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Compass: A Jesuit Journal was published from 1983 to 1997 by the Jesuits of Upper Canada Province in Toronto. A Jesuit-funded magazine with a social commentary mandate, Compass explored contemporary subjects through articles, book reviews, editorials, and poetry. In the early 1980s, following the changes brought on by the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus in 1973, the Upper Canada Province encouraged the promotion of justice through the funding of several projects that emphasized cooperation and social engagement. The 33rd and 34th Congregations later highlighted the importance of mass media and social communications for engagement and outreach. In the spirit of influences such as liberation theology and the “preferential option for the poor” of Superior General Pedro Arrupe, S.J., institutions such as The Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice and the Jesuit Communication Project solidified the Province’s efforts toward ideas of social justice and cooperation between religious and lay organisations.

In 1983, William F. Ryan, S.J., Provincial at the time, commissioned the creation of a national magazine that would “point the way to further collaboration with lay men and women, members of other religious orders, diocesan clergy, and neighbours of good will.” From 1983 to 1986, Grant Maxwell, a seasoned Catholic journalist, was editor of Compass. Though the magazine had significant involvement from Jesuits, laypeople and members of other religious orders were an important part of Compass’ staff and contributors throughout its publication. In 1987, Robert Chodos became the new editor of Compass and brought several changes to the publication. The magazine passed from a subscription-only model to a dual subscription/newsstand distribution model. The magazine’s schedule of four issues per year was also changed to a bimonthly publication schedule in 1988, in an effort to increase efficiency. In the 1990s, Compass also added positions for associate editors to its core team. A thematic shift accompanied this organizational one, the magazine emphasizing exchange of contrasting ideas in this period.

In 1997, following global financial pressure, the Jesuits withdrew their funding to the magazine. The assets were then transferred to the “Compass Foundation,” created to seek sponsorship for a new magazine to follow in Compass’ footsteps. Despite efforts from its editorial team to continue the publication online or to find other sources of funding, the magazine ceased publication. In spite of this, they managed to publish Compass Points: Navigating the 20th Century, a compilation of the “decades” issues, along with newly-selected material for the 1980s and 1990s.

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.

In the aftermath of the Society of Jesus’ return to North America in the 1840s, Jesuit missionaries set out to establish residences in northern Upper Canada. Jesuit priests settled along the Kaministiquia River in 1848-1849 in what became the Fort William First Nations Reserve. Missionaries subsequently built a school and an orphanage in 1860, along with a modest church which was rebuilt in 1900 after a fire destroyed the building.

Jesuit missionaries travelled long distances to establish and maintain missions located north of Lake Superior. They were often responsible for several parishes. In addition to the Fort William Mission, these included the Nipigon Mission, Longlac, St. Frances and Kenora parishes, Pic River and Mobert Missions, Gull Bay, Heron Bay, Mountain Road, Garden River, South Bay, Squaw Bay Mission, and what was called the Canadian Pacific Railway Mission, among others. Missionaries were responsible for setting up schools, and for the thousands of catholic parishioners situated across vast territories in Northern Ontario.

John Joseph Barker, S.J. was born in Winnipeg on November 10, 1904, and entered the Society of Jesus in July of 1922 at the St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Guelph, Ontario. He proceeded to complete training between Guelph and Washington, followed by three years of teaching at the residential school in Spanish, Ontario. Barker was ordained in June of 1935 at Loyola College in Montreal, and proceeded to study Ojibway at the Holy Cross Mission in Wikwemikong, Ontario.

For the next twenty years, Father Barker was stationed at various posts around Northern Ontario, particularly at Spanish and along the north shore of Lake Huron but also including assignments at West Bay, Manitoulin Island, Cape Croker, Holy Cross Mission, and Garden River. As time progressed, poor health prevented Father Barker from his ministries; he spent the last fourteen years of service as hospital chaplain at the Sault Ste. Marie General Hospital, where he learned Italian in order to communicate with a broader reach of patients. He died of a heart attack in 1977.

Joseph-Marie Couture, S.J. was born on October 17, 1885 in St-Ansèlme-de-Beauce, Quebec to François-Xavier Couture and Madeleine Audet. Fatherr. Couture was a direct descendent of Guillaume Couture, a Normandy-born Jesuit who ministered in New France and sat on the Iroquois Council in the 1640s prior to the Suppression.

Called to missionary life after reading about the work of Saint Francis Xavier (his father’s namesake), Couture entered the novitiate at Sault-au-Récollet in Montreal on September 13, 1906. Here, he began his studies before moving on to study philosophy at Collège Immaculée-Conception from 1910 to 1913. Following his academic studies, Fatherr. Couture was assigned to study Ojibwe at the residential school at Spanish, Ontario. There he served as prefect of discipline, choir director, and travelling assistant to Théodore Desautels, S.J. He returned to Immaculée-Conception to study theology in 1918, and was ordained in Montreal on January 25, 1922. He completed spiritual theology at Collège St-Jean-Berchmans in Belgium in 1923 and said his final vows on February 2, 1924.

Fatherr. Couture spent a year at Wikwemikong refreshing his Ojibwe with a guide before settling at Longlac, Ontario in 1924, where he would remain until his death 26 years later. Here, Fr. Couturehe was charged with responsibility for a ministry that covered 75,000 square miles of territory until the return of the Oblates in 1940. Unlike his predecessors who travelled only in warmer months, Fatherr. Couture would travel through the winter by employing sleigh dogs. In 1936, Fr. Couturehe learned to fly and introduced aviation to the Canadian North, flying materials into the communities and commuting between different villages by plane, ultimately earning him the nickname “flying padre.” His Ojibwe name was Neendamishkang, “the one we like to see come,” due to his habit of singing as he paddled in from the Albany River by canoe each summer. Fatherr. Couture had an affinity for music and recorded many Ojibwe hymns which were distributed to other community members via small portable gramophones.

When the Oblate fathers returned to staff the Albany River missions, Fr.he Couture sold his plane. He died in Longlac, Ontario of a heart attack March 4, 1949.

Pierre Hamel, S.J. was born in Ste-Claire, Quebec on February 23, 1832 and entered the Society of Jesus in September of 1851. He taught at St. John’s College in Fordham, New York, where he then took up his own studies. He was ordained a priest in July of 1865.

In 1870, Father Hamel was assigned minister at St. Francis Xavier School in New York. He then proceeded to teach at Collège Saint-Marie in Montreal before being appointed assistant pastor in Guelph, Ontario. He ministered at Sault-au-Récollet before returning as dean to Collège Saint-Marie in 1872. From 1875 to 1883, he worked as a pastor in Guelph; he moved on to take charge of the parish in Port Arthur, Ontario, including establishing a new church.

In 1887, Father Hamel became the first-ever Canadian-born Jesuit to become Superior of the newly-created Canada Missions, and immediately became embroiled with the Jesuit Estate affair. He left office in 1891 after launching the English Canadian edition of the Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart and overseeing the formation of many young Jesuits. He asked for assignment in Northern Ontario and was named pastor at the Parry Sound district; in 1900 he left for Sudbury and in 1903 transferred to the Loyola College in Montreal. He died in 1905.