Catholic Mission In Canada

People in the Bloodvein mission, in the Archdiocese of St. Boniface in Manitoba, are used to the cold and poverty. But that doesn't mean that things cannot be made better for the parishioners. The Bloodvein mission church needs a big face-lift.

The church sits on a bedrock with water under it. This makes the church very humid and cold. The rector's house sits across the road. It's an old home for teachers built by the government 75 years ago.

The walls and part of the attic have zonolite, a compound made of vermiculite and asbestos powder to make the insulation fireproof. Some of it has drained into the crawl space. If Environment Canada would check it out, they would probably condemn the structure.

We get our water not from the main line but from the low-lying water which is more like a swamp. A school teacher renting a room close by broke out with big boils. A few days after, I also broke out and needed antibiotics. We have to treat the hot water tank with Chlorine; otherwise, bacteria love to multiply in there.

Our poor mission church is not conducive to prayer and worship in the winter because the heater makes so much noise. We usually put the heater off just before Mass. By Offertory time, our feet begin to freeze, and after Communion, we have to leave. We can feel the dampness and the cold.

Three weeks ago, my next-door neighbour's house burned to the ground. My neighbour's house is connected to the heater mainline. I would have to dynamite the bedrock nine feet deep and 30 feet long wide to get to his lot.

My dream is to build a straw bale house on his lot and eventually add on. We have the government ferry that takes up to ten vehicles across to Pine Dock. We could transport all our building materials at no freight cost. Well, that's all in the head but not on paper yet. It would take a great infusion of funds to have this dream realized.

Recently, I spent two weeks in little Grand Rapids. I had 25 to 30 parishioners every evening. That kept me on my toes to teach and pray with them. Thanks to your help, I was able to accomplish this task.  

(Father Rheal Forest is pastor of Our Lady of the Snow parish in Berens River, Manitoba, in the Archdiocese of St. Boniface. He also serves the mission communities in Bloodvein and Little Grand Rapids.)