A wave of clergy departures has left the Diocese of Pembroke scrambling to cover Sunday services across western Quebec, with ten churches set to go without regular mass starting in September.
The disruption stems from the sudden unavailability of two priests who had been serving the central and lower Pontiac region. Father Michael Goring is currently on health leave, and Father Kakule Christian departed the diocese this past Wednesday, according to a letter from Bishop Michael Brehl released to parishioners on Thursday.
For now, the gap has been patched together using retired clergy and priests borrowed from neighboring areas — a stopgap that carried the region through August but won’t hold once September’s full ministry schedule kicks back in.
Starting next month, these ten churches will pause Sunday mass:
- St. Paul the Hermit Church – Sheenboro
- St. Joseph Church – Saint Joseph’s
- Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church – Waltham
- Église St-Charles-Borromée – Otter Lake
- St. Elizabeth Church – Vinton
- Église Ste-Anne – Île du Grand Calumet
- St. James the Greater Church – Portage
- Église de l’Immaculée Conception – Bryson
- St. Edward Church – Bristol
- Église St-François d’Assise – Lac des Loups
Four other parishes will be unaffected: St. Alphonsus Church in Chapeau, Église St-Pierre in Fort Coulonge, St. John the Evangelist Church in Campbell’s Bay, and Holy Name of Mary Church in Quyon.
Bishop Brehl was careful to frame the move as temporary rather than a closure. He’s asking parishioners to keep worshipping within their designated cluster, to continue their financial support through parish envelopes, and to stay engaged in the consultation process that will shape a more permanent solution.
Father Michael Smith, who oversees the Fort Coulonge, Waltham, Vinton and Otter Lake cluster, doesn’t expect a full return to form. Trying to staff fourteen separate church buildings — some with congregations that have dwindled significantly — was, in his words, no longer realistic given available personnel. Smith, who took over the cluster in 2022 after a previous stint there in the 1980s, pointed out that replacing a priest isn’t a quick fix: recruiting from abroad alone can take the better part of a year, and the pool narrows further given the region’s need for bilingual clergy.
The restructuring plan aims to keep an English or French mass within roughly a half-hour drive for most residents. But Smith suspects the hardest part won’t be the commute — it’ll be the sense of loss tied to church buildings that carry generations of local history, something he likened to a grieving process. He’s offered to talk with anyone finding the change difficult.
Despite the upheaval, Smith struck an optimistic note, predicting the diocese will settle into a leaner but more energized structure over time. Brehl, for his part, said appointments for priests to oversee pastoral care across all fourteen parishes will be announced once finalized.
Leave a Reply