A Living Stories Project
The traditions of the West seem to gather up lots of stories from other
provinces in North America. Today, we heard stories of great Canadian bishops and the
missionary challenge of the North West territory where the Oblates who began the work in
the USA eventually settled.
A Missionary Bishop recruits a Missionary Bishop
I
worked for years in the Canadian province of Saint Paul's before I joined the Western USA
province and I recall one of the giants among the Oblate missionaries. He was Jean
Louis Coudert, a man who later was made a Bishop.
Bishop Turquetille's mission
As a young man, he went to a mission preached by Bishop Turquetille where he
heard the stories of the Northern mission. His imagination was fired up and he felt a
call. However, he didn't do anything about it because of his family circumstances. His
father had died which meant that Jean's job as a bank clerk was supporting the family.
A year later, he ran into Bishop Turqutille again and this time, felt he had to do
something. He was accepted into the Oblates and his one ambition was to go the northern
missions and work with the Eskimos and Indians. He studied in San Antonio, but as soon as
he was ordained, he received his obedience to the seminary there where he was teaching
canon law.
Volunteering for the Northern Missions
Again, Bishop Turquetille enters the story. He visited the seminary to talk to the
seminarians about his northern missions and to ask for volunteers. As it happened, he got
no one among the students to volunteer, but Father Coudert, remembering his first
call, stood up and volunteered to go to the missions.
'Le Misere'
His superiors eventually allowed him to go. He was appointed to a community with
a Superior out of hell. He was so strict and unbending that in the first year, Father
Coudert wanted to leave. He said it was the cruelest year of his life. Life wasn't about
mission but about survival and there was no joy in it. He had been warned by a wise old
Oblate to be aware that among some of the older French Oblates were those devoted to that
he called "Le Misere"- meaning that they were never happy unless they were
miserable and making everyone else's lives a misery. There were three priests and four
brothers. The brothers would catch fish to feed the dogs in winter and the dogs were the
most important members of the community.
Office at the same time as Rome
Because the Rule said that the Oblate would only leave the bosom of the community with
reluctance, the Superior insisted that after every trip, when the priests and brothers
would go 40-50 miles to a mission outpost, they had to come back to base before setting
out again even if the next mission outpost was nearby. It was such a waste of energy and
time. When they said office, it was at times that exactly co-incided with the office
being said at the General House in Rome. They were so poor that they were allowed one
candle a week in the recreation room. They used to play cards but with the candle and the
smoke from the pipes they all used to smoke, you could hardly see anything.
Finding the Mantel
One Christmas, they were left to fend for themselves as the Superior went away. After
they celebrated Christmas mass, they were invited to dinner by the local Mountie police
who were Protestant. While there, they noticed the gas mantels that the man was throwing
out. When the host saw them eyeing the mantle, he offered it to them. So, like kids with a
new toy, they took the mantle home and set it up and the recreation room was now bathed in
light. They waited eagerly for the Superior to return. When he did, they met for prayers
and the Salve Regina and then showed him into the brilliantly lit recreation room.
He asked what the hissing noise was. They explained with glee the gas mantel and how they
had acquired it. Father Superior immediately replied."Fathers, we are called to live
as poor men. Get it out of here at once."
I want to stay
The second year of Le Misere, Father Coudert got to know the people and was in two
minds now about leaving and by the third year, he decided he wanted to stay, as tough as
the local community was.
A Broken Heart
He had four years there before he was transferred and he didn't want to leave because
he said his heart was in that place. He recalled walking up that ramp to get on the boast
and looking back as the boat rounded a corner. Suddenly in clear view appeared the village
and the church with the cross on top. He felt heart broken. He sailed down north as they
say in Canada because the McKenzie river flows up south and down north.
Why?
In 1936, he was appointed Bishop of Prince Rupert in the Yukon. He would later tell me
how much he used to ponder those early experiences and why that man was ever made
Superior. Where was the Holy Spirit at work there? He said he never realized it till he
had been a Bishop for a few years and it dawned on him that it was all preparation,
teaching him as a Bishop how to treat the men under him, how to be decent and reasonable
with them and not impose impossible burdens on them. They would not have to endure Le
Misere.
