Currently there are 3 Native Ministry Areas in the Prince Albert Diocese. The following is the contact information for each area.

• Native Ministry Area #1
  Sr. Yvette Perreault, PM & Sr. Diane Lajeunesse, PM
  P.O. Box 268, Debden, SK S0J 0S0
  Telephone: 306-724-2252
  Fax: 306-724-4695
  

• Native Ministry Area #2
  Sr. Rita Bisson, PM & Sr. Raymonde Arcand, PM & Sr. Anita Verley
  1322 - 112th St, North Battleford, SK S9A 2L7
  Telephone: 306-446-8868
  Fax: 306-445-9184
  

• Native Ministry Area #3
  Rev. Ron Dechant, OMI
  St. Joseph Mission, Box 220 Marshall, SK S0M 1R0
  Telephone: 306-387-6367
  Fax: 306-937-2592
  
  
  Deanery 6 Team
  Pastor: Rev. Nestor Gregoire
  Parish Secretary: Ida Beaubien
  504 - 3rd Ave East Meadow Lake, SK S9X 1H5
  Telephone: 306-236--5122
  Fax: 306-236-6399
  Email: olpsecretary@sasktel.net
  
  
  Rev. Richard Doll, OMI,
  Parishes: St. Walburg, Barthel, Paradise Hill, Makwa
  P.O. Box 279 St. Walburg, SK S0M 2T0
  Telephone: 306-306-248-3236
  Fax: 306-248-3982
  
  
  Brother Kurt Stang, OMI
  Waterhen Lake, First Nations
  Box 171 Meadow Lake, SK S0M 1N0
  Telephone: 306-236-3462
  Fax: 306-236-6399
  Email: kstangomi@sasktel.net
  
  

First Nations Diocesan Circle
Harry & Germaine Lafond
P.O. Box 249
Marcelin, SK S0J 1R0
Telephone: 306-226-4754
Fax: 306-466-4836
Email: hlafond@otc.ca

The First Nations Diocesan Circle was established in September 1992 as a new diocesan pastoral office on the Muskeg Lake Reserve, with Harry & Germaine Lafond as co-directors, in addition to native ministry already established in the Prince Albert, North Battleford and Meadow Lake areas.

 

Kateri House
Waltera Van Gennip, Pat Grisé and Roy Wilmhoff
410 - 12th St. West, Prince Albert, SK S6V 3B8
Telephone: 306-922-8582
Fax: 306-922-0105
Website: http://www.katerihouse.org/

Kateri's Companions in Ministry is a community of lay people engaged in faith support services among aboriginal Catholics. Kateri house is part of Area 1 and serves aboriginal people in Prince Albert and area, as well as in the community of Sturgeon Lake First Nation.

Bishop Morand: the mission of the Lord Belongs to All

It was a double celebration Sunday at Sacred Heart parish on Whitefish Reserve, north of Prince Albert . The parish celebrated its 75th anniversary and confirmed nineteen of its young people, but it was celebrant Bishop Blaise Morand who reminded the congregation that the celebrations really held a three-fold purpose: not only the confirmation and anniversary, but also celebration of the life of Pope John Paul II. Special prayers were said during the Mass and at the end of the service, when a meal was shared by all in attendance.

During his homily Bishop Morand reminded the soon to be confirmed young people that their part in the life of their parish was every bit as vital as any other. “The mission of the Lord does not only belong to the bishop, the priests, the sisters,” he told them, “the mission of the Lord belongs to all of us. In different ways, of course, we all have a different role in life, but redemption, the mission of the Lord, must go on in our state of life – in your school, in your student life, in my bishop life. It’s our mission. You heard Jesus (in the Gospel). He was passing it on – only to the apostles? No way! To all of us.”

Just how important each member of the parish is to the whole was evident in the sharing and stories that followed the liturgical celebrations. Sr. Estelle Lavigne, P.M., led the call for speakers to come forward and share their memories with the assembly. Several of the religious present, sisters who had lived and worked on the Whitefish reserve at various times over the last five decades, came forward with warm words and fond memories.

Sr. Jeanne Casavant, one of the Daughters of Providence, an order whose sisters worked at the mission from 1940-1975, was one of the first sisters to live on the reserve, and one of the first to volunteer to speak. At 84, she’s still spry and energetic, and spoke hurriedly as memories of good times on the reserve rushed from her. “I came here in ’42 and was here six years. We had lots of fun, being together and being friends. You don’t remember because you’re too young,” she said, pointing at the newly confirmed sitting in the front pews, “but I remember. I used to play with you,” she said, gesturing toward the congregation, “in front of the school, I used to throw stones at the lake with you. And I played the organ in the church here, but then we didn’t sing in English, you sang in Cree. That was so nice. You don’t remember but your kookum there, she remembers. I love you very much and I give you all my heart and pray for you often.”

Another Daughter of Providence, Sr. Nellie Pozdzick, former teacher and principal at the Whitefish school from 1959-61, said she was very glad to be able to come back and visit. “I was called Sr. Stanislaw then,” she said, “and so everyone called me ‘Santa Claus.’”

Others came forward with their own humerous stories, including several of the Sisters of the Presentation, the Order presently working with the people of Whitefish, and another former principal, Ralph Schidlowsky, but a hush fell over the assembly when Elder Juliette Weenon, wheelchair bound, was taken to the front of the church. Roughly the same age as Sr. Casavant, she spoke in Cree about her memories of the early days of the mission at Whitefish Reserve, of the first church and how things used to be.

The first Mass was celebrated at Whitefish Reserve in 1930 by Fr. Patrick Beaudry, OMI, one of the first Metis to become an Oblate.