Affichage de 224 résultats

In parallel to the activities of French and English settlers in the region and the military operations during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the Jesuits’ actions drew and pushed Kanien’kehá:ka families and other Haudenosaunee communities south of the St. Lawrence River as new alliances were formed. Kanien’kehá:ka peoples had been active in the territory known as Ahkwesáhsne, “the place where the partridge beats its wings,” for millennia prior to the arrival of families from Kahnawà:ke and the Jesuits from New France. The Kanien’kehá:ka families’ and the Jesuits’ presence in the area marked the first permanent settlement in the region, as a new village was erected. The Kanien’kehá:ka and Jesuit presence at Ahkwesáhsne back to 1752, but the Jesuit mission was formally established on June 16, 1755. The first Jesuits who arrived at Akwesasne were initially stationed at Kahnawà:ke through the Saint-François-Xavier Mission. Antoine Gordon, S.J. is considered to be the founder of the St. Regis Mission, and accompanied the Kanien’kehá:ka families when they first arrived in the Ahkwesáhsne region. The Jesuit mission at Ahkwesáhsne was named after Jean-François Régis, S.J., a French missionary who died in 1640 and was canonized in 1737, and who never set foot in North America. Régis had longed to come to North America to convert Kanien’kehá:ka peoples to Catholicism, but his wishes never materialized.

In the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War and the 1763 Treaty of Paris, Jesuits pursued their activities at Ahkwesáhsne, despite the mistrust of the British settlers and First Nations population. The first church seemed to have resembled the longhouses typical of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The church, made of wood, was constructed only to burn down in the early 1760s. The fire may have burned the first records of the mission. The church was eventually rebuilt, and, due to the growing community, a stone addition to the church was erected in the early 1790s. Another fire destroyed much of the church in 1866, but it was eventually restored. Several additions and changes were made, but the church—still standing in the early 21st century—includes the original early-1790s foundation.

From 1752 to 1783, the Jesuits managed the St. Regis Mission. Mostly secular priests then replaced the Jesuits until 1937, when the Jesuits priests overtook the mission once again.

Manitoulin Island in present-day Northern Ontario was first inhabited by the Odawa, and then by the Ojibway and the Pottawatomi. Joseph Antoine Poncet was the first Jesuit priest to step foot on the island, in 1648. However, the Jesuit presence in the region remained insignificant during the following years and ceased completely after the Society of Jesus was abolished by the pope in 1773.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the British Crown wished to develop the area as a settlement for all First Nations people, in order to free land for ensuing colonial encroachment. The 1836 Manitoulin Treaty between the British Crown and the Odawa and Ojibway stipulated that the area would be the property of all First Nations wishing to reside there. However, few Indigenous communities were ready to abandon their ancestral lands and move to Manitoulin Island. Faced with the failure of the project and desiring to gain access to the lands of the island, the Crown sought to conclude another treaty with the communities. The Marshall Treaty of 1862 targeted the surrender of these lands. Wiikwemkoong refused to sign it and began to oppose to any treaty with the British Crown, officially making Wiikwemkoong an unceded territory. Negotiations between the Crown and the First Nations were sometimes made with the support of Jesuit priests who returned to the region in 1844.

Jean-Pierre Chôné was the first Jesuit to come back to Manitoulin Island. A small catholic settlement, the Mission Sainte-Croix, was already established at Wiikwemkoong when he arrived. Founded in 1837 by Jean-Baptiste Proulx, a secular priest, the mission served an extensive Indigenous population. The mission was ceded to the Jesuits in July 1844. Jean-Pierre Chôné became the first Jesuit Superior of the Holy Cross Mission. In 1847, he was replaced by Nicolas Point, S.J., who remained Superior until 1854.

The Jesuits in present-day Canada were then under the authority of the Jesuit Province of France. During the first years, the Holy Cross Mission was administered by at least two Jesuit Fathers. One of them would stay in Wiikwemkoong, while the other travelled to other mission points of the region. Wiikwemkoong therefore became the focal point of Jesuit missions in Northern Ontario. As the missions developed, Jesuit missionaries in other Northern territories such as Gore Bay, Batchewana, Little Current, Killarney, Spanish River and Lake Huron North Shore continued to report formally and informally to the Holy Cross Mission at Wiikwemkoong. From that central point, the Jesuits managed schools and infrastructures and were active in the communities’ daily lives. In 1994, the Holy Cross Mission celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The church of the Holy Cross Mission is the oldest Catholic church in Northern Ontario. Construction began in the late 1840s and was mainly accomplished by Anishinaabe men, women, and children. The individuals who built it were mostly the Bemanakinong, Wakegijig, Gabow and Kenogameg (Kinoshameg) First Nations families. In 1954, the Holy Cross Church was almost destroyed by a fire, but was gradually rebuilt and is still standing today. Over time, the number of Jesuits in Wiikwemkoong decreased until a single Jesuit priest ensured the presence of the Society of Jesus in the community.

En septembre 1953, des missionnaires jésuites de la Province du Canada français arrivent à Port-au-Prince en Haïti. À la demande du Saint Siège, ils ont accepté de prendre la direction du Grand Séminaire Notre-Dame, situé à Port-au-Prince. Arthème Tétrault, s.j. est devenu le premier Supérieur du Séminaire. Le travail des missionnaires en Haïti comprenait la formation des prêtres, l'alphabétisation et la formation civique, les exercices spirituels et l’administration du ministère paroissial. D'abord installé dans la dépendance de l'Archevêché, le Séminaire a été relocalisé, en 1956, dans un nouveau bâtiment érigé à Port-au-Prince.

