Catholic Mission In Canada

When we arrived in Peawanuck, we were informed that the people had been waiting since morning. They had been told that the plane would arrive at 11 a.m., but it was past 4 o’clock in the afternoon when we arrived. Peawanuck is above the 55th parallel, so the days are shorter that time of the year.

In church, the lay reader rang the bell, and the people came rushing to the wigwam-like setting. We began the funeral Mass without delay because the people had waited for so long; as well, the pilots were waiting for me to re- turn south right after the service.

Everything went fine. The lay reader, Mike Hunter, said a few words about the deceased. I gave the homily and blessed the body with incense. Parishioners passed by the coffin at the end of the Mass and anointed the deceased with holy water on the forehead. They later took the body to the cemetery in a pick-up truck. The lay reader replaced me at the cemetery and offered the usual prayers under the beam light of the snowmobiles.

A gentleman offered to take me to the airport without delay because the pilots had said on our arrival that they would not go to the village which was six kilometres away although they would wait for me at the airport. Upon our arrival at the airport, there was no light anywhere. We looked in the doors and windows of the garage and at the ticket counter. We even knocked on doors but there was no answer. The small plane was still there, its two engines connected to the electric plugs with a blanket on each one. It was very cold then, minus 40, and windy. What should we do?

Happily, another vehicle arrived, but the pilots were not in it. After some talk, it was decided that one of the men would return to the village to get some information about the pilots while I would wait in the other vehicle.

Eventually, the other pickup arrived with news that the pilots had been found at the local boarding house and that they would arrive soon. We waited, and finally, the pilots arrived. They unplugged the engines, took away the thick blankets, and told me to wait in the pick-up truck because it was very cold outside. They succeeded in starting one engine, then the second one. They let the engines run for quite some time to warm them up. After another wait, the pilots told me to get in the freezing plane. We had to linger for quite a while again because the engines had to be warm enough to run smoothly.

Finally, we took off, with me praying as we flew in the black sky that I would make it safely back to Attawapiskat. The plane flew smoothly, but it was so cold, said one of the pilots, that the heaters would not work. At first, I felt all right because I had taken an extra coat in Peawanuck to put under my big parka. However,

after a while, my toes, my feet and my fingers began to freeze: all that time, I was shivering and praying that my heart would not freeze before we arrived in Attawapiskat. It was a one-hour flight but it appeared like a whole night’s journey. The pilots knew their plane because they had a blanket available to keep the plane from freezing but it was not of much help.

Finally, we landed in Attawapiskat. It was 8:30 in the evening. I rushed the seven minutes’ walk to the rectory in the bitter cold. It took quite a while for my toes to unfreeze and my body to warm up. After having taken some food and drinking some hot tea—I had not taken anything since noon—I felt better. I will not soon forget that plane ride, but it is just a tiny part of the missionary work we do here in the Canadian North.

Father Rodrigue Vézina, O.M.I., is pastor of St. Francis Xavier parish in Attawapiskat and the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha mission in Peawanuck, in Northern Ontario, in the Diocese of Moosonee. He received Catholic Missions In Canada’s St. Joseph Award for outstanding missionary work in 2006.