A saying worth enshrining
I think a saying worth enshrining comes from Bishop O'Grady
who used to say it when he came to lead us in British Columbia. When we would go to him
and say that you can't do this and you can't do that and the other,his response was,"
If God wills it, we can do it." And there is a lot more in that than I used to think.
It has been on my mind for a long while. If God wills it, we can do it but if God doesn't
will, we can still try and do it but we will screw it all up. So the survival of the
congregation is a question of "Does God will it?" and if he does, we can do it
if we take the right means to do it. But if God wills it, and we don't do it, that's
pretty serious.
Fishers of men and men of the 'Fishers'
When a certain Oblate was working in Alaska, they say he almost ruined the fishing
industry because he used to catch so many salmon. He is a great fisherman and one of his
favorite stories is that the last day he went out, he brought back three fish and
altogether, they weighed one hundred pounds. Now salmon even back then was five dollars a
pound, so there was five hundred dollars of fish right there. One of his great complaints
was that he would bring fish down here for the freezer but they would never used it which
would make him upset.
There are no fish stories
When the great fisherman came in on our conversation, I asked him,"We have just
been hearing fish stories about you, Ed. How come you never told me any of your fish
stories." He replied,"There aren't any stories. They were all caught."
I'll still be praying for you
A younger Oblate living with a very senior Oblate dreamt a disturbing dream one night
and in the morning, related it to his older companion.
"Father, I had the most disturbing dream last night. I dreamt that I had died and was
in heaven and when I went looking for you, you weren't there."
"Don't worry, Father," the older Oblate replied,"Obviously I'm still down
here praying for you."
Swallowed the bait and the hook as well
I used to say about Bishop O'Grady that he got me to not only
swallow the bait but the hook and the fishing line as well. He came back from the Vatican
council all enthused with Cursillo and he was a great one for saying,"In your
spare time, do this and in your spare time, do that, and in your spare time, move Mount
Everest. over a bit and little things like that. There was never any question about if you
had the time to do it. You just did it.
A District Meeting-You take charge
They had a meeting here once with the district co-ordinator and Frank Taylor made a
suggestion and Andy Horgan who was running the meeting said,"Now Frank, you're up on
that. So you should take charge." And Frank said, "Oh no. My days of being in
charge are long gone. I am just gonna keep on doing what I'm not doing."
Dick Hanley is the reason
I know that I would not be in this province were it not for Dick Hanley. His
attitude and welcome to me when I stopped in at the Provincial house many times
going back and forth. He was always very welcoming and outgoing. I admire him as one
of the most Oblate Oblates I know. He practiced poverty and he practiced hospitality and
he was outgoing and reached out to others and he certainly didn't appear to be out for
himself. He was more concerned for others.
He made the Basket
He came to visit me at Prince Rupert when he was General and I was working at this
residential college where there were mostly native students in residence, and there were
white kids who were days students. These kids were hard to deal with and they had
four hostels for girls and four for boys. They were a long way from home and there
was a certain kind of attitude of resentment in a sense that they were cooped up in this
place that was full of rules and regulations. So we had them all crowded into the
auditorium at the college and all the Frontier Apostles volunteers were there. We had 150
of them, and we had priests and nuns and everybody there.
In comes the General
Well, in comes Dick Hanley and they are all breathing resentment. He walks in among the
crowd and he spots a basketball on the floor and he just went over and picked it up and
popped it in for a basket. The crowd just sat stunned in awe and then, they started
to roar. He began to talk to them and they were hanging on every word he spoke.
Ministering to Burl Ives
An Oblate had the privilege of ministering to Burl Ives in his last illness. He
used to visit Burl in his retirement and even sang with him on occasions. He was, by all
accounts, a wonderful man.
Provincial sayings
A Provincial used to say,"One of the things that they can never take from
me is the memory I have of things that never happened."
"If you say you can't do it, you are right. You can't."
Back to the top.
[ Day One ] [ Day Two ] [ Day Three ] [ Day Four ] [ Day Five ] [ Day Six ] [ Day Seven ] [ Day Eight ] [ Day Nine ] [ Day Ten ] [ Summing Up ]
If you recall stories associated
with legends of the province, or from other provinces. you can share them by going to
the Living Stories Discussion Page
and post in your comments under Oblates of the West.