Dès 1956, la mission a incorporé à la demande de Mgr Albert François Cousineau, évêque du diocèse du Cap-Haïtien, la responsabilité de la petite paroisse de Quartier-Morin, située dans le nord du pays. Les pères jésuites y ont réaménagé le presbytère et y ont construit une école primaire accueillant plusieurs centaines d’enfants.

En 1959, les Jésuites ont fondé à Port-au-Prince la Villa Manrèse, une maison de retraites fermées. En 4 ans d'activités, soit de 1959 à février 1964, les Jésuites y ont donné des retraites à plus de 12 000 personnes, incluant des prêtres, religieux.euses, étudiant.e.s, professionnel.le.s, militaires, et cadres d'associations de l'Église catholique. Enfin, en 1960, ils ont fondé dans cette maison la station de radio « Radio Manrèse, » dont les émissions étaient destinées à plusieurs thèmes éducatifs tels que l'alphabétisation, la santé et l'engagement social.

Le 12 février 1964, le gouvernement de François Duvalier a expulsé par décret les 18 jésuites canadiens qui travaillent en Haïti. On leur reproche de ne pas respecter les institutions haïtiennes et les autorités établies; de causer par leur comportement le trouble et la confusion dans le pays d'attenter à l'honneur du Gouvernement et du peuple d'Haïti; de discréditer le pays à l'étranger et de mener une vaste opération de subversion contre son gouvernement. L'expulsion des jésuites à mit fin à la mission jésuite en Haïti. Elle sera reprise ultérieurement.

The Jesuits became involved in the Guelph region in the 1850s. Previously, Catholic missionaries had been active in Guelph beginning in 1827. The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, located in Guelph, Ontario, was managed by the Jesuits of the Province of Canada and then by the Province of Upper Canada from 1852 to 1931. On January 28, 1852, John Holzer, S.J. became the priest of the parish of Guelph, a position he occupied until 1863. Several Jesuit missionaries involved in the Guelph parish during the late 19th century were originally from Austria and Germany. They were involved in the erection of the church and schools. In 1859, Father Holzer founded the St. Joseph’s Hospital, which became the first Catholic hospital in the region.

Financial difficulties prevented the completion of the church building initially planned by Father Holzer. The project was abandoned in the early 1860s, but the work was reinitiated in 1874 by Peter Hamel, S.J. The architecture of the gothic church was inspired by German churches, particularly the one located in Cologne. The cornerstone of the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was laid in 1877, and the construction was terminated in 1888. In 1931, the Jesuits handed over the care of the Guelph parish to the Diocesan clergy.

The Chippawas occupied the Saugeen and Huron Peninsula in the beginning of the 18th century. Chippawas communities also settled at Brooke (Owen Sound) during the 19th century, and then at Cape Croker. When Indigenous Catholic communities moved to Cape Croker, the Indian Department approached the Jesuit fathers, then stationed at Berlin, Ontario, and requested that a priest visit them. George Falhuber, S.J., arrived in the summer of 1857, and alongside Indigenous peoples, built a log church where the present church is located.

The Jesuit presence was sporadic in the subsequent years, but from 1860 until 1902, Jesuit missionaries located in Wikwemikong visited Cape Croker regularly. These missionaries came three or four times a year, while also visiting surrounding communities of the Bruce Peninsula. In 1902, Gaston J. Artus, S.J., was appointed to the mission at Cape Croker and subsequently established a more permanent Jesuit presence in the area. Joseph Cadot, S.J., replaced Father Artus and stayed in the region for twenty-seven years. In 1907, a stone church was erected. Indigenous peoples contributed to the building of the church, then named St. Mary’s. In 1931, Father Cadot moved to Saugeen and resided there until his retirement at the Jesuit Novitiate in 1936. The Cape Croker Mission included the activities of priests in the area. The St. John’s Catholic Church at Waubaushene was part of the activities of the Cape Croker Mission.

Paul Méry, S.J. (né Paul Lechien) was born in Tournai, Belgium, on November 18, 1880. He attended Jesuit school in Tournai and then entered the Society of Jesus in Arlon, Belgium in 1899. Father Méry’s poor health made the completion of his studies difficult, and after spending 1902 to 1912 studying between Tronchienne, Tournai, and Louvain, he was advised to leave the Society of Jesus because of it.

In 1913, Father Méry changed his name from Lechien to Méry and relocated to Canada, where he was hired to teach at Collège Sacré-Coeur in Sudbury from 1912 to 1914 and then at Collège Saint-Marie in Montreal from 1914 to 1916. He reapplied to enter the Society of Jesus, and upon acceptance, recommenced his studies between the novitiate at Sault-au-Récollet and Immaculée-Conception; from 1918 to 1920, he returned to Collège Saint-Marie to study and teach. For the next four years, Father Méry was located at Collège Saint-François-Xavier in Edmonton, where he was ordained in 1921.

Father Méry spent the next seven years teaching and serving as a pastor at Campion College in Regina, the residential school in Spanish, Ontario (1928 to 1929), the Jesuit Parish in Vancouver, and Sault Ste. Marie. In 1932, he was appointed Superior and teacher at the residential school in Spanish, then worked as treasurer at Regiopolis College in Kingston, Ontario from 1937 to 1942. That year, Father Méry relocated to Imaculée-Conception where he spent 25 years in charge of registering parish marriages. He retired to the infirmary at Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, and died two years later, in 1970.