ASSIGNED TO VISIT THESE VARIOUS LUMBER CAMPS TO PROVIDE THE COMFORT OF THEIR MINISTRY
In the search for funds to maintain the foreign missions in Canada, Eugene wrote to the Propagation of the Faith describing the latest missionary outreach of the Oblates.
I wish to avail myself of this occasion to tell you something about the importance and the needs of the foundation recently opened by our Congregation at Bytown in the diocese of Kingston, as well as the one to be opened next spring in the Hudson Bay district. Besides the service rendered to the Catholics entrusted to their care in the city itself and to those of the other parishes where they go to preach missions, the fathers in the Bytown community have also been instructed to bring spiritual assistance to the men working in the lumber camps.
There are thousands of these lumberjacks in small groups spread throughout the forest where they spend the summer season felling trees. Up to now bereft of the comfort of religion, they have abandoned themselves to all kinds of excesses and became the scourges of the parishes where they returned after their work.
In order to prevent such a great evil, the bishop of the Diocese wanted the Missionaries of Bytown to be assigned to visit these various lumber camps to provide the comfort of their ministry to all those gathered there.
Letter to the Council of the Propagation of the Faith, 23 December 1844, EO V n 90
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I think of the text that we reflected on yesterday, about Eugene going to the government, the king and the local mayor to secure funding to fix and enlarge the Marseilles cathedral which was badly in need of repair.
He appeals need to be personal and relevant to those he was asking to share their wealth so as to improve the lives and spaces where the missionaries would serve. His tone has changed from yesterday’s message as he speaks of the needs to the council members to secure funds for the missionaries over in Canada. He knows his audience and how to connect with them.
I am reminded of Albert Lacombe OMI here in Canada who was sent more than once from the west back to the east (and even on to Europe) to secure funds for the missions. To beg for money.
Today there are people specifically trained and hired to raise money for agencies and NGO’s and even by parishes who need to raise a particular amount of money to build a new church or renovate and repair an old one.
Recently we were asked if help and donate to the effort in the Ukraine and support the Oblates who remained there to help all those who were not able to safely leave the country. And people were generous. The optics have changed but not the core concerns. Those Oblate who have remained in the Ukraine experience the same horrors of war as the people they are serving. Yet they do what they can in loving service to ensure that as many as possible of the corporal and spiritual needs are met
A effective way of serving back in the time of Eugene and in the present.