Ngurdoto Primary School in Arusha, he completed his secondary school studies at the minor seminary in Arusha. He studied philosophy at Our Lady of Angels Major Seminary in Kibosho, Moshi, and theology at St. Paul’s Interdiocesan Seminary in Kipalapala, Tabora.

Tanzania, with a population of about 45 million people, is predominantly Christian and the largest Christian denomination is Roman Catholic. Father Prosper comes from a family of 10 and has two brothers who are also priests. One spent time in Germany in Bonn, the other in the United States in Wisconsin.

Father Prosper studied in Rome in 2007-08 for a licentiate in canon law at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, with residence at the Pontifical College of St. Peter. Father Prosper arrived in Canada in 2011 to continue his studies for his doctoral degree in canon law, which was conferred on him jointly by Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa on June 2, 2012 by University of Ottawa Chancellor Michaëlle Jean, former governor general and commander-in-chief of Canada,  and Vice-Chancellor Allan Rock, a former federal Liberal justice and health minister  and ambassador to the United Nations, who has served as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Ottawa since July 2008. Alex Crescent Massinda, Tanzania’s high commissioner to Canada, attended the ceremony.

“Polygamy poses a major problem to the Church’s evangelizing mission. In many sub-Saharan African societies, it is a socially approved and respected system with deep cultural roots,” Father Prosper argued in his 305-page doctoral thesis, entitled, Polygamy in sub-Saharan Africa and the Munus Docendi: Canonical Structures in Support of Church Doctrine and Evangelization.

Father Prosper’s thesis was supervised by canon law expert John M. Huels, a laicized cleric, who is a former provincial for the Eastern Province of the Chicago-based Servants of Mary religious order, known more commonly as the Servites.

“Although it is rooted in the culture of the people, polygamy has never been recommended or approved by the Catholic Church,” Father Prosper wrote in his thesis. “Some Protestant denominations accept polygamy as legitimate or at least tolerate it, but the Catholic Church has been firm and consistent in its opposition to the practice, leaving no room for doubts or exceptions.

“The conversion to Christianity of polygamists is complicated by deeply rooted cultural values that in some respects run contrary to Catholic doctrine, so there is a need for “pastoral prudence” in implementing all these approaches. Priests and other agents of evangelization should be sympathetic to couples living in these situations and not be too quick to insist that their marital unions be regularized, even while they are catechumens, lest greater harm occur to their nascent faith. Such pastoral prudence requires a thorough knowledge of the customs of the people as well as a careful application of canonical norms in keeping with the circumstances of people and places. It also demands a respect and concern for the other wives, making efforts to avoid any injustice to the dismissed wives and their children.”

While studying at Saint Paul University for his PhD, Father Prosper lived at St. George’s Catholic Church on Piccadilly Avenue in Ottawa and helped out there and at several other Ottawa and area parishes with pastoral duties.

With his studies almost complete, when Father Eugene Whyte, an Oblate at St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Thompson in Northern Manitoba went on sabbatical in August 2011, Father Prosper, with the permission of Archbishop Lebulu, twice answered now Archbishop Emeritus of Keewatin-Le Pas Sylvain Lavoie’s call for help for a temporary priest here. Father Prosper was in Thompson from the middle of August 2011 until Oct. 2, 2011 when he returned to Ottawa for his doctoral defence.

After successfully defending his thesis,  he returned to Tanzania before Christmas 2011 to be with his parents as they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. He then returned to St. Lawrence in Thompson Feb. 6, 2012 on loan for a second secondment.

Father Prosper joined Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 on April 3, 2012. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal benefit organization headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut. Its origins date back to an Oct. 2, 1881 meeting organized by Father Michael J. McGivney, the assistant pastor at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven. The Knights of Columbus, made up of Father McGivney, Matthew C. O’Connor, Cornelius T. Driscoll, James T. Mullen, John T. Kerrigan, Daniel Colwell and William M. Geary, were officially chartered by the general assembly of the State of Connecticut on March 29, 1882, as a fraternal benefit society.

The Supreme Council in New Haven chartered Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 with 59 charter members on May 6, 1967. Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 were the 31st council in Manitoba to receive its charter. Father Prosper served as the Thompson council’s chaplain until June 2012.

The following month, the present co-pastors, Father Subhash Joseph, who likes to be called Father Joseph, and Father Gunasekhar Pothula, who likes to be called Father Guna, both members of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales in India, arrived. They joined Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 on April 2, 2013 and serve as co-chaplains of the council.

Thompson, which also has eight related mission churches attached to St. Lawrence, mainly  in small and remote First Nations communities in Northern Manitoba,  is by far the largest community in the the largely missionary Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, which takes in takes in some 430,000 square kilometres and stretches across the northern parts of three province – Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small portion of Northwestern 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.

Les Oblats de Marie Immaculée, or The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), established the first mission at Ile-À-la-Crosse, Sask. in 1860. In its most recent statistical picture released in June 2007, the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas listed 11 Oblates of Mary Immaculate, three diocesan priests and one other religious priest – for a total of 15 priests to serve all of Northern Manitoba, Northern Saskatchewan and part of Northwestern Ontario. The average age of the clergy seven years ago was 69.

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